general rule of thumb without SR I have used is shutter speed at 1/2xfocal length, so you need around 1/600th for a 300mm lens, depending how wobbly you are you may manage 1/1x or slightly better i.e 1/300th

for #1 it's 1/125 sec, F4, ISO200, AF-S mode, SR not ready, AF points in focus = centre,
so camera shake poss, also as the SR wasn't ready you need to wait for the SR signal in the viewfinder to be on to rely on it, even then assume 2stops, hope for more, but he's probably twitched a bit, looking at the motion blur on the paws.

For #2 it's 1/60th sec,
secondly Exif data focus mode says MF and AF points in focus says none.

that suggests to me (assuming I'm interpreting data correctly) that you used manual focus and you were a bit off.

#3 robin : Aperture: F5.6, Exposure time: 1/15", ISO speed rating: 100/21°. Focus Mode: AF-S, SR Result: stabilized, AF Points In Focus: Center

problem ? camera shake - too slow shutter speed.

#4 : Aperture: F6.7, Exposure time: 1/125", ISO speed rating: 400/27°, SR Result: stabilized, AF Points In Focus: Center.
problem ? hmmm the shutter speed is low, but to me it just looks mis-focused ? better luck next time ?

yes, that was the pt I was making about some needing a bit of pp-ing.

I originally posted this in the lens forum, seems it has been moved here. I would have been more likely to fix that if I had put it here in the first place!

I reckon I will remove the shadow, crop the lhs slightly to remove the red bldg and the rhs to about the center of the tree.

hi folks, just wanted to drop by and post a few pics after trying out my new-ish 12-24 recently - I think I like it

Mininal pp-ing, just a but of exposure tweaking and resize for web. Some still need further tweaks - cropping and removing shadows etc

cheers

wind died down near end of the day....

[IMG]http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb217/k10dbucket/DA12-24examples/IMGP1893_p3x6_brt_800x536.jpg[/IMG]

general shot

[IMG]http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb217/k10dbucket/DA12-24examples/IMGP1893_p0_brt_800x536.jpg[/IMG]

sometimes 12mm just isn't quite wide enough though - another step back and I would have been in the moat !

[IMG]http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb217/k10dbucket/DA12-24examples/IMGP1893_p6x6_brt_800x536.jpg[/IMG]

cheers

hmmm, looks OK to me in principle, however rather blocky around the crane due to jpeg compression. Difficult to be definitive from this really. Might be easier to say if you just cropped out 800x640 pixels from the original, convert to jpeg and post that without resizing?

glad you like it, but from the pics I can't see it has much in the way of the real DBG2 wheels, shutter release or green or +/-EV buttons does it ? forgive my scepticism, but it seems like an expensive way to store an extra battery without those extras.

The new roadmap doesn't ONLY show current lenses.

Yes a roadmap indicates future plans, the new roadmap (dated 3rd March) still indicates some future lenses, you can also view it as indicating progress against the plan - those which were future have have now come to fruition.

The point is that some of the future lenses shown on previous roadmaps have been removed from the future plans section and are no longer present on the roadmap at all, suggesting future plans have changed, and detrimentally IMO wrt the TC.


IIRC Hoya own Kenko, so maybe we'll get their pro300 TCs in pentax mount at last, explaining the removal of the 1.4xTC from the future lenses section ???


The 60-250 and super-telephoto were on the previous roadmap

Compared to the previous version the DA30 and the 1.4xTC have been removed.

No rear converter ????

Either pentax/hoya have been stung by criticism of announcing lenses too early and are now being cagey, or this is not good news.

We need a TC which can transfer the lens focal length to the SR

sigma don't do their pro300 version in pentax mount, tamron 1.4x was discontinued some time ago

OK they are best with primes but ....

come on pentax...

sob sob sob !!!

PS 4am and I'm tired but I'm up coz of takeaway food yesterday evening!

I made some comments on the here https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/Saturday-at-SRS-10479/p-3#comm98552

To answer the OP - did I like the 60-250 lens ?

I asked chris's wife behind the counter what the general feeling was and she said most people seemed to like it, I didn't do a poll tho !

As for me, yes overall I did. I felt it was reasonably balanced for it's size, better than the DA200 without a battery grip in this respect, it's similar in bulk to the DA300. It is much bigger than my F70-210 though !

As for the tripod mount, I didn't find it particularly hampered action of the zoom ring but I would prefer to re-position or remove it when hand held, just like with mount on the DA300. I suspect it would actually be better with a battery grip in place.

It does extend a bit at the long end, but it's not a trombone like some lenses I could think of, no play in the barrel when extended either, unlike the 16-45.

I would have been happy to post some pics taken with it but frankly I don't think they would benefit anyone as they are so poor up to f6.7. As I said in the other thread the lens I tried must have problems, I would have returned it if I had bought it.

I have my deposit on chris's list and I promise to post some pics when I get a production copy, the IQ is going to have to be good for me to keep it though, it's got to earn it's star ! Otherwise it's a rethink of the options (DA55-300+DA300+sell200, or 50-135 + DA300, or tam70-200+DA300+sell DA200, I dunno !)

Well, just to add to the comments from the open day.....

I went along for a while to try out the 60-250 primarily, armed with my trusty 70-210 and DA200 in the bag for comparison purposes.

Initial impressions were that the 60-250 is a solid lens, from the same mould as the 200 and 300mm lenses. It is KAF2 mount.

Barrel has two rings, the one nearest the mount controls zoom, the one at the front MF, like the 50-135. It has a MF/AF switch on the barrel like the 200 & 300. If memory serves me well it's a 67mm filter thread, but hey you can look that up on the web!

The barrel extends by about 2-2.5" when at 250mm IIRC. It has a petal shaped hood too, just to make it a bit longer still, so all in all it's not an inconspicuous lens !

Balance seemed OK to me on my K10, even at full extension, unlike the DA200 which feels a bit front heavy to me. Handling I felt was OK, the tripod mount is a little awkward when hand holding, but you can either rotate it 90deg and rest the lens barrel on the hand and then the left thumb nicely supports the bottom edge of the mount, or alternatively you can remove the mount (but not the collar).

As an aside I borrowed a battery grip to try with the DA200 and found to my surprise that it made a big difference to the overall balance, seemed like it provided a more complete 'handle' to hold onto for the right hand so I could get more control with it, perhaps that the pivot point was simply futher back. Also the camera sat more easily in the palm of the left hand, hard to describe, but just better overall. Previously I would have said buy a 2nd battery and put it in your pocket, but it's now on my list to buy. I wonder if the BG would help with the tripod mount grumblings for the 60-250 ?

I took a series of shots using one of the "pre-production" 60-250s, basically f4/4.5/5.6/6.7 at 70/100/135/200/250mm, and a few at 60mm too. Repeated at 70/200mm with my 70-210 (only get 5.6 at 200 tho with this), and with the DA200.

Well, f4, f4.5, f5.6 were all soft at all focal lengths, f6.7 and f8 were 'ok-ish' vs the 70-210. I think this pre-production copy of the lens had some problems. If I had bought it new I would have been returning it. (I even tried using +150um on the focus debug menu to no avail) It's quite common in manufacturing to do short initial production runs to get the manufacturing process sorted out before full scale production, I'm surprised this one was released to the public to play with though - perhaps it has had some mis-handling ? On the plus side, at least it's so bad that we're not all arguing about whether it's good enough for the star rating !

It was nice to be able to handle the lens and get a real feel for it though and overall I feel fairly positive about the lens, provided they sort out the optics.

I wasn't really interested in the 55mm, I played with it a bit and it seemed nice enough, nice wide focus ring. It is KAF3 mount, so no screw drive available here.

I briefly looked at the ring flash, basic idea seems to be to screw one of the 4 available adaptors into the filter thread, then the ring flash grips onto the adaptor. Looks like you can control which of the two semi-circular bulbs is used, IIRC there were 5 settings to play with to control L & R bulbs. Nice, but I don't do much macro so not for me presently.

Finally I took a few shots with the DA300, I've played with this every time I have been into the shop for something else, and every time it gives really clear, sharp, contrasty images. Superb. I'm having a hard time not buying one, if the 60-250 turns out OK I might just trade the 200 in for a 300.

Enquired about the TC and the super-telephoto, but the pentax folks had no news yet , perhaps we'll hear from PMA.

I left with a 540 flash in my bag at one of chris's on the day special prices !

that's all folks !

Update: I put an enquiry into pentaxuk as follows :-
this http://media.pentax.co.uk/downloads/lenses/en/Factsheet%20smc%20DA%2060-250mm%20F4%20ED%20IF%20 SDM.pdf
says mount is KAF3

this http://www.pentaximaging.com/camera-lenses/smc_PENTAX_DA_Star_60-250mm_F4_ED_(IF)_SDM/
says mount is KAF2

I would like to know which is correct please ?

Their reply:

Thank you for your enquiry.

The smc DA* 60-250 / 4,0 (IF) SDM objective has KAF2 mount, so it can also be used on the cameras without the new SDM technology. Sorry for wrong information on the website.