Great, very positive, interview !

I'm sure you read the review that said the Samyang at f1.4 was sharper than any other fast 85 out there, including L, Zeiss and Nikon ? Only losing out to them when stopped down past f4 ?

TBH I think I understand what they are saying, yes they may have had access to Pentax for a few months before the actual handover (last August ?) however to design, produce and launch replacements to the K5, Kr and 645D (to say nothing of integrating non-competing lines with Ricoh development) in say 18 months after they take over is going to demand a helluva lot of work. And of course there's that FF Pentax K1 to take the world by storm *whistles*.

The Q is obviously something Pentax were working on before Ricoh came along and Ricoh decided to continue with it's implementation. Can't fault that if there is a market for it. It's a new product and you do need to support it.

The interview with the Pentax USA guy was possibly much more revealing than he may have intended; further K mount development and long lenses seem to be what he was intimating. Or what I read into his comments

I don't know that lens personally TM but I've read of a few posters that love it as an all-in-one walk around lens ; the 55-300mm isn't a walk around lens - 55mm is far too long for that.

*Coughs* *splutters* * spits out coffee*

The DA*300 is NOT just a 'bit' sharper than the 55-300, it blows it away (I have both), as you would expect for a lens costing x4 as much. The 55-300 really struggles in low light, the *300 generally doesn't, the 55-300 is as noisy as ^%$&% and has a tendency to rack in and out when it can't find focus, the *300 is WR, SDM and near silent .... and much faster focusing, that is what x4 price buys you.

My testing here : link

To the OP - buy the 55-300 (I have also had the 80-320 and T 70-300 on that list - which looks just about right to me), unbeatable lens for the money !

Personally I'd go ahead and do that IF your photography with the 31 is of a style that will suit the 30/1.4 as they are vastly different lenses.

15 Ltd - I'd sell my soul for this one ! Fantastic lens.
30/1.4 : extremely sharp in the centre and softer on the edges (though I have still used it for landscapes but I use an MF dedicated lens for landscapes now). It shines if you want f1.4 over f1.8 for low DoF shots where it's superb and very sharp wide open. Excellent for portraits and street shooting. One of my default on camera lenses. Slightly cooler colour rendition (more Canon-ish) than Pentax but easily boosted in PP if you prefer.




One of the very few landscape shots I have with the 30 (taken hanging out of a window) !

Oh bu#$ger ! Didn't realise that - should have of course.

Carl, I think you are going to like it .. a lot (on lenses over 60mm) !

OK I've just tried the 250 on a Tamron 17-50 / Zeiss 35-70 and a Sigma 50-150. Sorry it's 03.00 in the a.m. here and I can't be bothered to download/crop/upload and then link to post the samples !

However on all lenses and focal lengths, as expected, the 250 produces very sharp macro shots, even using AF and handheld, CIF with the Zeiss was just as good or better. Focus is fixed at around 4 - 6" depending on lens/focal length.

17-50 (at both 17mm and 50mm). This lens is 67mm diameter : there was heavy vignetting here at both FLs and unless you want to crop the centre out I wouldn't advise it's use on this lens. Sharp macro shots.

35-70 (at 60mm and 70mm). This lens is 67 mm diameter : No vignetting at 60 or 70mm (so it seems it vignettes up to 50mm). Sharp macro shots.

50-150 (at 50mm and 150mm). This lens is 67mm diameter : very slight vignetting at 50mm (much less than the Tamron - which is surprising considering the same FL and diameter). Sharp macro shots.

This should work very well indeed with your 70-200 but not with your other lenses.

The Tamron 17-50 is a better lens that either the Sigma 17-70 or 18-50 and it would be a step down to swap them.

You have two easy choices a) as David said above, add extension tubes and you can convert virtually any lens into a macro functioning lens (MF of course, but since a lot of macro is MF then it's not a big issue) or b) buy a Raynox 250 (better for insects) or 150 (mainly flowers & plants & small item product shots). These are wonderful little lenses that attach to any lens within the diameter range of the attachment (on or off in 1 second), with the snap-on universal mount (52mm to 67mm) and use a step down adapter to go from 52mm to 49mm if needed (though I can squeeze it on anyway) ! Virtually zero impact on IQ.

Raynox Lenses : link
250 is around GBP 50
150 is around GBP 40-45

The shot below is of a 1cm long caterpillar taken with Tamron 90 macro & Raynox 250 (so you can see no impact on IQ) but you can still get great magnification with the Raynox on any lens.