zoom lens

hi all
getting a zoom lens
opinions on the following
sigma 70-300 f4-f5.6 dg macro
sigma 70-300 f4-f5.6 apo dg
pentax sma da 50-200 f4-f5.6 ed
pentax sma da 55-300 f4-f5.8 ed
neil

Get a 50-200 if it's important to you for the lens to be as small and light as possible. Otheriwse see these threads for opinions on the others:

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/tamron-70300mm-or-sigma-apo-version-or-pe...

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/Pentax-55300-or-Tamron-70300-advice-on-a-...

I've just bought a 55-300 from SRS for £189. It replaces a Tamron 70-300. Not had much chance to use it yet but what little I've seen with it I'm very please. It's small and seems better built than the Tamron

i just got a tamron 70-300mm and am very pleased, have a look at my portfolio pics.
here is a revieve of the pentax sigma and tamron

Owch, that doesn't look too good.

I always take blobs with a pinch of salt!

I quite agree John,
According to those tests the Pentax lens is not up to it.
I don’t own one but seeing other peoples results with the Pentax 55-300, rather a large pinch of salt.

I wouldn't pay too much notice of a magazine review if I was you, it doesn't matter what the subject is - photography, cars, computers and golf - these are all magazines I've read a lot of over the years and have noticed that there are no unbiased reviews in magazines - the top advertisers always get the best reviews - no exceptions.

I would trust the experience of actual users of a product far more which is why I visit so many forums. The opinions of people here are worth more than whoever wrote that article and the general opinion is that for the money, the Pentax 55-300mm is the best available.

I go by word of mouth and forum members shots.

Hi Gtis, I have used both the Sigma and Pentax lenses and in my opinion Sigma and Pentax on the whole are as good as each other in this range group, The Pentax 55-300mm has a slightly better range and is lighter then the Sigma 70-300mm,

I'm not, I was making a comment that it looks a bad review .. you may know its a good lens as may I but there are a lot of people out there that buy this type of magazine when looking to buy their first DSLR and that is not going to do Pentax any favours considering they are probably leaning towards the big three to begin with.

Its all very well saying you take this and that with a pinch of salt and all magazines are biased towards Canon, Nikon and (to a lesser degree) Sony but at the end of the day someone reads these articles and takes notice.

Hi Neil,

See my advert in the sales section of the forum, you may be interested.

Martin

I wonder how many people do take much notice of magazine tests. The number of readers who actually buy and are swayed by the tests might be quite low compared to the number of buyers who never look at a magazine.

I would suspect that the tendency is for people to buy what they want, then accept the tests that approve that choice as good tests and reject the tests that don't support that choice as bad tests.

:

I agree with woodworm and Tel and John, I had similar issues when buying my K20D.

Magazines give good reviews to the highest bidder , and the best advice was from you guys on here, the people that use the equipment.

Can*n Nik*n and S*ny users, That know no better.
Their loss.

ali