Photozone.de Pentax DA 50-200 review

2007-07-12

Photozone.de Pentax DA 50-200 review

Photozone.de Pentax DA 50-200 Review does raise some concern for my dependable lens. I need to revisit the site and inputs and discussions among other dpreview Pentax SLR forum members to derive my own conclusion.

I do have bunch of photos made at 200mm and 50mm which I find acceptable. Anyway, maybe I am not trained with the experience to see the edge problems as noted in the review.

At 200mm

At 200mm

At 138mm

At 50 mm

At 50mm

Mosaic on Portraits

Picture link to Portraits with Pentax DA 50-200
Thirsty Water

Though it is slower lens wide open at f/4.0, I find Pentax DA 50-200 very versatile in taking indoor pictures for my kids. It has good color, sharpness, and bokeh for me. And best of all, it is light and I can frame my shot at ease from a farther distance observing my kids without interruption to their fun activity acting out at an any unplanned moment in the day. The above series are totally unplanned in a Sunday afternoon when my two boys have a great laugh in drinking their water. I am yet to look for an external flash to work on indoor portraits.

I love my Pentax DA 50-200, I use it the most among the combo lens with DA 18-55 and the recent purchase of FA 50 f/1.4 and Takumar 28-80 Macro. If I can get an external flash to assist in indoor pictures, it will be a great addition for my kids' pictures for both indoor and outdoor.

Mosaic on hiking

Picture link to Hiking with DA 50-200

Impressions & Notes:

Lens is extremely lightweight and it is my go to lens when I want to travel light
Lens is ideal for hiking use
Lens focal range very versatile especially on portraits and street shooting with emphasis on long end
I find softness in 50mm more so than the longer end
AF seems reasonable though AF hunts in indoor. Lens not suited to dim light for indoor shooting.
Focus ring is right in front similar to kit's lens and I find manual focusing quite alright with this lens
Close focusing is good on this lens and I see others with good results with Raynox 250/150.

Links:

Photozone.de Review on Pentax DA 50-200 (negative)
Photo.net review on Pentax DA 50-200 (positive)
dpreview Pentax SLR discussion (with debate)

5 Comments:

At 2:19 PM, Anonymous said...: well what can I say.. it takes pretty darn good pictures.

Maybe I should start bringing my camera with me and take pictures of stuff too.. my dad got me a nice nikon coolpix s7 but i havent been using it that much.. dont really know how to use it well enough.

Loretta
At 7:36 PM, ranferi rodriguez said...: My da 50-200 does not have a good perfonmance. You´re lucky
I have some samples at http://www.flickr.com/photos/optiosv/

Have a nice day!
At 2:36 AM, myrdinn said...: Alas I have to say that I'm absolutely not happy with my 50-200. (On the other hand I like my 18-55 very much.) I totally agree with the Photozone.de review. I replaced the 50-200 by an old 70-200 mm lens, which also was a low budget lens but gives better results, at least in my case.
Maybe it's just a question of luck, a question of finding a good copy of the lens? But in that case we can wonder how good Pentax' quality control is.
At 3:51 AM, tipsy1956 said...: A bad review does not mean a bad lens. It just means that pictures may not look so good at the corners of the lens at large aperture - which for a tele is not too important since the depth of field will be very narrow and focus at the object, which is the key, which is why it is not so important. However for a wide angle lens, corner sharp is critical, especially at small aperture - where you need to take landscape. At larger aperture, corner sharpness for wide angles is also important, though less critical.

As for replacing the kit's lens, it is better to replace with the 35 f2 FA - as it has very good reputation and is relatively cheap. I have tried Sigma 17-70 on a Canon 30d - the problem is that at wide angle, the corners are very soft. There are better replacement for the kit lens - why not try the new Tamron 17-50 lens?
At 7:14 AM, Hin Man said...: Thanks for the comments and suggestion for FA 35 f/2.0. I am very impressed with the lens. And instead of Sigma 17-70, I have chosen Tamron 28-75 f/2.8. I also bought an inexpensive wide zoom with Tokina 19-35 f/3.5.-4.5, a sharpie at wide open aperture.