Not long got back from SRS... the good news is that it was a rouge sample.

The one that SRS replaced it with is much much better at f/4....
Now I'm a happy bunny

Thanks again to the guys at SRS

Hi Richard,
Yes I thought that too when I first looked at the samples, so I tried some shots with manual focus, unfortunately the same result, infact they actually looked a little worse

Maybe I just have a bad copy :

Mannesty, SR was off (tripod mounted) when I took these yesterday. I have shown f/4 -v- f/8 but I can tell you that f/4.5 and f/5.0 is not much better than f/4 with my copy. I can live with f/4 being a little soft and even f/4.5 but I wanted it usable. Quite clearly it isn't.

Just as a comparison I took the same shots yesterday with my Oly e-510 and ED 50-200 SWD (2x crop factor so its almost the same focal length at 100-400mm in 35 mm terms). These were all taken a f/4 again no exra pp'ing other than the crop....

[IMG]http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/4051/swing200mmf4oly50200.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/1251/roofline200mmf4oly50200.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2423/flower200mmf4oly50200.jpg[/IMG]

No comparison IMHO

I'm about to drive up to SRS to test a couple that they still have in stock, they are going to hold at least one back for me to try. I'll report back later.

My DA* 60-250 mm arrived today courtesy of SRS
Lovely looking lens well built and nice to handle. I swapped my 16-50 for the 60-250 and did some tests later this afternoon to see if it performed as well as other examples I have seen here and other sites.
All captures were tripod mounted at 250 mm with mirror lock up. All are 100% crops about the centre focus point, no PP'ing apart from the crop.

[IMG]http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/2061/swing250mmf4.jpg[/IMG]
250mm f/4

[IMG]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8694/swing250mmf8.jpg[/IMG]
250mm f/8

[IMG]http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/3558/roofline250mmf4.jpg[/IMG]
250mm f/4

[IMG]http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/1962/roofline250mmf8.jpg[/IMG]
250mm f/8

[IMG]http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2900/olylens250mmf4.jpg[/IMG]
250mm f/4

[IMG]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/5769/olylens250mmf8.jpg[/IMG]
250mm f/8

[IMG]http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/346/flower250mmf4.jpg[/IMG]
250mm f/4

[IMG]http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5505/flower250mmf8.jpg[/IMG]
250mm f/8

My conclusion for the example I have is that performance at f/4 / f/4.5 is disappointing. It starts to clean up from f/5.6 but isn't really of a quality that is usable (IMHO) until f/8. A shame.... I'm hoping mine is just a bad sample, I'll be talking to SRS tomorrow morning

Best to give Chris a call I would say

Hi Tom,
Welcome to the forum. The AF-360FGZ also gets my vote, mind you it's the only Pentax flash I have, seems to work well though

Hi Sylvie, welcome to the forum

Mine should be arriving tomorrow

Hi and welcome to the forum

Hi Darren, welcome to the forum