Review on 📷 Pentax SMC DA 60-250mm f/4 ED IF SDM Telephoto Zoom Lens with Case for Pentax DSLR Cameras by Corey Vaz

Pros: Sharpness throughout the zoom range, even wide open is great, at 5.6 it's just amazing Versatile range (90-375mm full frame equivalent, pretty close to 100-400mm) Relatively compact All-weather seal Detachable tripod mount Cons : No zoom lock, may slip Some softness on one side of the frame at 200-250mm and f/4 (rarely seen above f/4.5) Detachable tripod mount Verdict: Great lens for the asking price. Image quality and bokeh are comparable to most prime lenses of the same range and aperture. Who should buy this lens? Anyone who needs an ultra-sharp sports, wildlife or general purpose lens with an f/4 aperture on the long end. Rating: This lens is excellent. Focus SDM is quiet and seems reliable with my K-7. He goes to his destination and stops. It's not very fast, but it's not slow either. This seems to work well enough for some birds in flight tracking and other fixed focus activities. When using screw focus with this lens, it gets quite noisy like other screw drive DA* lenses. The sharpness of this lens never ceases to amaze me. When zoomed to 100%, the pixels are still pin-sharp, even on my 14.6MP K-7. It seems to peak at f/5.6 but is actually very good at wide open apertures. In this regard, it is in many ways similar to 70-200mm f/4 lenses. Since it is an inner focus, the focal length is measured at infinity. It seems much smaller than at the close-up, which is common to all IF lenses. Unlike some cheaper lenses, this lens won't disappoint when shooting distant subjects. The lens is for those used to 100-400mm for full frame. It has a tripod mount, and by the way, the tripod mount leg is easy to remove if you find it in the way (the ring stays on the lens), but I like to use the leg as a grip when shooting, it makes it a good balance point. The ring has detents every 90 degrees so it can be easily rotated in 90 degree increments. My only warning: make sure the tripod mount is tight, use a coin or something. Hand-tightening the screw can back it out, which is uncomfortable to say the least. The lens isn't really big if you're used to lenses like the Sigma 100-300mm f/4. It's small next to this lens. It's pretty close to 70-200mm f/2.8, maybe even a little less. Most of my minor complaints about this lens are mechanical. Don't get me wrong, it feels great but lacks a lock or whatever to keep the retractable stem in place while riding. The seal keeps the barrel from popping out, but pulling it out is easy. There's also a slight barrel wobble (only when you press on it). There's also no focus limiter to speed up focusing, it's a good thing it doesn't hit often. My little soft left side issue bothered me a bit at first, but it's really only noticeable on brick wall shots and seems to go away when stopped at all. It also reflects what SLRGear saw in their review. Visually there is visible green/magenta CA bokeh, but it's fairly subtle and easy to fix in post. At high contrast you'll also see some random color fringes near the edges of the image, but in this regard it's still better than average and not to the point where the contrast systematically decreases (like most 70-300mm lenses ). The overall contrast with this lens is excellent. I always hear the question: Why should I buy this lens when I can buy a 55-300mm for a quarter of the price? Trust me, this lens is worth every penny. It's really in a different league than the 55-300mm, which is a great lens, but you get what you pay for. With uncropped images there is only a slight difference, but with 100% cropped or large prints the difference is clearly visible. I would have almost given this lens 4 stars due to minor complaints I've had with mine, but the lens always makes me smile when I see results. For this reason I had to give 5 stars. Paired with the K-7, this lens makes for an unbeatable all-weather kit.