Tele zoom comparisons

Hi all,
Does anyone have any views or recommendations regarding this little list?

* FAJ 75-300 - small and light, but not so keen on plastic construction. The cheapest option.

* FA 80-320 - maybe my favourite choice, but finding it difficult to find at a reasonable second hand price.

* Sigma 135-400 - probably too big to lug around, but I'd be interested to hear comparisons against the Pentax choices.

Currently I'm using the SMC-F 70-210 which has wonderful contrast and detail, but it's a bit lacking at the far end... I could do with something nearer 300mm. As much as I'd like a 70-200 f2.8 or 100-300 f4 I am not so sure I can handle the weight

That said, if the quality of optics, construction, and price warrant it, I'll just have to build bigger muscles

Thanks!
Matt

Hi Matt

I have both the Pentax 70-210 and the Sigma 135-400, love them both. The Sigma is remarkably good for a long range zoom, I also find it very easy to hand hold at the fooball, it's not that heavy in comparison to some big zooms. The only annoying feature is if you have it set on the tripod looking up or down (=> 45degrees) it tends to creep.

I'll do some test shots for you tonight (weather permitting) and post a link.

Thanks Brian. Appreciate that

I have the faj 75-300 and like using it, and particularly like carrying it as it is so light. It was a bargain too at about 90 quid new from park cameras. I find it a bit slow sometimes though and use my old vivitar series 1 f2.8 70-210 or a sigma 400 mm f4 too, both of which are excellent on the istds.
cheers
john

Hi Matt

I've shot a series of test shots with both the 70-210 and the Sigma 135-400 as I promised.
I've only had time to upload the Sigma shots tonight, you can view them at http://www.brianlawson.co.uk/. I will have to check what space I have left on my web space before I upload the 70-210 files.

I have converted the Raw files to photoshop dng format and winrared them but it is still a hefty 2x 60MB files. If you want them I'll give you my msn name or my IP so we can do a direct transfer.

Hi Matt,
I haven't used any of these lenses but my son phoned me a week ago because he had seen the 80-320 in excellent condition secondhand in a shop in Bath for around £70 - £80 and was asking me if I thought it was getting at that price. I don't know whether he followed it up, but I could ask if you want.

Kim

Brian,
That's great I did read that the Sigma overexposes by about 1/3 stop when set between f5.6 and f22. Looks like it does the same on the *ist-D too, assuming you used the same RAW conversion settings for all. The comment mentioned that the overexposure is what caused some to say the lens was soft - slight overexposure blew out some of the contrast.

Kim - sounds interesting Drop me a PM. Thanks!

Hi Matt

Didn't now about the overexposure problem, thanks for the info.
I used the same conversion process for all the shots in PCS, I just open the raw file and saved as jpeg, didn't make any adjustments whatsoever using the "as shot" setting.

BTW; the accountant has given me permission to aquire a new Sigma 70-200 f2.8

Whoa! I'm jealous
I did see a Pentax SMC-FA 80-200 f2.8 go on ebay for about £650 (I think) a few weeks ago. I couldn't quite justify that!! But such a nice thought though!