Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Pentax HD DA 55-300mm f/4.5-6.3 ED PLM WR RE Lens

Top positive review

DC comics 'THE FLASH' of Pentax Zoom lenses

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2024

Absolutely phenomenal Pentax Zoom lens!
Great focal range from portrait to long distance shots this lens is super duper speedy and weather resistant, offering tack sharp images with great color rendering and contrast.
A MUST OWN!
Very happy with this purchase -More PENTAX LOVE

One person found this helpful

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

SpaceDesigner

Amazon Warehouse Sold Severely Damaged Lens as “Like New”

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2023

This is a “buyer beware” review instead of a review of this lens. Amazon Warehouse listed this 55-300mm PLM lens as Like New… The lens looks ok, but is unusable. The copy I received is not just soft, but outright blurry at most apertures. Either this was a bad copy, or was damaged by Amazon at some point. Amazon ships camera lenses in soft bags as opposed to boxes with padding - I know this as I bought several lenses from Amazon over the holidays, and not a single lens was packaged appropriately. So If a “like new” 55-300mm PLM shows up as an option soon after this review posts BEWARE!

2 people found this helpful

577 total ratings, 297 with reviews

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From the United States

tim driscoll

DC comics 'THE FLASH' of Pentax Zoom lenses

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2024

Size: HD DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 PLMVerified Purchase

One person found this helpful

Helpful

firewallbill

Amazingly general purpose lens with excellent close ability

Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2022

Size: HD DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 PLMVerified Purchase

I bought this for sports photography to complement my new K3 Mark III.
What I found was this lens does remarkably well for all around work as well as having the ability to do spectacular macro photography. It's not 1-1 but for flowers, and closeups, the color and detail are amazing.
The speed of focus is world's better than the previous 55-300 ED. The new focusing system is lightning fast, and solid. Note the egret and heron photos - these were a hip-shoot of an egret and heron leaping into the air, I turned as fast as I could and just held the shutter for a burst at 300mm hoping to get a shot. The focus was spot on even if the shutter was not as fast as I would like. the flower was taken from about 10 inches away at 190mm f6.3.
For a general purpose, lightweight walk around lens this is a winner.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Chester Harrington

Terrific lens for crop sensor Pentax cameras.

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2019

Size: HD DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 PLMVerified Purchase

I bought this to use on a K-S2, and loved it. Insanely fast focus, relatively light and portable lens. Image quality is good throughout the zoom range. The PLM focus is unbelievably quick, silent, and does not have the hunting issues that Pentax often suffers from. While Pentax is usually not recommended for sports or other high speed photography, this lens works very well and the three airshows I've taken it to, I never found it lacking.

I have since swapped my K-S2 for a K1 mk2 and was initially going to sell this lens to buy a 150-450(another great lens), but decided to also keep this for travel. It's basically the same size as the 28-105mm FA lens. The size of this lens and the low amount of vignetting on a full frame means it is still a viable lens on a FF platform.

Short version:
On APS-C it is one of the best telephoto lenses available.
On FF it is perfectly suited as a telephoto lens for travel where you want more reach, but want to avoid the bulk of a much larger lens.

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

Photographer

Excellent wide to short tele WR standard zoom

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2015

Size: HD DA 16-85mm F3.5-5.6Verified Purchase

Aug 2016 update
Took this lens on a multi-week vacation in Hong Kong. The weather was hot and humid. Together with a K-3II and this lens, the combination performed flawlessly. The three attached pictures were taken with this combination. All hand held except for the night scene. A fast lens (ie f/2.8 or better) is not required for this type of scene.

Nov 2015 update

I now have spent more time and come to really appreciate the strengths of this lens. Corner sharpness is head and shoulder better than the Tamron 17-50! This is a big surprise to me. At 50 mm, the FA 50 f/1.4 is still better at comparable aperture, but not by much. This finding actually presents a problem for me - I am starting to look for a better fast standard zoom.

***** Original review *****

I have a read a lot of reviews on this lens. But before saying anything, I need to state that I already have a Pentax 18-135 and Tamron 17-50. The Tamron 17-50 is my most used lens and with the 18-135 as my rainy day lens. The two main reasons for considering this 16-85 is 1) better optics than the 18-135 and 2) the wider 16 mm than either the 17-50 or 18-135. The 1mm difference between the 17mm on the Tamron and 16mm on the Pentax is huge. I like WA lens; I have a Sigma 8-16 UWA, Samyang 8mm & 14mm. With this 16-85, it will reduce the number of times I need to swap lenses. I am not so concerned with losing the 85-135 region because I have several lenses to cover that, including Pentax 55-300, Pentax 50-135, and Sigma 70-200.

In terms of optical performance, it does not disappoint me. It is significantly sharper than the 18-135 especially wide open aperture. It is comparable to the Tamron 17-50 at corresponding focal length and aperture. In other words, I can really get along well with this WR combination - 16-85 and 55-300 - for casual situations and landscape photography where fast aperture is not usually needed. I have not tested flare resistance, but reports so far seems to confirm the superiority of the HD coating. AF is very fast and silent; it seems to be faster than 18-135. It does require a -4 focus adjustment on a K-S2 while none for the 18-135. I have not tested on my K-5IIs but I expect similar results.

The lens is much larger than my expectation. Both the 18-135 and Tamron 17-50 are small compared to this 16-85. So I am not saving space when I substitute this 16-85 for the Tamron 17-50. The filter size is 72 vs 67 on the Tamron. The lens is well build but not heavy despite the size. The lens hood is well design.

I took one star off because it is not perfect. It is substantially more expensive than either the 18-135 or the Tamron 17-50. Aperture is neither fast nor constant. I would pay a little more to have constant f/4.0. The slower aperture especially towards the long FL end does not lend itself to challenging low light photography.

In summary, I highly recommend this lens if you can live within the constraints of the lens. WR is handy if you find yourself in wet or rainy environment.

37 people found this helpful

Helpful

Lloyd Frueh

Very sharp high quality images

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2016

Size: HD DA 16-85mm F3.5-5.6Verified Purchase

Carefully tested this lens as I do all new lenses I buy. This sample was was sharp across the frame at all focal lengths by f5.6. Slightly soft in the corners at 16mm at f3.5, but not bad. Autofocus is fast and silent. As with all zooms I've encountered, the internal focusing shortens the effective focal length to focus closer. My estimates of the effective focal length when the lens is set at 85mm and focused at 10 ft it is about 83mm; focused at 5 ft about 77mm; at 3 ft. about 70mm; and focused at the closest distance of about 13.5 inches the effective focal length is about 50mm. Focused very close with lens set at 85mm the image was very sharp and high quality but the area covered was about what you would expect with a 50mm lens not an 85mm lens so it is acting like a 50mm macro not an 85mm macro lens when focused up extremely close. Not a flaw. Every zoom I have ever tested behaves this way. Just do not expect an 85mm macro performer. An excellent lens and the sharpest all purpose zoom lens I have used on a Pentax. It seems to be very well built. I wish it had a marked focusing scale, but otherwise I am very favorably impressed with this lens. I am a very experienced photographer. Be sure to test your sample because there have been some reports on Pentax forums of people getting samples with elements decenterd which would give you images sharper on one side than the other.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Ship Kicker

Pentax is Quality

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2016

Size: HD DA 16-85mm F3.5-5.6Verified Purchase

This is a high quality lens and quite an upgrade over the stock kit lens. It arrived promptly and in great shape & was new. Please note that the package or box is branded as RICOH Pentax DA. Pentax and Ricoh merged a few years back. As others have noted, this lens is substantially heavier & larger than the stock kit lens. Not an issue unless you are really worried about weight. As far as is it worth it to spend the money for an upgrade over the kit lens? If you are a "regular Joe/Jane" amateur like myself, probably not. If you are a pro, your probably buying $$$$ primes. My old kit lens worked fine & never failed me. I was able to produce very nice photos & many memories with the kit lens. However, I have had the kit lens for over 10 years and took it on many "rough trips" like white water rafting etc and it started to get beat up. The original kit lens still works & takes great photos but I was itching to buy the better lens with a bit better range & specs. This new lens is fantastic and right off the bat I noticed the difference especially on macro shooting. The auto focus is silent and fast. Very happy with the purchase. Now I have the option to use the kit lens on the rough outdoor adventure trips and keep this new lens for my everyday photography & out of harms way. I have been a Pentax camera & lens consumer since 1976 (K1000!) and have never regretted it.

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

Don Hood

Best Pentax Lens I have EVER Had

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2015

Size: HD DA 16-85mm F3.5-5.6Verified Purchase

THE Best Pentax lens I've had... Period.
EXCELLENT zoom range, making it a superb One-Lens rig for an awfully broad range of photography, very good Macro capabilities.
The big thing is that there is very low distortion fall off at all ranges, and the sharpness, tonality, color saturation, contrast are really excellent.
The Ultrasonic focusing is extremely fast and quiet, and as it's also weather sealed, when it's put on one of the weather sealed Pentax bodies you have a very versatile rig.

For an extremely compact yet versatile rig, a K3-II body with this lens and the 55-300 and your standard tripod, cable release, filters and things, and you've pretty well got most situations covered.

I've been a Photographer of one sort or another for nearly 50 years, and have used everything from Minox to 8x10 view cameras, with my favorite 35mm cameras being Leicaflex, which I still have, along with a pile of Leica lenses. This lens stands up VERY well with some of the best lenses I've ever used, and that is saying a LOT.

49 people found this helpful

Helpful

Richard E. Welch

Great lens for my K70

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2024

Size: HD DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 PLMVerified Purchase

This lens is sharp, clear, and a very useful range to go well with my 18/135mm lens I had with this camera. Less plastic might have been nice, but this seems to be the norm for most lenses anymore. At least the plastic construction kept the weight down and it's easier to hold steady at full power ... I like it a lot ..

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Mark Winterstein

Constructed primarily of unicorns and magic

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2016

Size: HD DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 PLMVerified Purchase

Upfront summary: this is the sharpest lens I've ever used for the Pentax K-70. I've had a handful of point and shoots, and a couple DSLRs with multiple lenses, but I finally settled on the K-70 when I determined it had pretty much everything I'd be looking for in a feature set: twin control dials, weather sealing, a fully articulating screen, a dual-axis electronic level, etc. I like going to zoos and natural areas so I knew right off the bat I'd need a good zoom lens. I read some reviews of Pentax's older 55-300 and I was concerned about its noise and slow autofocus, so I'm glad they developed this one, and I snapped it up. From the very first shots I knew this was absolutely a keeper. I don't shoot RAW, and a bit of cropping is about the most processing I do, so to get these kinds of pictures without editing is wonderful. In addition to the 55-300, I've had the 18-135 and the Sigma 17-50/2.8, and I recently got the Pentax 16-85 and the 50-135/2.8. It's possible for me to get sharp images with all of these, but none of those lenses is as reliably sharp as the 55-300. Every shot is razor sharp (except a few due to operator error), autofocus is super fast and rarely hunts, color rendition is gorgeous, and bokeh is great. I shot a good chunk of a (outdoor) wedding and the entirety of a (outdoor) portrait session with this lens, and I'm very pleased with the results. I hope Amazon will add the photo attachments properly, because these images have to be seen (again, zero post processing was used). Just beautiful. If I didn't occasionally need some wide angle landscape and indoor shots, this lens wouldn't leave my camera. My highest recommendation.

67 people found this helpful

Helpful

Laptantidel Latuda

Great lens for my K-70

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2021

Size: HD DA 55-300mm F4.5-6.3 PLMVerified Purchase

This lens is a phenomenal value - light, PLM autofocus is very quiet and very fast (in good light), the lens is decently fast, and the pictures are tack sharp under the right conditions. Low light performance cannot compete with faster lenses, of course, but for this price point it is very good. I previously had a Nikon D5600 with a Nikon 77-300 lens, which I lost. I decided to buy a K-70 because of Pentax's backward compatibility with a wide range of old glass. While the Pentax 55-300 and the Nikon 70-300 are very similar on paper and cost about the same, I find that the Pentax 55-300 on my K-70 beats my old Nikon 70-300 on D5600 on several points - it is more compact, lighter, has slightly greater range, does not make any noise as far as I can hear (the Nikon did make a bit of noise), and I find the long end very usable, e.g., for birding and backyard wildlife, where the Nikon became a bit soft over 250mm. I do not regret the switch to Pentax, and this lens is a true gem at this price level.

4 people found this helpful

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Pentax HD DA 55-300mm f/4.5-6.3 ED PLM WR RE Lens

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