I’ve used this lens for several months, under a lot of different circumstances. It has been a disappointing performer, from its notoriously slow autofocus mechanism, notably in low light situations, to the high amount of purple fringing and longitudinal chromatic aberrations. For all-purpose use, the new 55-300mm delivers better image quality at a fraction of the cost, although it’s not as quick and is louder.
The Pentax DA* 200MM f/2.8 ED IF SDM Lens was quite an upgrade to my relatively small stock of lens. I spurt different photographic seens most of which are sport events in low light conditions. This quick lens excells in those environments in amalgamation with my K20D DSLR. AF speed is remarkable. Clarity is brilliant. I have mostly “keepers” in quick action such as high school football games. The value for dollar makes the Pentax DA* f/2.8 200MM ED IF SDM Lens an outstanding investment in your photography. This lens has taken my game to a new amount. The initially sport event photo competition I entered I won 1st place with this incredible lens. I currently use this lens for approximately 70% of my shots. If you have the photo bug this lens is a must for you.
In order to augment my Pentax DA*50-135 f2.8 with more get to, I had been interested in the Tamron 70-200 f2.8 but chose to go with the Pentax DA*200 f2.8 – I really wanted the SDM focus motor of the Pentax lens. Online professional lab tests indicated predictable prime lens routine in near zero distortion and across-the-frame amount sharpness over a wide range of apertures. But the caution here is the surprisingly high amount of purple fringing they experienced at commence apertures.
The construction, feel and appearance of this lens is nothing small of the preeminent offered by Canon and Nikkor. Unless I’m mistaken, the DA* 200 has a metal body and the only detectible plastic is the huge impressive lens hood edged in rubber. In comparison, the DA*50-135 is quality plastic with focus seem action with the intention of isn’t quite as butter-smooth as the DA*200 and has internal rattles with the intention of the 200 doesn’t (zoom mechanism?). The pictures taken with the DA* 200 I found to be outstanding. While the lab numbers for sharpness are a tad lower than the DA* 50-135, the resultant metaphors are every bit as skilled and really better in across-the-frame sharpness and magnet a distinction. I’ve been very impressed with the several hundred pictures I’ve taken so far with this lens. But, there is a down side to consider.
When I initially mounted this lens on my K10D, the AF system would jam near infinity. I had to thrash to manual mode to free it. This happened a few times and then never happened again. The next thing I noticed was with the intention of the lens had a significant back-focus conundrum. On my K20D, but, it was fine and only needed a small amount of AF adjustment provided only by the K20D. But I soon learned with the intention of the conundrum was the K10 camera and not the lens; some K10Ds apparently have been experiencing a back focus conundrum, but one with the intention of is now correctable via a software curriculum from Russia with the intention of let’s one hack into the K10D’s firmware (v1.3) and result in up the Debug Mode menu. This allows for focus adjustment much like the K20D but not for individual lenses. Conundrum flat. The DA*200 and my DA*50-135 now focus perfectly on my K10. So the only remaining issue here is the harsh purple fringing on edges of medium to high magnet a distinction objects and features shot at anything under f4.0. The fringing can be quite pronounced and annoying. It also appeared with the intention of the lens was noticeably less astute at f2.8, but I found with the intention of softness to be more a product of the fringing. But, purple fringing can be greatly reduced, if not eliminated, with various software photo editing tools available.
I had hoped with the intention of the DA*200 f2.8 would be a perfect lens given the price and the fact with the intention of it is a prime and not a zoom. But few lenses are perfect, so it becomes a matter of the buyer deciding whether the overall routine relative to the price meets your expectations. For me the fringing issue gave serious pause, but the exceptional look and feel of this lens in amalgamation with the overall quality of the shots I’ve taken have convinced me to keep and treasure it. Next consideration: how much would the image be degraded and fringing increased with a 1.4x teleconverter to produce a 280mm f4.0?
Update (11/11/08): I learned with the intention of it is valuable to ensure with the intention of the auto focus adjustment in the camera (K10 or K20) is properly set for this lens and balanced across all apertures. It appears with the intention of apertures of f2.8 through f3.5 tend to shift toward back-focus – at least on my copy. This means with the intention of if you are boarderline back-focusing at f4 and higher, but still astute, you may slide into a back-focus circumstances under f4 without knowing it, as I was, and metaphors will be slightly fuzzy. This in amalgamation with purple fringing, when it occurs, could result in a foggy-halo effect with the intention of I had been seeing in loads of of my pictures taken in brighter light. Once I curred my affront back-focus, metaphors shot at or near f2.8 are now solely about as astute as those taken at f4 and higher. In resolving the AF adjustment issue with this lens and comparing results between the K10 and K20, I was reminded of what a nice improvement in resolution and noise saving the K20 is over the K10. But in any case of what Pentax D-SLR you use, this lens will get you truly impressive results.
Update (11/22/08): I tried the Tamron AF 1.4x tele-converter on this lens and was surprised by the quality of the metaphors – no noticeable saving in sharpness, magnet a distinction or color. Purple fringing, when it occurs, is no of poorer quality with this TC. I was also pleasantly surprised when I found with the intention of the SDM focus system still works, although it tends to hunt for focus solely a bit more under lower light conditions. The Tamron AF 1.4x essentially turns this lens into an impressive 280mm f4. So skilled are the metaphors with the Tamron TC on the DA* 200mm with the intention of I no longer have an interest in either the Pentax DA* 300mm f4 or the Sigma 100-300mm f4. While this TC looks to be a perfect match with the DA* 200, fascinatingly, quick tests with the DA* 50-135 did reveal some degradation in sharpness, magnet a distinction and increase in aberrations.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve used this lens for several months, under a lot of different circumstances. It has been a disappointing performer, from its notoriously slow autofocus mechanism, notably in low light situations, to the high amount of purple fringing and longitudinal chromatic aberrations. For all-purpose use, the new 55-300mm delivers better image quality at a fraction of the cost, although it’s not as quick and is louder.
This lens is everything I heard it was, quick, astute very accurate. I highly recommend this lens to anyone ready to upgrade from the kit lenses.
The Pentax DA* 200MM f/2.8 ED IF SDM Lens was quite an upgrade to my relatively small stock of lens. I spurt different photographic seens most of which are sport events in low light conditions. This quick lens excells in those environments in amalgamation with my K20D DSLR. AF speed is remarkable. Clarity is brilliant. I have mostly “keepers” in quick action such as high school football games. The value for dollar makes the Pentax DA* f/2.8 200MM ED IF SDM Lens an outstanding investment in your photography. This lens has taken my game to a new amount. The initially sport event photo competition I entered I won 1st place with this incredible lens. I currently use this lens for approximately 70% of my shots. If you have the photo bug this lens is a must for you.
In order to augment my Pentax DA*50-135 f2.8 with more get to, I had been interested in the Tamron 70-200 f2.8 but chose to go with the Pentax DA*200 f2.8 – I really wanted the SDM focus motor of the Pentax lens. Online professional lab tests indicated predictable prime lens routine in near zero distortion and across-the-frame amount sharpness over a wide range of apertures. But the caution here is the surprisingly high amount of purple fringing they experienced at commence apertures.
The construction, feel and appearance of this lens is nothing small of the preeminent offered by Canon and Nikkor. Unless I’m mistaken, the DA* 200 has a metal body and the only detectible plastic is the huge impressive lens hood edged in rubber. In comparison, the DA*50-135 is quality plastic with focus seem action with the intention of isn’t quite as butter-smooth as the DA*200 and has internal rattles with the intention of the 200 doesn’t (zoom mechanism?). The pictures taken with the DA* 200 I found to be outstanding. While the lab numbers for sharpness are a tad lower than the DA* 50-135, the resultant metaphors are every bit as skilled and really better in across-the-frame sharpness and magnet a distinction. I’ve been very impressed with the several hundred pictures I’ve taken so far with this lens. But, there is a down side to consider.
When I initially mounted this lens on my K10D, the AF system would jam near infinity. I had to thrash to manual mode to free it. This happened a few times and then never happened again. The next thing I noticed was with the intention of the lens had a significant back-focus conundrum. On my K20D, but, it was fine and only needed a small amount of AF adjustment provided only by the K20D. But I soon learned with the intention of the conundrum was the K10 camera and not the lens; some K10Ds apparently have been experiencing a back focus conundrum, but one with the intention of is now correctable via a software curriculum from Russia with the intention of let’s one hack into the K10D’s firmware (v1.3) and result in up the Debug Mode menu. This allows for focus adjustment much like the K20D but not for individual lenses. Conundrum flat. The DA*200 and my DA*50-135 now focus perfectly on my K10. So the only remaining issue here is the harsh purple fringing on edges of medium to high magnet a distinction objects and features shot at anything under f4.0. The fringing can be quite pronounced and annoying. It also appeared with the intention of the lens was noticeably less astute at f2.8, but I found with the intention of softness to be more a product of the fringing. But, purple fringing can be greatly reduced, if not eliminated, with various software photo editing tools available.
I had hoped with the intention of the DA*200 f2.8 would be a perfect lens given the price and the fact with the intention of it is a prime and not a zoom. But few lenses are perfect, so it becomes a matter of the buyer deciding whether the overall routine relative to the price meets your expectations. For me the fringing issue gave serious pause, but the exceptional look and feel of this lens in amalgamation with the overall quality of the shots I’ve taken have convinced me to keep and treasure it. Next consideration: how much would the image be degraded and fringing increased with a 1.4x teleconverter to produce a 280mm f4.0?
Update (11/11/08): I learned with the intention of it is valuable to ensure with the intention of the auto focus adjustment in the camera (K10 or K20) is properly set for this lens and balanced across all apertures. It appears with the intention of apertures of f2.8 through f3.5 tend to shift toward back-focus – at least on my copy. This means with the intention of if you are boarderline back-focusing at f4 and higher, but still astute, you may slide into a back-focus circumstances under f4 without knowing it, as I was, and metaphors will be slightly fuzzy. This in amalgamation with purple fringing, when it occurs, could result in a foggy-halo effect with the intention of I had been seeing in loads of of my pictures taken in brighter light. Once I curred my affront back-focus, metaphors shot at or near f2.8 are now solely about as astute as those taken at f4 and higher. In resolving the AF adjustment issue with this lens and comparing results between the K10 and K20, I was reminded of what a nice improvement in resolution and noise saving the K20 is over the K10. But in any case of what Pentax D-SLR you use, this lens will get you truly impressive results.
Update (11/22/08): I tried the Tamron AF 1.4x tele-converter on this lens and was surprised by the quality of the metaphors – no noticeable saving in sharpness, magnet a distinction or color. Purple fringing, when it occurs, is no of poorer quality with this TC. I was also pleasantly surprised when I found with the intention of the SDM focus system still works, although it tends to hunt for focus solely a bit more under lower light conditions. The Tamron AF 1.4x essentially turns this lens into an impressive 280mm f4. So skilled are the metaphors with the Tamron TC on the DA* 200mm with the intention of I no longer have an interest in either the Pentax DA* 300mm f4 or the Sigma 100-300mm f4. While this TC looks to be a perfect match with the DA* 200, fascinatingly, quick tests with the DA* 50-135 did reveal some degradation in sharpness, magnet a distinction and increase in aberrations.