Pentax K-Mount DA 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 ED SDM Interchangeable Lens

This is a perfect lens for traveling and everyday-useage. I love it, as it is versatile, ranging from wide to telephoto, which avoids me changing lenses all the time and getting my precious sensor dirty/dusty. I seriously recommend it to people who love to have their camera at the ready, but do not like to change lenses all the time. I have no issues with focus, and the lens has few limitations. If you do use it much on wide, you might consider a smaller zoom, as in some situations, there will be colour shadowing and flare - but usually only in strong lighting. Also, not all filters are appropriated - some will leave vinghetting.

This lens is nearly everything I wanted in a lens. I love having so much distance capability from what I used to have. I love not having to constantly change lenses or miss photo opportunities due to the wrong lens - not being able to change lenses quick enough. I had to do a little bit of research to make sure this lens would be compatible with my camera body. It is now the only lens I use at this time. It caused the weight of my camera to be a bit heavier, but a camera harness is the answer to make carrying it easier. I would buy it again and recommend to others. Photography is a hobby of mine so I don't need anything professional, but want ease of manipulation in taking distance shots. Sooooo... do it! Just buy it now!

My spouse and I do extensive world travel...Africa, Antarctica, Galapagos, Nepal, Vietnam, etc and need a lens with fairly good sharpness and very good zoom range. When traveling in Africa, or where-ever, we find that we have seconds to grab the best shot before it disappears. We're constantly on the go, no sitting in a blind waiting for animals...or street scenes. Changing lenses is a luxury we have to use sparingly for special shooting situations only. For example I have a 12-24mm for inside shooting in confined spaces...caves, tunnels and churches.Thus, having an extreme zoom range like this lens has is a MAJOR advantage...as it covers the historic 35mm film range from 28mm wide angle to 400mm telephoto all in one very compact and lightweight lens. We also shoot from extreme-darkness night scenes to bright snow and find the f/stop range of the lens to be just fine...all hand held. The Pentax's in-body image stabilization helps with this. I also have my Pentax K-5 camera body set at a default ASA 1600 and normally use a standard aperture of f/11 with the lens...at very high shutter speeds. My images are all over the focal length range with many over 200 mm. I also use the lens in place of a pair of binoculars when scanning for animals.Another very nice thing about the lens is its extremely close focusing ability...like 20" at 270mm. Combined with the high shutter speeds I use, it is great for shooting butterflies and insects on blooms and stopping their action.Before buying this new lens, I used the Pentax 18-250 lens for a few years. The two are very similar (nearly identical in size, f/stops, sharpness and focal length range). My spouse still has the Pentax 18-250mm while I'm shooting with the new Pentax 18-270mm...no real discernible difference in our photos. The ultrasonic focusing (SDM) is a bit quieter, but no big deal...about the same focusing speed.BOTTOM LINE...I highly recommend this lens to those with shooting demands like ours...I have a dozen Pentax lenses for the camera. This is the lens that I KEEP on the camera...it's the lens that will be ON it on any trip. It's a huge advantage over my old film camera lenses...and a huge advantage over what's available for full-frame digital camera bodies.

I previously had the Pentax 18-250mm zoom for 9 years until the zoom mechanism broke inside and was too expensive to repair. I then decided to buy the updated 18-270mm zoom and I am very pleased with its image quality.

Fits perfectly on my Pentax K-5. Has a switch to lock the zoom so it doesn't accidentally get extended when carrying the camera. Also, has a switch for manual or auto focus. The autofocus is very smooth and quiet. Just a spectacular lens!

The range is great for daily use. I find it sharp throughout, light, and versatile. This is the lens that stays on my K5 and that I 'carry on' airplanes in a Crumpler 5million bag, with a couple of primes and batteries/memory sticks. Superlative !!!

Absolutely wonderful lens for virtually everything. It is a bit heavy, but its because it is made with REAL metal and not plastic junk. Very pleased with this lens.

When this lens first hit the market in the fall of 2012 I was stunned by the price ($995). Last October while browsing I saw it had come down about 300 bucks, and I decided to go for it.I was working with the Pentax 55-300 lens, loving the optical quality of this glass, and I was worried to loose that quality with this new lens. I did not know what to expect since this lens is actually built by Tamron for Pentax. But after the lens arrived I was pleasantly surprised. I took about 20 shots at different focal lengths comparing this new lens with my old one, and I can not find differences in optical quality. Because I gained the 18 to 55 mm range on this lens I no longer need to change lenses for 95% of my photography. I keep the 55-300 in the case for the wildlife trips.I definitely want to give this lens all 5 stars, for me it works great, the focus is super quiet, and works good, even at 270 mm! The lens is not the cheapest by any means, but I am glad I acquired it. I can now go on trips without changing my lenses every hour!!****Update June 9 2016, I just noticed that randomly this lens stops focusing, and this happens on both bodies I use, the Kr as well as my K3. I have not figured out why this happens but it is extremely annoying. I wonder if it depends on the level of power left in the battery

Ich habe mit diesem Objektiv meine 15 Jahre alten Objektive - 18-55 und 50-200 ersetzt und bin begeistert. Superschneller Autofokus Extrem scharfe Fotos. Die ideale Ergänzung zu meiner im September erworbenen Pentax K3 MIII. Allerdings schleppe ich mit meiner neuen Fotoausrüstung sperrige 1,4 Kg um den Hals. Man kann eben nicht alles haben.

Excelente

Arrived quickly and as described.

Verarbeitung und Haptik sind für mich sehr gut und völlig ausreichend. Da sich gerade hier die Geister scheiden, mag das jeder für sich selbst beurteilen. Die Streulichtblende ist ein wenig locker, das stört mich aber nicht wirklich.Ich verwende das Objektiv sehr häufig bei Studioaufnahmen im Bereich Portrait, Fashion und Akt. Der Fokus ist relativ schnell und sitzt perfekt.Die Geräusche beim fokusieren empfinde ich als leise und nicht störendEin weiterer Einsatzbereich sind Feiern und Events ( z. B. Hochzeiten ). Hier ist es wirklich zum perfekten Begleiter geworden. Bei f4.0 ist das Objektiv knacke scharf und leistet auch bei schwächerem Licht in Kirchen noch erstklassige arbeit.Ernsthafte Schwächen habe ich nach über einem Jahr noch nicht entdeckt. Das Objektiv ist an meiner K 5 und K3 eine echte Empfehlung.Ansonsten verwende ich bei Portraitaufnahmen lichtstarke Festbrennweiten von Pentax, jedoch gerade in den genannten Einsatzbereichen ist das Objektiv für mich ideal.

Compared to the standard 18-55mm lens this is a fair bit heavier and about double the bulk. However it is much lighter and smaller than carrying a bunch of lenses around with you.It also has a far stiffer zoom ring than the standard lens. This takes some getting used to, but it helps prevent zoom creep when carried lens-downwards.On the plus side the lens has a superb long range room. About as long a zoom as you can sensibly use hand-held without using rather silly high ISO settings.As a Pentax DA lens this one has on-board operating information that works with most Pentax DSLR bodies to automatically correct the image distortion that all lenses exhibit. Zoom lenses are worse than most and super-zooms are the most extreme.. This lens works well with the geometric auto-correction settings in my K5. I haven't tried the auto-correction chromatic settings in earnest yet.It is worth noting that the shots taken without auto-correction are saved much faster to the memory card. If you need to take dozens of action shots and want to guarantee no pauses when taking them then it is worth knowing that this lens is included in the post-processing correction options in Adobe's CS packages.There have already been many reviews of this lens on-line. In it's Pentax branded form and in its Canon and Nikon mount variants under the Tamron brand. I won't repeat them here. Just a word or two of advice...1) Stop down to F11 or higher for the sharpest shots, especially at wide angles.2) When zooming, come slightly back from maximum zoom for the sharpest shots at long range.