Pentax DA 50-200mm f/4-5.6 ED Lens for Pentax and Samsung DSLR Cameras by Pentax
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Digital camera reviews of Pentax DA 50-200mm f/4-5.6 ED Lens for Pentax and Samsung DSLR Cameras
Digital camera Review: Great Second Lens
Summary: 5 Stars
Get the DA 50-200mm lens as your second lens. Highly recommended as a complement to the 18-45mm zoom. It's small and light enough to carry in your coat pocket. Lets you get in tight on distant subjects. I carried it on vacation for the express purpose of getting those quick shots you never have time to set up. Very easy to change lenses quickly. Fast focus and start up.Digital camera Review: Great Value for the Money!
Summary: 4 Stars
This lens is a great value for the money. I use this lens for shooting action shots at sporting events and have found it to be a perfect fit, the quality of the pictures are good and I am able to capture good action without having to be too close.Digital camera Review: Great compact telephoto lens to pair with the DA 18-55 kit lens
Summary: 5 Stars
The DA lenses are optimised for the APS-C sized sensor on Pentax DSLR's and as such will not work on 35mm film. The smaller size however has enabled Pentax to dramatically reduce size while preserving the quality optics. It's unbelievable just how compact this zoom is - when its fully retracted it's about 1cm (half an inch) taller than the kit lens, that's it!
The zoom and focus rings are very smooth, more so than the DA 18-55 which most Pentax DSLR owners will be familiar with. I haven't observed any zoom creep when carrying the lens - something typical of bigger budget telephoto lenses. I would much rather have this more compact lens over one of the 70-300 zooms from Pentax/Sigma/Tamron not only for its comppact size, but also because the 50-70mm range is one that I use a lot. On the other hand, 200mm is not quite enough reach for birding or wildlife enthusiasts.
After about half a year of use, I am still really happy with my purchase. If you own a Pentax digital SLR, this lens would be a great addition to your bag. If top-notch image quality is very important to you, you might want to wait for the upcoming Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 lens - but the fast aperture comes at a price (both monetary and weight) and with the clean high-ISO ability of the current cameras, it is no longer something that is absolutely required.
Digital camera Review: Great lens for the price
Summary: 5 Stars
If you have the 18-55mm kit lens, then you'll find that the 50-200mm feels just about the same. This lens is slightly heavier and slightly longer than the 18-55mm, but still very easy to handle. I uploaded two images to the user gallery above, showing the 18-55mm next to the 50-200mm.
Most people seem to decide between this lens or the Tamron AF70-300mm F/4-5.6, which is similarly priced. After doing a lot of research, I decided on the Pentax 50-200mm because of its compact size and much lighter weight. Although I haven't used the Tamron lens myself, the specifications show that it is longer and twice as heavy as the Pentax.
Another thing to consider is that the Tamron AF70-300mm has a 62mm filter diameter, while the Pentax DA 50-200mm and DA 18-55mm share the same 52mm filter diameter. If you already own the 18-55mm kit lens, you'll be able to use any filters that you already have on the 50-200mm. In my experience, larger filters also cost a bit more, so sticking with 52mm filters would mean cheaper filters that you can also share between lenses.
If you've never used a telephoto lens like this one (and I hadn't), then you'll find that slight movements are really exaggerated when you're fully zoomed in. Also, at 200mm, the widest aperture setting is f5.6 (smaller f-number means a bigger aperture), which is fine if you're outdoors and there's plenty of light, but can make indoor/low light photography a bit difficult. Shake reduction will definitely help, but you'll probably want a tripod if you're shooting at 200mm in low light.
Keep in mind that the Pentax DSLRs like the K100D have a 1.5x focal length multiplier. This means that you need to multiply the specified focal lengths of the lenses by 1.5 to get their 35mm SLR equivalent. On a digital SLR, this lens will give you the equivalent of 75-300mm on a regular 35mm SLR camera.
Overall, this is a great lens for the price.
Digital camera Review: Great lens, great picture quality
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me start off by saying that I am NOT a professional or very serious photographer, but I CAN see the difference in image quality between this lens and the kit lens (18-55mm); this lens produces much cleaner and vivid pictures. The max zoom works great with my K10D's Shake Reduction feature and it's not much bigger than my 18-55mm lens (unzoomed, of course). If you want a great lens at a great price, then this is the lens for you!