William Robb wrote: >Hi; >I have the opportunity to purchase the above named lens. One >thing that bothers me is the lack of a tripod mount. If any >owners of the lens would care to comment on the qualities of it, >and whether the lack of a tripod socket is a fatal flaw, I would >be interested in your responses. >Thanks > >William Robb
I had one of these until recently, but sold it and bought a Sigma 300/4 apo macro instead, partly to get a tripod mount. I used the lens with a monopod on a number of occasions, and using the camera tripod mount makes the camera & lens very front-heavy and difficult to use, especially with a ball & socket head, and even more so if using a teleconverter or extension tube. I eventually resorted to cobbling together a make-shift tripod mount for the lens, which while not particularly sturdy, did allow for easier use on a monopod. The optics were fine, except that very high contrast subjects would show the effects of slight chromatic aberration, giving magenta fringes around very bright objects (not usually a problem though). The Sigma lens appears to be much better corrected (but with significantly poorer lens coatings). The focusing on the Pentax is beautifully smooth and well damped, but quite slow due to the long travel; the Sigma is loose with a very short travel, but suprisingly easy to focus manually, with the added advantage of a much closer focus, although the internal focus effectively shortens the focal length even at quite modest distances - at 4m, the view is ~20% wider than the Pentax. Hope this helps, David Dixon - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
