Telephoto zoom up to 300m recommendation

Hi

I'm looking for new telepnoto zoom up to 300mm to replace my older FAJ 75-300mm zoom. I have two alternatives: HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm f/4-5.8 ED WR and Sigma 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Macro OS HSM C

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/hd-pentax-da-55-300mm-f-4-5-8-ed-wr-lens-revi... https://www.ephotozine.com/article/sigma-18-300mm-f-3-5-6-3-macro-os-hsm-c-lens-...

But which one is better at the long end and in lower light. Any practical experiencies (from both)?

In Finlad they're just as expensive.

BW. Camera is Pentax Kx.

Pentax. Every day of the day. Forever. It is not comparable at all. Even an used, no WR version of the Pentax one is miles ahead. Sharper, better IQ, colors....

I have the HD Pentax-DA 55-300mm f/4-5.8 ED WR and am very happy with it. It can turn in some good results, importantly even at the 300mm end. I've never tried the Sigma to compare.

FAJ is a good performed too....any reason for replacing it?

it all depends if you fancy that long macro the sigma 70/300 is a good lens as is the pentax 55/300

the 55/300 dosnt have the macro but it is slightly quicker at focusing and quieter where the sigma is noisier

and there is the price diffrence where the sigma is round the £100 mark and the pentax is above the £200 mark

Where can I get the Sigma for £100 please ?

Did you read the links he posted Stu?. The SIgma is around £350 and HSM so actually quieter than the Pentax lens which is screw drive..

Not tried the Sigma but the Pentax is excellent for the money.

Taken with the 55-300mm.


Robin by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr

tamron 70/300 is























































































































































tamron 70/300 is £99 at jessops








3

I have seen many allmost razor charp picture taken with FAJ but I haven't succeeded to to so. I don't know if my FAJ is "bad" copy or is my Kx the bad one or is it something what I'm doing "wrong", who knows.

Here in Finland Sigma 18-300 mm is 449 € - 475 €
and Pentax 55-300mm WR is 415 € - 459 €
The old FAJ 75-300 mm was 130€ - 180€.

So 55-300mm in on different price class and it should be much charper but is it worth using money to that or to Sigma.

I use both the pentax 55-300 AND the Tamron A17 70-300. They are both excellent. If anything, the Tamron has the edge when it comes to heavy crops. I also have the Pentax 55-300 ED PLM which can produce amazingly sharp results BUT you have to focus with absolute precision or it will auto focus on something to one side making the whole image look out of focus. I find this most annoying! When it's right it's great. When it misses I get quite cross!
You wouldn't think you could 'miss' aiming at the middle of this rose, but it did and it's slightly blurred with the focus being on the leaf to the right..




This is the Tamron - I love it - you'll get one on Ebay for £40 - 50

I too have the excellent 55 - 300mm PLM, very fast and silent with no focus hunting on my K3II . (It's F5.6 at 250mm) Most recent photos in my gallery on here are with it. I've finally this month moved to using the AF button as it gives me single and continuous AF all in one. I've never thought the superimposed faint AF indicator lights very accurate on my Pentax cameras but depth of field is always very shallow at 300mm unless you stop down heavily.I've not noticed David's decentring though.

Thank's to all. I dit not buy yet but I may buy 55-300mm.

On Monday night I pulled the trigger on pretty much the last "Pentax50" discount deal going in the UK - got a 55-300 PLM for £279.00 from the Camera Centre UK in Cardiff, and it has arrived this morning . Yesterday, same place now selling them for £350 on Amazon UK, and other sellers are asking a lot more - "deal"!

Bought it with the idea of a holiday planned in the Spring to the Far East (I hope!) as the older 55-300 is very slow to focus and I missed a few shots when in Thailand a few years ago because of that - will have to check this lens on the K-3 for the issues that David has had, and might even get around to taking the K-30 if I can successfully upgrade that to the K-50 s/w (and it doesn't suffer the aperture block failure problem!).