Pentax SMC DA* 60-250mm f/4 ED IF SDM Telephoto Zoom Lens w/ Case for Pentax Digital SLR Cameras

I bought this lens used via Amazon Warehouse. I had some trepidation buying a used lens with an unknown history, but I was calmed a bit because Amazon was behind it. So, I jumped in and am extremely happy that I did. As a note, the packaging of the lens itself was what you would expect; the lens was well supported and everything helped cushion the lens and hold it tightly in place. The box that this was packed in was also fine, but there was no padding in the outer box so the lens box could bounce around quite easily. I was a bit concerned initially, since it would seem that the packaging should have been better, but the lens was perfect and everything worked precisely as it should. The Pentax packaging was superb enough that any bouncing in the outer box was cushioned by Pentax. Previously, I had the Pentax 18-250mm zoom. To compare these two lenses is not fair - the 60-250mm is so much more lens - weather resistant, much better glass, fast and smooth SDM focusing and more than twice the price. But the zoom range overlaps so much, it is logical to compare the two at least to understand whether the much heavier weight, size and price are worth it. In my opinion, yes, it is so much more lens in every respect! Some of the things that I have loved so far: > Focus: This lens is so much faster, precise and dead quiet in comparison to the screw-driven 18-250. This lens feels silky smooth and it locks on quickly and without hunting. > Bokah: I will try and post some photos a bit later, but I am amazed with how smoothly the lens transitions from a tight focus area to a buttery smooth out-of-focus area. One quick photo that I took was of a gecko on a fence outside my shop at full 250mm zoom. The guy was about 6" long and there is a tight focus on the head and torso, but it smoothly softens and the background is wonderfully smoothed. I really didn't try to do anything - I was trying just to catch the gecko before he scampered off - but the resulting photo was remarkably good! > Sharpness: The lens is capable of incredible detail which, in combination with the k-5s very low noise sensor, is capable of producing remarkable detail. And this is true whether you are shooting at either extreme of the zoom range and it is even true shooting wide open at f4. The 18-250mm zoom, like most lenses, is a lens that can produce surprisingly good photos as long as you understand its limitations. Don't shoot wide open if possible; expect softness if you shoot at 18mm or above 200mm. But this is not true with the 60-250mm. I have already developed confidence that I can pull the lens out and snap shots in a hurry with confidence that I will still get good shots. Have more time? You can get truly excellent keepers by taking a few more seconds to set the right aperture, etc. for the best shot. > Weather Resistant: I have not put this to the test yet, but it is one of the reason I wanted this lens vs. some of the options out there. It is nice to know you can work in some less-than-perfect conditions and not worry about your lens or camera! Cons? Sure! First, you need to know that the lens is heavy and big! But if you want virtually a professional lens in your hand that can reach over 150mm, it will be big and heavy! In fact, the two 70-200mm lenses that I was considering were both heavier and larger. But this is not a lens you will know you have around your neck! For me, the lens on the k-5 just feels right. Perfect balance and a feeling of confidence whenever I pick it up. Second, now I need a wide angle zoom! Naturally, the 18-250 shines as a walk-around lens that you can use for almost any need. The 60-250mm covers a great range, but a wide angle zoom is next on my list! Summary: If you want to have a lens that inspires confidence that you can use it in almost all circumstances and get the shot, that produces photos that create the feel that creates the distinct difference between a quality photograph and a good snapshot, and if you are ready to have the lens challenge your skills, this is a great addition to your arsenal. Absolutely no hesitation in recommending this as a remarkable lens!

I am basically a still life photographer - macros, landscapes, artifacts, etc. But lately I have wandered into doing photo sessions of kids and their parents in action settings, such as at the beach or in other fun locations. I began using my Pentax 100mm FA f2.8 Macro for this work, but the limited focal length and screw drive autofocus was not cutting it for me with rapidly moving subjects. I also like to shoot at wide apertures to blur the background. Around 10 to 15 % of my shots were coming back soft with the 100mm and my K-7, so I knew I needed a better tool for the job. I did my research and settled on the Pentax DA* 60-250mm F4. The first copy I received from Amazon did not focus properly, taking 5 to 10 secs to lock focus if it managed to lock at all. Back it went, and I received a new copy of the lens a couple of days later, just before a scheduled photo session. I spent an hour or so shooting lens charts, and was impressed with the resolution of the lens at all focal lengths, even wide open. So I brought the lens to my next photo session, a kid and her parent at the beach, and the lens performed spectacularly. Focus was quick enough, and alway dead on. I shot about 300 photos at F4 or F5.6 of a three-year old running around the beach, and only five were soft. The resolution and color were outstanding, and even though I shot the whole session handheld the lens was a joy to use. I am impressed. Everything is tack-sharp, and the quality of the photos more than makes up for the weight of the lens. The bokeh is creamy smooth and beautiful, no doubt helped by the rounded aperture blades of this lens. Downsides of the lens are its weight, and the somewhat long rotation of the zoom collar to rack from one end to the other, but these points seem rather insignificant once you get the RAW files into Lightroom and see the quality of the images. The price may be steep, but if you need a lens to deliver the goods every time in difficult situations, this is the lens for you. No regrets. Buy one.

I have had this lens for about a month now. This is a versatile lens, covering a wide range and well. It is well constructed and rated AW (All Weather as opposed to merely WR). If you are reasonably strong and steady, you can hand hold it with amazing results. You may need to increase the shutter speed to reduce shake. It is heavy(more than a kilo!) however for its range and max aperture it is not imposing (only if you add the lens hood and extend it to 250mm). I felt I have to hold the lens, if I have the camera around my neck. It is that heavy. Its weight can overwhelm the camera itself (I have a K5). There is a removable tripod stand - that will be the preferred way to use it. The hood has a gap to allow manipulation of filters as it is quite deep. Focusing is quiet and quick. I was able to click flying birds without keeping it on Continuous focus. The IQ is great. You may get front/back focusing issues, but on K5 you can correct them. It is sharp and the colors are wonderful and more important, accurate. So, what is wrong with it? SDM. I had heard there were issues with it and noticed that it froze a couple of times on me, within the first few days itself. After the first time, I promised myself that if that ever happened again, I will return it. It did and so I am returning it. Another con is the lens cap which has nothing to keep it with the camera. May be I got a bad copy. If you get a good one, it is a keeper, although it is a little on the expensive side.

Pros: Sharp throughout the zoom range, even wide open it is great, by 5.6 it is simply astonishing Versatile range (90-375mm Full frame equivalent, fairly close to 100-400mm) Relatively Compact Full weather sealing Tripod mount with removable foot Cons: No zoom lock, could creep. Some softness on one side of frame at 200-250mm and f/4 (rarely visible above f/4.5) Tripod mount with removable foot Verdict: Superb lens worth the asking price. Image quality and bokeh is in league with most primes of similar range and aperture. Who should buy this lens? Anyone who needs an extra sharp, sports, wildlife, or general purpose lens with f/4 at the long end. Review: The lens is superb. SDM focus is silent and seems reliable with my K-7. It goes to its target and stops. It is not extremely fast, but not slow either. It seems to work well enough for some birds in flight tracking and other continuous focus activities. If you do use screw drive focus with this lens, it is fairly loud as typical of other DA* lenses running screw drive. The sharpness of the lens never ceases to amaze me. Zooming in to 100% view and the pixels are still sharp, even on my K-7 which is 14.6 MP. It seems to peak about f/5.6, but is really very good from wide open. This behaves a lot like 70-200mm f/4 lenses in this regard. Since this is internal focus, the focal length is measured at infinity. It seems to be significantly less than that at close focus as typical of all IF lenses. Unlike some cheaper lenses this lens does not disappoint for distant subjects. The lens is targeted for someone who is used to a 100-400mm for full frame. It has a tripod mount, and speaking of which, the foot of the tripod mount is easily removeable if you find it in the way (the ring remains on the lens), but I like to use the foot as the handhold when shooting, it makes a nice balance point. The ring has detents every 90 degrees so it is easy to rotate in 90 degree increments. My only word of warning is make sure you keep the tripod mount tightened, use a coin or something. If you only hand tighten the screw, it could work its way off, which would be unpleasant to say the least. The lens is actually not large if you are used to lenses like the Sigma 100-300mm f/4. It is small next to that lens. It is fairly close to a 70-200mm f/2.8, and maybe even a bit smaller. Most of my minor complaints with this lens are mechanical. Don't get me wrong, it feels great, but it lacks a lock or anything to hold the extending barrel in place while you hike around. The weather seal helps keep the barrel from extending, but it doesn't take a lot to pull it out. There is also a small amount of barrel wobble (only if you push on it). There is also no focus limiter to help speed up focus, good thing it doesn't hunt often. My minor issue with the left side being soft had me a slightly concerned initially, but it really only is noticeable in brick wall shots and appears to go away when stopped down at all. This mirrors what SLRGear saw with their review as well. Optically, there is some visible green/magenta bokeh CA, but it is fairly minor and easy to correct in post. You will see some occassional fringing near the extreme edges of the frame too in high contrast situations, but it is still better than average in this regard and not to the point of systemically hurting contrast (like in most of the 70-300mm lenses). Overall contrast is superb with this lens. The question I always hear is why should I buy this lens when I can buy the 55-300mm a quarter the price? Trust me, this lens is worth every penny. It really is in a different league than the 55-300mm, which is a great lens, but you do get what you pay for. Looking at uncropped images there will be only slight differences, but looking at 100% crops or large prints the difference is clearly visible. I almost gave this lens 4 stars because of the minor complaints I had with mine, but the lens always makes me smile when I see the results. For that reason I had to give it 5 stars. This lens combined with the K-7 make one unbeatable all weather camera kit.

I purchased this lens from Amazon.com in August of 2011. I have been using the lens on and off for the past 3 years. While I am not a professional photographer, I do have a good understanding of what to look for in a lens. Build: It appears to be a well built lens. It is weather sealed which allow for more piece of mind when using outdoors. Focal Length: 60 - 250mm - Equivalent Focal Length 90 - 375mm using the Pentax APS-C sensors. Aperture: This is a constant F4. For a lens with this focal length, this is top of the line for the price. You can find zoom lens with a 250mm+ focal length at F2.8, however they will cost $2500 and upwards. Auto-Focus: Focus is fast and quiet. I did have to calibrate my K-5 with this lens. When I first received it, images appeared soft. After the calibration, the results improved dramatically ("Fine Adjustment" setting to "-2"). This lens uses the Pentax' "Supersonic Dynamic" (SDM) which accounts for the near silent auto-focus. There have been stories of SDM failures. After 3 years, the copy I received is still focusing without issue. Image Stabilization: This lens does not include an image stabilization feature. For me this has not been an issue since Pentax K-x series cameras have image stabilization built into the camera body. Distortion: There is little distortion throughout the focal length. More so under 100mm. At about 200mm things flatten out very well. Resolution: I have to say, that at any aperture setting F4 - F13, pictures are clean. That said, around F5.6 seems to be the sweet spot for center and corner sharpness. Vignetting: Most probably won't even notice any vignetting. This "can" noticeable wide open. Handling: This is a heavy lens, 1.04kg. There is a tripod mount included. Manual focus is available and smooth. Manual aperture settings are non-existent. Chromatic Aberrations (CA): As I mentioned, I am not a professional photographer and chromatic aberrations happen to be the thing I am least concerned about. This is probably because I have not experience CA issues with any of the lenses I have. I cannot comment other than it has not been a problem for me personally with this lens. I would guess it's there at some level. Summary: This is an excellent lens. Pro build quality, weather resistance, very sharp and consistent throughout the focal range. The biggest con is the weight. There are better lenses available at a significantly higher cost. If you are an owner of a Pentax body, this is a lens to have in your bag.

The lens was as heavy as everyone stated and then some. The disappointment for me was that no photo showed that the lens extended out when you went to zoom. The overall length was much longer than any photo making the lens awkward to use for someone who is used to a zoom that extends out to 6 inches. Plus it wasn't as quiet as I hoped for. Returned it and purchased the Pentax K70 and the new Pentax 55-300 zoom lens for about the same amount. Very quiet, easy to handle and takes fantastic photos.

Was not happy with this lens. I may have had a bad copy but was disappointed with sharpness. Was big and heavy. Sent it back and got the way less expensive 55-300mm and I like the result better.

I am a fairly new convert to Pentax, having switched from Olympus to get better low light, high ISO performance for shooting indoor sports. When looking for lenses for the new system, I considered several including the Sigma 70-200 f2.8, the Pentax 50-135 f2.8 and this one, the Pentax 60-250 f4. I rented all three to try before committing my hard earned money. The Sigma was nice for indoor but was a little short for outdoor sports, which I also shoot and was not weather sealed. The Pentax 50-135 was very nice for indoor, very sharp and with a large maximum aperture. It was also weather sealed for outdoor use, but way too short for baseball, soccer and softball although sufficient for track and field. The Pentax 60-250 f4 was, like in a fairy tale, just right. The range works for both indoor and outdoor sports, at least the ones I shoot, and it is weather sealed. The image quality is superb and although not as fast as the f2.8 lenses, with the great high ISO performance of the Pentax k-5 that I use, it is sufficient for the shutter speeds I need to stop action in indoor sports. I pulled the trigger on this lens and I couldn't be happier. Downsides ? Well it is expensive and heavy, so if you are on a tight budget or don't want to lug heavy setups around, it may not be right for you. I find that I can shoot a full two hour game with no problem and for all day events there is always a monopod, which I use for those situations that warrant it.

It's price rises the question "Is it worth it?" Well if I compare it with prices of DA* 200/2.8 and DA* 300/4 and my experience with the two, I'd say yes if you can afford it. After all it's a zoom lens with picture quality only a notch behind fore mentioned primes. The lens is at 1040g 30g lighter than DA* 300/4. Zooming is smooth and the lens won't creep when upwards or downwards. Focusing ring has 80° travel which makes it harder to manual focus when compared to DA* 200/2.8 and DA* 300/4 that both have 220° travel. The solution fir removing tripod collar is rather interesting. Common solution is that the collar is removed all together. With DA* 60-250 the collar always stays on, only the foot gets removed. While some may complain that the lens is heavier due to collar that can't be totally removed I find it rather practical. It's much faster to remove/install just the foot. AF is always spot on and it doesn't hunt. Optically the lens is a big surprise. At f4 pictures are quite sharp and I doubt one could tell the difference between f4 and f5.6 on A3 print. I was surprised to see that the lens doesn't loose quality at all at the tele end. The only weak point of this lens is wide end (60-70mm).

L'obiettivo si presenta massiccio e pesante. Bisogna esercitarsi un po' per poterlo inserire sul bocchettone della fotocamera se si è in movimento o in piedi (non è un obiettivo monta e smonta). Ho trovato molto utile l'uso a mano libera dell'attacco del cavalletto (rimuovibile), infatti mi è risultato comodo usarlo per l'appoggio sul palmo della mano sinistra. Eccellente la stabilità; ho ottenuto fotografie nitide con 1/30 di secondo a focale 250 mm (anche se qui entra in gioco lo stabilizzatore della fotocamera e, scusate l'immodestia, la manina del sottoscritto) Il prezzo è piuttosto elevato ma l'obiettivo vale tutti i soldi spesi, e forse anche di più. La qualità delle immagini ottenute è probabilmente ai vertici della categoria e a mio giudizio, regge il confronto con i migliori tele-zoom in questa fascia di focali di Canon e Nikon. Abbastanza veloce la messa a fuoco anche su soggetti in movimento. Lo ricomprerei? Subito!

Perhaps counter intuitively, I bought this for my Pentax K-1, which is a full-frame camera; this lens is designed for APS-C cameras. in FF mode on the K-1, There is some vignetting even without the hood, but I don't find it particularly disturbing. The corner sharpness at F4 is fine so I think it's not an image circle issue but rather some part of the lens is physically blocking the light at the corners (either the front or the back). I was looking for a high quality, compact telephoto zoom; I have an older F 70-210 ED which is much more compact, but is slower, not as sharp (though still good by most standards) and not as mechanically robust (not weather sealed, rotating front element). I also have a larger and heavier FA* 80-200 F2.8 which does not fit easily into one of my travel backpacks, while the 60-250 does just barely. The tripod mount is also much better than the FA 80-200 as well in terms of stability and size. Additionally, the SDM allows for full time manual focus (the F 70-210 must be switched to manual focus on the body, and the FA 80-200 uses a clutch controlled by shifting the focus ring back and forth) and quieting focusing. The weather sealing is an added bonus, as is the fact that it is a dual SDM/screw drive focus lens, meaning it will autofocus on my *ist D and K100D (but more slowly and noisily) I would not hesitate to use this as a FF lens provided you are OK with a bit of vignetting. I would estimate the effect as being material for about 1.0-1.5mm of the 36x24mm frame (200-300 pixels at 36MP). It doesn't impact resolution; I am quite picky about corner sharpness and I see no issues with this lens.

I have been using Pentax * lenses for over 25 years and have never been dissapointed with thier quality. THis lens maintains the quality, I was a little reluctant in the first place because of the huge zoom range 60-250 mm but it seems to be very sharp accross the whole range. I used it with a vengence over the past two weeks at two airshows and am impressed with the results, sharp and contrasty pictures so I would recomend this lens to anyone

This lens is a must for Pentax enthusiasts. Good range and quality glass.