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: Dream Telephoto Lens
Summary: 5 Stars
This lens work with Pentax digital SLR's. It's advantage over the Pentax 35mm SLR lens is it works with the camera to do part of the work, so you can concentrate on the picture. It is light weight and quite clear.
The only draw back is that the F stop is a little slow.
Digital camera Review: Best at this size and price
Summary: 5 Stars
This is certainly not the best telezoom money can buy, not even within the Pentax family. However, you will not find anything approaching at this size and price.
It is barely bigger than the kit lens, that is, very small, especially considering its zoom range.
It is ridiculously cheap for a lens of that type and quality.
Finally the image quality is great for a lens of that type. Check forums, pbase, etc. for pictures taken with that lens ! It's amazing ! It maybe a bit slow especially at the long end, but thanks to Pentax dslr's great performance at high iso, and shake reduction in the K100D, even 200mm f/5.6 is not a problem !
Together with the kit 18-55 it is the perfect startup combo. You can then add various primes or more expensive zooms as needed (or lusted) for added speed and quality...
Oh, and at the moment it is in fact the _only_ telezoom you can get new from Pentax !-)
Digital camera Review: Must Buy
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great lens for Pentax DSLRs. It's sharp and produces nice images. It's a good price and definitely produces better results than the Sigma 55-200mm--sharper and lighter.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: Nice, small tele-zoom
Summary: 4 Stars
This 50-200 is the best in its class for any Pentax digital SLR. It's very small, light weight, internal focusing, and allows on demand manual focusing. If you haven't purchased your K100D yet, you can probably find this in a two lens kit at a nice little discount.
The "on demand" manual focus (also on the kit 18-55), allows you to instantly teak the focus after the autofocus has locked on the subject. This is very handy, as the camera may pick a person's shoulder rather than eyes on which to focus, etc. A very effecient lens hood is also included.
If you already have one of the digital SLR Pentax cameras, and if size is not critical, you might consider a long focal length lens. Pentax doesn't really have a good option (as of this writing); therefore, I'd recommend the Tamron 70-300 LD Di zoom. It'll give you 50% more range, a 1:2 lifesize close-up mode, and a 6 year USA warranty (vs. 1 year from Pentax). This brand new design features Low-Dispersion glass and is designed to work better than previous designs with digital sensors.