which zoom to choose

I am looking at the DA 55-300mm and the 50-200mm and can't decide which would be the better purchase. Does anyonye have experience of either of these two lenses. I am worried that the 300mm may be too heavy, long, and clumsy for carrying on to the mountains with me. Also is there and big difference in quality?

I have a Samsung (same as Pentax) 50-200 and a Tamron 70-300. I've read up on the Pentax 55-300 and might eventually replace my Tamron with one for the better range and less purple fringing.

The 50-200 is indeed handy when you want to minimise size & weight. The 55-300 isn't terribly heavy though.

See http://www.photozone.de/pentax for a technical comparison of the two. Not everyone here finds the 50-200 to be as bad as Photozone reckons. Mine seems pretty sharp.

The Tamron 70-300 is also sharp and inexpensive, and faster than the 50-200 at 200mm: f4.5 compared to f5.6. I'm not sure the Pentax 55-300 is as fast at 200mm.

I have the Samsung badged 50-200m and it is certainly a small and light lens. I also have a Sigma 70-300mm and I value the 300mm end more than the 70mm.

I suppose it depends on what you intend to take pics of.

They are very similar in the max aperture specs. the 50-200 being 1:4-5.6, the 55-300 being 1:4-5.8, slightly slower at the long end but not enough to make very much difference.

The 50-200mm weighs 260g, the 55-300mm weighs in at 440g, almost twice as heavy.

....Yeahbut twice as much as not much is still not much

440 grams is actually light for that size of lens thanks to the plastic barrel, and 180 grams of extra weight in the bag would be worthwhile if the 300mm length will be enjoyed.

We have both lenses and the quality of both is excellent. One of our 50-200mm lenses (we had two) was slightly better than the other, so there may well be some variation.

On balance I tend to carry the 55-300mm as the extra length is quite useful. It's probably the slightly better lens as well.

I don't have the 55-200mm so can't comment, but I carry my 55-300mm whenever I go out, used mostly at the 300mm end - I'm very fond of it. My posting here were taken with it -

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/Botanic-Garden-Bullfinch-9795

Hope that's of use.

Howard

The 55-300 is a better lens, but if you want to travel light the 50-200 is tiny! It is about the same size as the standard zoom or maybe even a smidge smaller. Optically my 50-200 was great up to about 120-130mm then gradually eased down to good by the time you hit 200.
The 55-300 isn't a monster by any means but it is quite chunky so it depends what you're doing in the mountains as to wheather or not it will get in the way. It is better optically though.(at least my one is)
Tough decision though. The 50-200 is a great LITTLE travel lens but the 55-300 covers the same range and a quite a bit more and does it better.(IMHO) You're probably more confused than ever, now that I've just read through this again, sorry!

I initially owned the 55-200 and it was a nice lens, compact & decent IQ, it lacked a little reach for me though so I bought the Tamron 70-300, didn't like the purple fringing so bought the Sigma 70-300 APO, found it too soft...now own the Pentax 55-300, best of the bunch wihtout doubt !!

simon

I bought my 55-300mm a week ago and it's fantastic. Brilliantly sharp, and not too slow. Maybe I'll find some time and courage to post some pictures