If you just want a lighter equivalent to the DA*16-50 I think you could consider a DA16-45. It is of course only F4 and is a screw drive lens but, although getting a little harder, can still be found new at reasonable prices.

I have had some bad experience with SDM failures (My 3rd DA*16-50 has just come back from a warranty repair). I have therefore resolved not to buy any SDM lens 2nd hand, including the 17-70. I would want a full manufactures warranty period on any SDM lens.

Glyn

I guess the pre-HSM nearest equivalent would be the now discontinued Sigma 135-400mm F4.5-5.6. I have one of these which I am pleased with and have used it for both birds and planes with success. I found a generic, not Pentax specific, review here. Mine though says it is an APO and not DG as in the review.

Glyn

Spiraea

[IMG]http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w20/GlynM/Misc/IMGP5496-c1-small.jpg[/IMG]

This is a Spiraea Japonica flower head in the early morning sun.

K-7 with the Samsung equivalent of the DFA100 macro.
F16, 1/30sec & ISO 200

Taken on Sunday 27th June at 09:12

Glyn

Sorry people. This lens was sold 3 weeks ago.

Glyn

I would also like to add my thanks to JudithAnn for, once again, her excellent judging and setting such an interesting and challenging subject.

Congratulations to Aiki for the winning shot. I thought it looked brilliant, and definitely more than good enough to eat. Congats also to the runners up and everyone else for such an interesting, and diverse, set of pictures.

Glyn

No evidence yet as I have not had one long enough but I suspect that Sigma Optical Stabiliser lenses must have an impact on battery life. I recently bought a 17-70 HSM OS and I was very impressed with the OS which operates from when the shutter button is half compressed, so you can see it in action.

The manual suggests that the OS is energised, although dormant, when OS is turned off on the lens. It also has some sort of time-out shut-down as, when enabled, it goes "clunk" around a minute after you last used it.

Glyn

I thought that as no one else has come forward I should write something about FA28-200. For some reason, and I can't imagine why, I seem to own two of these and I can't remember the last time I actually used either.

It is a big heavy lens. It has 72mm threads on the front. Closed up its not dissimilar in size to a DA*16-50 and I've always felt that was a bit of a monster.

Its a fairly old design lens and rumour has that it is Pentax re-badge and SMC coated, version of a Tamron or Tonkia lens. It is a full field lens so I guess it should in theory have a sweet spot when used on an APSC DSLR. However my feeling is, though, that its performance is mediocre compared with a modern DSLR lens. It does allow manual adjustment of the aperture which you don't get on DA lenses.

It has a two trombone zoom mechanism, well used ones can suffer from zoom creep and the zoom mechanism is a bit stiff on mine. It does have internal focusing so the front does not rotate with focus movement (which is the thing I hate about the Tamron 70-300 where trying to fit the hood can force the focus drive train :evil. It is from an era before quick-shift focus and the focus movement is only around 20-30 degrees so manual focusing is a bit of a pain.

I think the biggest issue though is is its zoom range. 28mm on a FF camera is about the same as an 18mm on an APSC but 28mm on a APSC is like 42mm. I just don't think its wide enough to make a useful range on on an APSC DSLR.

If you can get a good one (no creeping) cheap though it might be worth having but I think in your place I would be going for a DA 55-300 (much better, I think, than the 50-200) and dumping the 70-300.

Glyn

Thanks John
Glyn

I'm in, but not seriously .

Glyn

The competition has closed and the results are up.

Many thanks to all of you that entered. You have far exceeded my expectations and provided a terrific set pictures. I've had a lot of fun reviewing them and quite a difficult task choosing the winners.

Glyn