I've got the Pentax version which I bought new in the 90's and added the vivitar version for my Canon kit as I liked the Pentax so much. Fine tuning manual focus is very difficult, but in macro mode I use the tried and tested rocking back/forward rather than manual focus, so that works fine. Optically they are both quite good. I had a tamron adaptall 90 F2.5 which was a bit sharper but got rid of that and kept the Pentax because it's just so light and easy to stuff in a bag when a macro might be called for but isn't the main reason for the trip.
I don't have the matched adapter as the Pentax never came with that but use the raynox dcr-150 for 1:1 and the raynox dcr-250 for larger than life size. I hope you have as much fun as I've had over the last 20 odd years with it.

Great captures extremely well done. I enjoy watching these beautiful insects especially those that hawk a lot. I came across a large number of migrant hawkers this summer feeding on flying ant's that were just taking to the air, I would estimate at least 40 dragonflies flying so close to each other. It was amazing but I couldn't get any stills only video!

Can't help either. However that shot of the goldfinch is a beauty.

That's a great macro. Can't help with the bug id, never seen those colours before on one (stink/shield bug).

Great work and I enjoyed your series. Although wasps can be a problem to us you've just got to admire the animal kingdom at times, such craftsmanship.

Great series and patience on your behalf. I believe one of the problems with the harlequin ladybirds is that they are cannibals and are thus eating our native ladybirds, another minus on the human score-sheet for playing around with nature.

I like the arctic terns shots especially the first and the chick. I suspect you were being dive bombed by the parents while taking that one though. I keep meaning to return with a digital camera and tried last year but when I arrived the sailings were cancelled as they couldn't land! and that was June. Must try harder!

All good, but No.3 does it for me, dynamic with such a good background.

I think they were saying that silkypix couldn't save as a DNG to use in another program. I assume they didn't find the option in the K-S2 menu to save as DNG rather than PEF? (It's there isn't it?)

What amazes me is the difference between this and the ephotozine review. It sounds like a different camera and especially the lens.... At least CNET review mentions the faults in the video SR. This is a real pain on my K30 which I wish Pentax would fix, please.

I've got both the tamron 70-300 LD Di and the pentax 55-300 WR and had the Sigma 70-300 APO, without a doubt the Tamron is the best at AF. The pentax is so disappointing at AF that I've started using it in manual focus for birds in flight shot. Here's one that was taken with the Tamron that I just couldn't imagine getting anywhere near with the Pentax:


It's not a great shot but shows that the tamron can do fast moving creatures.