Pentax SMCP-FA 645 300mm f/5.6 ED [IF]

Most of the medium format lens at this range weighs a lot and very large in size, it is almost impossible to carry around in outdoor without a car. But I guess this lens may be the lightest weight long tele lens in this class at this range. I feel comfortabe to carry 3 lens, wide, medium and long tele lenses when hiking. I tried Provia and Velvia on this lens and found the colour saturation and sharpness of this lens is not as high as FA 120mm F4 Marco at the same lighting condition, but of course, its optical quality is very good already. The min. foucs dist. is only 2.2m which is possible to take portrait photo with "big head" size. The lens hood also like some other FA lenses providing a hole for rotating CPL without take off the hood. No distortion was found when taking modern buildings photo. This lens weighs 700g and body weighs 1400g, so I don't feel much problem in weight balance when using this lens on tripod, but if lens tripod mount is provided, we have more choices.

Light in weight, around 700g, affordable to carry when hiking. Not very big in size. Reasonable price for an ED lens, around HK$7000 (grey market) which is half of price of FA 300mm F4. Good flare control and sharpness.

Pentax should provide an optional tripod mount.

FA 400mm F5.6

Nil

A great lens with superb optical and mechanical quality. Meets quaility wise the other lenses for P645. Very light weight and small. Ideal for travel.

weight and size

none so far

P645: 45-85; 80-160; 5,6/400

Not needed

This is an excellent lense! I generally use it with the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod with a ball head. Even though there is no tripod mounting collar I have never had a problem with camera induced motion , even with the 1.4X converter. Sharp Velvia chromes all around.

This lense is tack sharp and is without any detectable color bias. It also holds up very well with the 1.4X converter.

none

Hasselblad 250mm

Very good. When I first received the lense, there was a little more play in the focusing ring in high ambient temperatures than I was comfortable with. They fixed this in short order.

I gave it 4 thumbs on the overall *only* because of a lack of tripod mount. The lens itself is a solid 5 thumbs up.
A possible buyer should be aware the lens *needs* extra support.

Extremely sharp corner to corner. Excellent contrast and color balance. Top notch performance.

Lack of a tripod mount makes the lens too front heavy. A Kirk custom mount is a necessity.

All P645 manual lenses, the P645n 45-85 and 400mm AF lenses.

Superb. Sent the lens to Pentax Pro because of a too loose focusing collar. Was returned repaired in less than a week.

Need I say more? This lens is the MF but the Af has the same formula I think.

Incredibly sharp telephoto at all apertures from center to edge. Need I say more.

None.

None

Not needed