Pentax smc DA 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 ED SDM Lens

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.

...Recommended if you own a Pentax made recently. I use mine on a K30 & a KS2 both of which correct aberrations & faults on in-camera jpegs. Mine replaces a Tamron 18-200 which wasn't bad for the low price paid. The Pentax is made by Tamron & comes without optical shake correction as Pentax cameras do this in-camera. This makes the Pentax version both sharper & quieter. I only shoot jpegs but if you shoot raw you & don't mind the post processing time involved you can save £100 by buying the Tamron. I waited for the price to fall a little before buying - I also hoped a 16-300 version would appear but I think Ricoh are more involved with the new full frame camera to bother about aps-c for the time being. But I digress - this is a great, all purpose lens which can replace a whole bagfull of heavy lenses & can save getting dust on your sensor - as long as you don't want prints bigger than A3.

Quiet autofocus and quality of image overall ok but max zoom not quite as good as my previous SMC FA lens.

Coupled with my Pentax KP. Zoom range is good and results are very acceptable (even hand-held), very sharp at the low end, a little softer fully extended.

An excellent lens, saves taking multiple cameras and lenses when just out and about.

Great Lens

I got the Penatx 18-270mm as an update for my old Pentax 18-250mm. The quiet motor is a definite improvement and the new lens doesn't suffer from zoom creep (yet).The 18-270mm range makes this a good travel zoom. Even the 270mm end is useable.The main problem I find, as with the 18-250mm, is the way the focus point shifts with aperture and focal length and possibly focus distance too. e.g. at 50-60mm and at fairly close distance it exhibits back focus wide open at f/4.5 but front focus at f/9.0. This means, for optimum results, you need to learn its focus quirks and compensate for them when you compose your image, which is not ideal.This lens is certainly worth considering if you want the zoom range and convenience. Just don't expect it to replace a bag of primes when it comes focus accuracy and image quality.