Pentax 21277 55 - 300 mm HD DA F4.5-6.3ED PLM WR RE Telephoto Zoom Lens - Black

This is an excellent little lens very well worth the about 305 EUR you can get it for new here.Even though it clearly is an APSC only lens I did buy it for my Pentax K-1 FF camera as light vacation/travel tele option.The lens when folded together is just about the size of the fantastic Pentax DFA 100mm F2.8 macro lens,so while certainly being no pancake it is very easy to transport in very small bags.The build quality is very ok for this price range and certainly better than Tamrons.The optical quality is great, especially at the important long 300mm end. Certainly not on DA* 300mm prime level (who would expect this?) but good enough for 60x40cm prints.The new PLM lens AF drive is really very silent and quick. I find it preferable to old SDMs, Sigma DCs and HSMs.Focussing with it is very fast, especially if the change of focus is not between ultra close and infinity. I'd even might give it a try in sports subjects.This PLM drive has the same functionality as the "STM" drive from Canon: It can make very small adjustments silently during video capture.What is also worthwhile noting is that this is the first Pentax lens that I know which is "focus-by-wire", so there is no direct physical connection between the focus ring and the lenses. So when the camera is powered off you can not adjust focus. Pentax calls this "power focus".It features the new KAF4 mount, which means the aperture is not controlled via physical level from a little motor in the camera body but the lens has its own aperture motor. In order to use this you do need one of the newest models K-3II or K-1 or K-70, K-S1, K-S2. Otherwise the aperture will be fixed and you can not really set it.As already mentioned: I use it on a FF body. The strongest hard vignetting is between 78-88mm with only small parts of the corners being shaded at both 300mm and 55mm. Especially at 300mm I usually do crop somewhat anyway to that is not a major loss. Also my zoom lens usage usually means that I use the lens at one of the two ends, so that seems to work fine. Even at the worst vignetting 88mm when using square crop (25 MPx) no vignetting is left on the picture. Together with the Pentax DFA 28-105mm lens this should make my preferred light FF travel combo.Fully recommended.

Having used the Pentax 18-50mm DC WR RE I was a bit sceptical about buying this. The release mechanism of the compact 18-50 is clunky at best. However on the 55-300 it's as smooth as silk. This lens looks and feels like a quality product (unlike the 18-50) and first impressions are that it focuses quickly and accurately (on a K70) and is very sharp at the apertures I use - generally I aim for F8-F13. There are faster lenses, but for me that's not particulalry important.It's also a nice compact lens, light enough to carry around your neck for a good length of time.Note that it is not compatible with many older Pentax bodies so do your research. If you have a compatible camera and want a quality lens that is user-friendly and doesn't break the bank, I'd definitely give it some serious thought. I'm certainly very happy with my purchase.

For the price, this lens has a lot of image quality, and compares well with my more expensive fixed length lenses. However, it is of screw-drive autofocus design, so makes a racket during autofocus, and it is not weather sealed. Those items aside, possibly the best APS-C lens under £200.

Great lens, well worth the investment, silent operation a bonus

This is a great lens, currently I am using this as my primary daily lens, and so far it's been flawless.I have been using this with my K-70 and so far it's been flawless, images are sharp and the focusing speed is very fast (and it's silent when focusing too!), most of the time there's no searching, although when trying to focus on small, distant objects there can be some searching (but manually focusing helps in these circumstances).This lens has opened up more options for me in regard of how I take my photos, although it's not a macro lens it does do well for some light macro photography, but it's zoom-range is where it excels, images are sharp, very colourful and I haven't noticed any Chromatic Aberration issues.Certainly a great lens to have with you.(Please note, I also attached a Gobe UV 58mm UV filter to the lens.)

Love this lens, so quick to focus, so silent, so sharp, excellent contrast, not too heavy, and excellent price and delivery from Amazon.

Used my friends lens of the same type for 6 months so knew what to expect.Provides lovely images with my Pentax k70.Helps to get in close for candid portraits. Lovely colour rendition and auto focuses up with few problems.Great addition to my Pentax army of lenses !!

If you are familiar with older lenses you will love how quiet and fast focus this lens is, very impressed

Excellent lens. Have always loved Pentax products. Lots to learn. Great challenge with beautiful results.

I bought this for sports photography to complement my new K3 Mark III.What I found was this lens does remarkably well for all around work as well as having the ability to do spectacular macro photography. It's not 1-1 but for flowers, and closeups, the color and detail are amazing.The speed of focus is world's better than the previous 55-300 ED. The new focusing system is lightning fast, and solid. Note the egret and heron photos - these were a hip-shoot of an egret and heron leaping into the air, I turned as fast as I could and just held the shutter for a burst at 300mm hoping to get a shot. The focus was spot on even if the shutter was not as fast as I would like. the flower was taken from about 10 inches away at 190mm f6.3.For a general purpose, lightweight walk around lens this is a winner.

Nel titolo ho scritto i pregi principali dell'obiettivo, che è costruito in modo solidissimo per essere ancora nella fascia di primo prezzo Pentax: il fatto di essere collassabile lo rende sicuro e pratico nel trasporto (messo sulla macchina alloggiata sullo spallaccio dello zaino, sei sempre sicuro che non si estenderà con il rischio di colpi accidentali). L'AF abbinato alle macchine più recenti è performante e silenzioso, i limiti sono semmai nel modulo AF della camera di turno. Se questo PLM ha reso necessario il 1/3 di step di luminosità in meno per me va benissimo perché non stiamo parlando di una differenza tra un F5.6 e un F6.3 alla massima focale (tuttavia il bokeh rimane molto gradevole anche a 300 mm come da immagine allegata: ho scelto volutamente quel jpg dalla macchina e non altro per fare vedere meglio come rende uno sfondo poco omogeneo). Il fatto che sia WR lo rende adatto a ogni escursione in totale sicurezza e nessun competitor offre questo intorno ai 400 €. Fino a 450 € è da prendere al volo, altrimenti si può valutare il mercato dell'usato. Io l'ho preso nuovo ai prime days e l'ho pagato 383 €, praticamente come qualche usato pari al nuovo. Quindi occhio ai prezzi! Non capisco francamente quanto si lamentino della sua apertura perché per il prezzo è decisamente in linea e se si vuole qualcosa di più (molto di più) c'è la linea Star che offre su zoom qualità da prime lens. Un ritratto al volo a 135mm a f4.5 si fa con ottimo stacco del soggetto dal fondo, soprattutto se si costruisce bene la scena di posa. Venduto e spedito da Amazon in meno di 24 ore era già a casa, quindi servizio eccellente!

Snabb, tyst och träffsäker autofocus. Önskar jag köpte detta långt tidigare :)

Schon seit langem überlege ich mir dieses Objekt zuzulegen. Und bei einer Aktion die mir angezeigt wurde, war der Preis den ich max. ausgeben wollte und schwupps war es bestellt. Auch wenn es günstig ist, ich war sehr, sehr skeptisch. Denn der Blendenbereich, gepaart mit dem Telezoom - ich war sehr skeptisch. Bin nun aber überzeugt und das Objektiv ist immer im Fotorucksack und natürlich aufgrund der speziellen Brennweite nicht immer drauf. Warum ist es immer dabei? Das Objektiv ist sehr kompakt und deshalb verschmerze ich auch die mangelnde Lichtstärke.Mit einem Trick hat Pentax das Teil gekürzt. D.h. wenn es voll eingefahren ist, dann kann man nicht fotografieren, was auch an meiner Pentax K70 angezeigt wird. Aber nach einer Zeit gewöhnt man sich daran.Das Objektiv ist leise und stellt schnell scharf. Für den Videomodus ist es zwar besser als andere, aber im Marktvergleich immer noch schlecht. Aber der Fokus ist bei PENTAX-Kameras nunmal die Fotografie und das können die Kameras sehr gut.Zu meinen Demo-Bildern: Original-JPG (die Blume und das Boot habe ich zusammengeschnitten).