Telephoto >300mm

Hello

For a long time I've wanted to buy a telephoto lens. I only have a 28-200 sigma something something.

I've considered a 70-200mm f2.8 and a teleconverter, but I'm not totally convinced.

I would at least like a 400 mm, because I love taking pictures of wildlife, birds and so forth ..

What would you buy if, say you had 500£ ?

greets

If you could find a Tokina or Sigma 400 mf f5.6 then they are good buys but like the 70-200 difficult to locate...

I have a Tokina AT-X 400 mm and it's a fine lens.. I believe that if you get an AT-X II 80-400 mm then that may be a good option too

Oh!

And while I often rave about my Sigma EX 70-200 and 100-300 lenses, Sigma also do an APO 135-400 - check that out..

Peter

Is the Sigma 135-400 good, because I've been considering that one.

What about the Bigma, how good is it ?

I have the Sigma 170-500 (which is very similar to the 135-400) which I got S/H for about £300 from Ffordes. It is a decent performer.

I have a Sigma 400mm F5.6 autofocus. The good thing is the speed of autofocus which is the fastest of any lens I have, probably due to the internal focusing, fast even though I have a DS. I use it for my sons football so you can get a close up at the other end of the football pitch. I don't use it for anything else however so most of the time it's in its box. The quality isn't what I'd expect from a Pentax lens regarding colour, contrast and resolution. Mind you colour and contrast are easily improved digitally. Resolution isn't great wide open but is much better down a stop at F8. This is the non APO version thought I've heard there's not much difference quality wise. Has a nice tripod collar.

I also have the old SMC Pentax 300mm F4 manual focus lens which is better than the Sigma regarding colour and contrast but it's manual focus only and has no A setting so manual exposure too. Better for static subjects than the Sigma but not as good for moving subjects. Mind you the F4 aperture is pretty good for the equivalent of a 450mm lens. Never use it though as I just don't do wildlife or motor sports.

I've often wanted to sell one but could never decide which so I haven't done so. I was going to sell one one ebay but never seem to get round to it. Ideally I'd swap one for an FA20 but that's never going to happen.

A fixed focal length gives better results than a zoom, so for wildlife that's what I would go for. Avoid 2X converters is also my advicem, you can usually crop a pictute with sharper results than a converter gives without slowing the lens further. If you aren't bothered about auoto-focus, ther are lots of secondhand bargains to be had.

thanks for all your answers, I must say that it haven't helped me..

I'm even more puzzled now

But these last days I've been looking for a internet site where I can find the "street" price of many of these lenses. But without luck.

The Sigma 100-300 is really my number one choice at the moment, but I can't find any internet, nor real shop were I can see what it costs.. ???

Can you help me ?

The only place I can find a price is at Sigma's homepage, but I don't think thats the street price...

Google Shopping: http://tinyurl.com/3db8nt

uhhh nice, how much more do you think they would sell it for in a store ?

...I have no idea, but maybe you could try haggling!

Howabout Chirpy's Bigma or Sigma 400mm F/5.6;
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7213

Looks like a good oppurtunity just popped up

Anyone seen any pics from this baby

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08013103sigma120400.asp

looks interesting