I'm in, and in southern spain but I occasionally get back to my old home in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire (UK) (19th - 29th June next trip).

If anybody has any issues with their K20D or (any old) DA* lens, just send it to me, I'll be happy to check it out (condemn it) .

You could even bring your problem to spain yourself, 400€ a week, €500 + fuel if you want a car to go about yourself. Now I have one spare room, with 2 single beds and one double so it could get cosy (read crowded). I'll even pick you up from Murcia or Alicante airport (extra 30€ for fuel - have you seen the price of it ?).

BTW: The pool is at 24 degrees C at the moment. The beer, 0.65€ a litre, the wine, 0,55€ a bottle and almost drinkable.

Don't all rush at once

Seriously, excellent idea Dan. If I can help, I will.

To clean my sensor I use:-

Rocket blower > Arctic Butterfly > Rocket blower

I've never had to wet clean my K10D sensor since I bought it in Jan 2007.

Thanks Martin.

I'll not actually see the lens until 20th June when I return to UK, but I can wait.

Sunny southern spain huh. Today we have had a bit of sun, some wind, a lot of rain, and hailstones the size of marbles. Right now we have clouds, horizon to horizon. Reminds me of home . . .

It's usually sunny though.

Cheers,

I guess you mean the Sigma-A 400mm? A good lens, but surplus to my needs at the time. Don't think that I haven't regretted it since, because I have. I did actually use the Sigma, the Pentax is longer & heavier and spends 99.9% of its life in its case. Its probable that I bought that after selling the Sigma lens and the M is no problem, exposure wise, with my *istD.

I've been taking stock of late of the lenses I have, and (probably) like most here, I have more than I can use. A couple of years ago I bought lots of Pentax glass but it's time to rationalise and ebay some of them. I just happened to try out the SMCP-M 400mm and thought that the images I got should have been much better, so I cleaned it . . .

The SMCP-M 400mm is a very good lens, if it was the SMCP-A version I'd never sell it. I'm even thinking of buying DB's 1.7x AF converter to make it AF and a bit longer.

Cheers,

Decision made . . . I ordered the Pentax DA* 300mm from that toy shop in Watford High Street today.

Thanks for all your helpful info. I decided on the Pentax lens because I already have a Sigma 135-400mm APO if I need a zoom. It's not in the same league as the 100-300mm EX DG lens I know, but it'll do.

Now I'm looking forward to using the DA* 300mm.

PS: My SMCP-M 400mm will not be going on ebay for a while. I cleaned the front and rear elements and took some more shots being careful to select a mid range aperture and got some very surprisingly good images. Lightroom was the culprit, I had the 'Use Auto Tone on Import' turned on, it's now off and when I reimported the images they were fine.

My main quest is wildlfe. I live within spitting distance of a national park which is rich in wildlife of all kinds. The largest being wild boar (yes, really wild) and Aruis (a type of sheep, or is it a goat?), to reptiles, butterflies, birds, etc. etc.

I have what I thought would be the perfect long lenses for my requirements. SMCP-M 400mm, Sigma APO 135-400mm, and SMCP 135-600mm. All have issues.
The SMCP-M 400mm is very sharp edge to edge but does not render colours as I would like. It'll probably be ebay'd shortly.
The Sigma 135-400mm is a bit soft at the edges at 400mm, any aperture.
The SMCP 135-600mm is a dream with good colour rendition, excellent edge to edge sharpness at all apertures, and very long at 600mm. The downside is it's physical size and weight. A sturdy (stiff) tripod is essential for this lens and that's extra weight to carry around.

I suppose I'm looking for a good compromise of all three lenses. I want one as sharp as the SMCP-M 400mm and SMCP 135-600mm, with the zooming convenience of the Sigma 135-400mm of secondary importance, and the colour reproduction of the SMCP 135-600mm.

The compromise would be the shorter focal length.

If only the SMCP 135-600mm was an FA lens, half the weight, and half the length. Well, I can dream.

My choices are still between the Pentax DA* 300mm and Sigma 100-300mm EX DG IF lenses, but which one . . .

No regrets then?

After a few hours of deliberation, I'm still on the Pentax side of the fence. Time will tell.
Thanks for your feedback.

Regards,

Martin,

Thanks for taking the trouble to put together these images which I found very useful. It's obvious from these that the Sigma is a good performer, particularly at f8/11. It appears to be quite soft at the extremes of aperture and that's to be expected.

I don't suppose you'd like to buy a Pentax DA* 300mm and repeat the test ?

I thought not.

Thanks again for some very useful feedback.

Regards,

Yes, the Pentax lens does benefit from SDM focussing I guess, and it's water-resistant.

Water ingress is not such a problem here in southern spain, but dust is.

I'm swaying towards the Pentax at the moment . . . an hour ago it was the Sigma. Ho hum, decisions . . . decisions.

Thanks Martin, I've seen your Sigma pics, and others, and I'm impressed by what I've seen. Pentax DA* 300mm pics are plenty at the moment but not too many Sigma 100-300mm shots available so far for comparison.

If the quality of the images at 300mm is similar I'd probably go for the Sigma Zoom for its versatility (I like good zooms).

There now follows a short lessson in spanish. "No problemo" is a phrase used by Arnie in one or more of his Terminator movies, and often quoted. It's actually incorrect, problemo doesn't exist in the spanish language, it's problema. My wife still says it incorrectly after 4 years of living here, and tells me off for correcting her.

Cheers,