Reviewed: Pentax DA 55-300mm F/4-5.8ED WR

Verdict: This lens has a versatile zoom, it’s very light and easily portable, it’s also weather sealed. The focusing is a little bit clunky and there’s no optical stabilisation, however for the price, it’s a great lens.

Available for Pentax cameras only, the 55-300mm offers the second greatest zoom range of any telephoto in our test. The 5.5x zoom features a full-frame equivalent focal range of 85-460mm when fitted to a Pentax APS-C DSLR. It’s a highly portable lens too – beaten by a whisker on size and weight by the diminutive Canon 55-250mm.

PENTAX'S 55-300MM FEATURES WEATHER-RESISTANT CONSTRUCTION

Inside there are 12 elements in 8 groups, with two ED (Extra low Dispersion) elements to minimise chromatic aberration and a HD (High Definition) coating in place to minimise flare and ghosting. The front element features an SP (Super Protect) coating to keep the surface free from dust and dirt, and the lens barrel boasts a weather-resistant construction. Autofocus is slow and noisy, but a Quick-Shift focus system lets you take manual control. In test, the corners of the frame suffered from soft detail and vignetting throughout the zoom with the aperture fully open, but results were much sharper when stopped down to f/11. We didn’t detect any coloured fringing in our tests.

Want to know more? Read our round up of the best telephoto zoom lenses.

Specification

Minimum aperture: f/22-32

Elements: 12/8

Filter size: 58mm

Minimum focus distance: 1.4m

DxH: 72x112mm

Weight: 466g

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Kirk Schwarz is a tech-addicted photographer with over a decade's experience; Kirk’s used to putting new gear through extreme field testing. He's previously written for Practical Photography.