List Price: $1,399.95
Sale Price: $1,299.99
Today's Bonus: 7% Off
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.
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