Let me introduce myself, again. I'm Phil and I'm really like photography and I really like the Pentax camera, i.e. that's why I joined the Pentac User. Being just retired, my bi-weekly retirement cheque and what little savings I have, don't go very far, however, I can afford two cameras, a K20D and a K-x which I paid about US 250 each for, second hand from Japan. I would like to buy a K-5 IIs but I'm trying to sell my K-x first. Well, that's enough history, now to the point.

This post is about lenses which I find also extremely interested to trial and test of which I have to buy first. I have a Pentax DA 18-55 II mm lens, a DA 55-300mm lens. a Pentax-A 50mm F1.7 lens, however one of my first purchases along with a k100D Pentax (which I sold and regret) was a Tamron 28-200mm lens. Well this was the earlier lens (very inexpensive) and, well; I'm sure you know about this lens. It doesn't get rave reviews. But recently I purchased an 18-200 Tamron lens; fantastic lens; I really like it and still have it, using it on my K-x right now. I brought this because I got tired of switching between the two DA lenses. I'm trying to sell both the DA 18-55 II lens and the Tamron 28-200 lens here in New Zealand along with the K-x camera.

But, anyway, along with photography, I've gotten into bird photography. I used my DA 55-300mm lens (a very good lens) and my K20D camera but I started to notice other people with much bigger lenses that are also into bird photography. The 55-300mm lens is good but I still couldn't get the pictures that I wanted. Others had high end 300mm F2.8 lenses costing lots of money. Some of them 2000 dollars US if not more on e-bay. This was well out of my budget range, so after a little research and a chance buying, I ordered a 6x7 300mm lens from Japan. I also got a connector to work on my K20D. The lens looks new but of course it's manual with F stops from 4-45 and it is a large lens but no bigger than some of these high end 300mm F2.8 lenses I mentioned above. To my surprise (and I may be wrong) the F4 setting seems to be equal to about an F2.8 because of the amount of light it lets in. The lens is fast, fast, fast. It's different than my DA 55-300mm which is of course fully automatic and AF; But the 6x7 300mm (SMC Takumar) takes really good photographs, as good, if not better than the DA 55-300.

I paid US 120 dollars for the lens, including shipping to New Zealand. I feel that I got something just as good, if not better than some of these high end expensive lenses. Am I missing something? Is this something new which something I have discovered? Or is it something all of you old pros out there knew all along? Why do I not hear about this from others?

So anyway...what are your comments on this?

Hi................

I'm Phil Smith from New Zealand. Of what I've seen, I think this Pentax Forum is very good. I'm rather new to Pentax. Years back, perhaps 25 or so, I was a Canon person; starting out with an FTb and 50 mm lens. I loved it and took pictures all over the world. I up graded to an A-1 but was disappointed with it and finally sold it and purchased a smaller camera. I then purchased a Russian Zenit and numerous lenses. I still have the Zenit which still works but sold the M42 lenses. After that friends gave me a Canon TLb and lens. Haven't really used it much but it still works okay. About two years back, I bought a 100-300mm AF lens for the pentax Dslr camera. I then purchased a K100D camera and lens. Really liked that and took some really good pictured with it. I sold it but now wish that I hadn't!! I now have the K20d and K-x. I think the K20d is great and have quite a few other lenses, two DA's and a Tamron and odd manual lenses. The DA's are good lenses. The Tamron is an only 'ok'. I do use it a lot. I've just ordered another Tamron lens, the 18-200. The K-x takes good pictures and relatively new but I don't like it. It seems like a child's camera compared to the K20d. I'm thinking about selling it with one of the DA 18-55mm lens and purchasing a K-7.

Well, that's me ... again, really like the forum.

Phil

Well................

David, you were correct! I put the lens on a tripod and focused it in Live View and sure enough I got a good photo. So the problem was me. I'm both surprised and disappointed. As the lens is an F2.8, I thought it was fast enough to cope with this sort of thing. That means, that I have to be very careful when taking hand held shots with this lens and focusing it; I need to make sure that I'm focused correctly and the camera is very stable. I put a doubler on it and got the same results. I haven't tested my Pentax-a F1.7 lens yet.

David

'I would set your camera up on a tripod (if you have one), or on a stable, level surface. Then focus your lenses in Live View mode on the rear screen, zooming in to make sure the focus is 100% correct.' I will try this and let you know what happens

Phil

Well, I tested the AF lenses in manual mode and they were as sharp as in AF mode. I did readjust the dioptre but still I tried the 200 F2.8 lens and I 'think' it may be a little better but I'm not sure.

Thanks guys for your help and comments. Certainly appreciated.

Phil

Are your AF lenses sharp when used with manual focusing? That's a very good question....I don't know and I haven't tried to used them in manual focusing... I will try this out and get back to you.. tks

I have a Pentax K20D and Kx cameras. Both work really well. I also have several Auto Focus Lenses that I use and I get reasonable good photos from these. BUT, I have several Manual lenses, both Pentax which I can not get sharp photos from. This is a mystery. I know the lenses are okay, I believe. I have tried every kind of setting on both cameras also, thinking it is the camera's fault, including the eye piece setting. I have a 200mm Pentax Manual lens with an F2.8 stop. I really like this lenses but against, photos are not sharp. I though possibly that it is my eye sight, but I am 20/20. I thought about getting a split screen for one of the cameras, but I'm not too sure of that. When I focus the Pentax 1.7 50mm lens, it looks sharp but after taking the picture, it's not. The Same for the 200mm Pentax lens. Anyone have any ideas??????