According to photozone, as far as sharpness goes they're similar at the centre but the 18-250 is a little better at the edges.

See the MTF resolution figures:
18-55
18-250

AF speed of the 18-250 will be slower if it is a long way out of focus, however. Manually approximating focus first (to just beyond the required point ideally) negates that deficit.

On these lenses, and others without quickshift, I've found holding the lens release button disengages the drive, allowing manual focus. Not an official operating procedure, obviously. I just find it's quicker and easier than setting/resetting the body's side mounted switch.

Does this help?

linky

Bump

This is a lot cheaper than a new 18-270 at £699!

Not always. It seems unpoliced, something fraudsters and thieves have been known to take advantage of.

Since Monday I've had a K-30. My yardstick may or may not be different to yours though, depending on whether the K10D I came from shares its autofocus system with your K20D.

The standout improvement for me of K-30 is the autofocus. It's quicker and so much more accurate, even under dim tungsten and fluorescent lights. I do have the focussing light enabled though (it's a body mounted led now rather than the pop-up flash strobing, and much less intrusive).

I'm not so keen on the cheap-feel of the plastic casing having come from the last-a-lifetime feel of magnesium alloy. Even the on/off switch, shutter and scroll wheels feel cheaper. But then it's an entry-level camera not a high-end model, and it is cheaper. Much cheaper than the current high-end model. When I remind myself just how affordably it's now priced, I can easily forgive it these things.

Early days yet to report on image quality, but already I'm impressed with just how much detail I can pull out of the shadows of raw files. That was something I could never do too much of with the K10 without introducing vertical banding.

I bought this Pentax DA 18-250 secondhand earlier this year.

Advantages of the Pentax version over the native Tamron are the in-body lens corrections (for those with cameras with that feature) and the famous Pentax SMC coatings.

It will come boxed, with hood, both caps and serial card.

On scrutinising the optics in preparation for this ad, I noticed for the first time that there is an isolated dust speck behind the front element, near the centre (see photo). It's not uncommon for zooms to ingest dust particles and this speck has no effect on the output.




£250 + RMSD at cost (£7.55).

Payment by BACS transfer from a UK bank account or PayPal 'Gift' please.

I'm also happy to accept PayPal 'Purchase', but I'd ask that you add their charges of £8.95 to your payment.

Genuine Pentax D-BG2 Battery Grip, plus a generic DL150 clone battery. Both for K10D (and, presumably, also the K20D).

The grip was bought used from SRS five weeks ago, on 27th September. It came with their own 12 month warranty (which they honour for subsequent purchasers when the sale is made on this forum). It didn't come with the little plastic cover for the connector plug but otherwise there is absolutely nothing wrong with it - I would have returned it if there was! For sale simply because I no longer have a K10D.

The battery was bought new through Amazon, four weeks ago. It's a 1750MAh generic clone of the DL150 Pentax. It lived in the grip and I only used it once, but it lasted as well as my original. The warranty on it isn't transferable but it works and there's no reason to suppose it will stop doing so anytime soon.

£40 delivered first class within the UK. Payment by bank transfer from a UK account, or PayPal (it would be nice if you added the charges if using PayPal).




Thanks

Have you tried the K-30?

I don't know the weight of the K200 but compared to the K10D I've come from the K-30 is very light indeed. The upsides to the plastic body and smaller battery I suppose.

I imagine with a DA35/2.4 mounted you'd need to tie it down on a windy day!

And it's an absolute bargain at the moment - £319 after cashback.

SRS are even throwing in a spare battery. So the small battery issue goes away. With the spare you get the same total capacity as a single K10/K5 sized battery, but you can choose to save a few grammes by leaving the spare behind if you're not out shooting all day.

Oh, and it has a lovely, bright, 100% view Pentaprism viewfinder too...

Crikey!

Personally, I've no problem with people selling things for more than they paid. Afterall, I don't expect anyone to offer me their house for what they paid for it in 1990.

One question though. You say "Full warranty". Do you mean you're offering the buyer your own personal warranty? The manufacturer's warranty only being valid for the original purchaser of course.