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Saturday, March 30, 2013

DA560 Lens Review Published at PF

The ever most expensive Pentax DA lens has been reviewed in full by the PF:-

http://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/pentax-da-560mm-f56-ed-aw/introduction.html

I have gone though the IQ parts of the review. From the test pictures and samples posted, I found that the resolution of the lens is low, flare control of it is so-so, CA of it could be obvious, bokeh of it is not that pleasing, i.e., rough and without good feel of separation which is just odd enough..

Although the PF editor writes and comments in words that the lens is performing good for each of the above departments, I would rather opt to inspect the posted pictures instead as one picture is worth more than one thousand words!

Anyway, you may agree or disagree what I have concluded. So you should decide yourself for what I have blogged. Just go read through the PF review and measurebate things yourself! Yes, I do promote their website this time! ;-D


Related:-

Mounting a (Cheap) Telescope onto a Pentax (K-mount) Camera Body

Comments (7)

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I was sure that you're not going to agree with the reviewer. Classic. :)
1 reply · active 624 weeks ago
And most people here are sure that you are not going to agree with me, too, for whatever!
Well for what it's worth - I rather agree with Rice.

Had a read of the review, and the pictures there didn't get me terribly excited about the capabilities of the lens. While I'm not an expert on long glass, and don't know what the comparable rivals are capable of, the 100% crops strongly reminded me of my 100-300 f4 with a TC. There wasn't much there that made me think "wow".

This isn't *entirely* armchair lens gazing. I've used one of the new 560s, both handheld and on a tripod. It was ludicrously unwieldy, in my opinion. Far too physically long. Can't imagine taking one anywhere. Very conspicuous. It's also - let's be honest here - the price of a small family car. It's clearly also been the focus of much development time and effort. And for all that, I doubt they'll sell many.

More generally, I find the reviews on PF - how can I put this? - skew *somewhat towards the positive*. Not quite a hagiography, but not far off. (Perhaps it's a healthy contrast to Rice's doom-mongering on here, which is also a bit OTT sometimes!) I don't get the impression PF are terribly thorough, either.

Perhaps I'm being unfair, but I thought the choice of shots used to test were a bit "backyard". Whatever the capabilities of the lens, a few shots of a cactus - which may or may not have even been in focus - and some ducks didn't tell me much. Some comparisons with alternatives would have been useful. Bear in mind (because of availability and cost) their review may end up as one of the only that is produced...
1 reply · active 617 weeks ago
I think their reviews are not very scientific at all. I usually only read them for a laugh. Some of their comparisons were interesting between some lenses, but other than that meh. They really rarely dig into where is a lens is good and bad. They are also extremely biased. I tend to find photozone pretty accurate to the lenses I have encountered in real life. Again, sample variation makes a big difference too and with pentax there seems to be LOTS of variation on particular lenses, such as the 18-55 for instance.
Hi James
First off, I agree with what you say! especially as to it's size and I repeat what you say "I could not see myself carrying it anywhere",the thought of walking with it is enough,so for me, it stops there. As for it's performance, it's always difficult to judge from internet, but it seemed pretty sharp to me, excepting 5.6, although the cactus shots were surely a very poor choice of subject,green against green, zero contrast, also compressed with jaggies.. AF was good without being rapid and it needed that last adjustment,not straight there. Personally , I thought the bokeh was good. Neither do I think you were being unfair, the choice of shots was poor and like no care or thought was taken.. All in all I didn't get that feeling of a quality desirable lens, It's a bit like you have to be an all out birder,laying in your damp hide drinking coffee from a flask, in your camouflage suite, wet and cold, dreading carting it all back to the car. . I think the one thing it brings home is, how zooms are so much more practical, long when you want 500mm and considerably more portable at their shortest FL. In short I don't understand this lens, especially at $5500-7000. Pentax have made a prestige lens just for prestige's sake!..
1 reply · active 624 weeks ago
Indeed, Pentax has a very similar stupid mentalty as their fanboys! When they did not have a 135 FF, they made a cropped 645D which has a slightly larger sensor! When they do not even have a 400mm telephoto lens, they had to make a 560mm one so that they can be longer! But everything is pain silly afterall in view of the practicability of use and the unreachable high price and thus the very low demand!
Good or Bad I am sure this lens will be worth a lot once it is out of production. This will be due to the rarity of the lens. There will be approximately three in existence since that is the number of these digital small format lens they can hope to sell at the price.
It’s PF’s mission to spin anything Pentax positive.
Members of PF are a lot like the liberal folks in society they are very tolerant of other opinions as long as they are the same as theirs.

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