New DA* Zooms In Singapore

Two days ago I trooped down to a IT and electronics fair with two friends to catch a glimpse of Pentax's new DA* offerings: the DA* 16-50mm f2.8 and the DA* 50-135mm f2.8. These long anticipated lenses are the first new offerings from Pentax as outlined in their lens road map.

Pentax's reputation for zoom lenses has in the past been a mixed bag. Some very good ones interspersed among generally average offerings. Well a quick tryout at the Pentax stand was enough to convince me that these new zooms are pretty special. Well they ought to be, given the DA* label, which Pentax gives to its lenses that offer the highest level of optical quality.

These two lenses are unique because they employ Pentax's new supersonic motor which makes for whisper quiet and fast autofocusing (similar to Canon's Ultrasonic lenses); plus dust and weather sealing is incorporated in the design. The SDM is really an impressive feature in my mind and definitely a step up over the conventional screw drive AF.

The 2 lenses look big, thanks in part to their big lens hoods but considering they are large aperture zooms, that's to be expected. The real surprise is that these lenses don't weigh a lot and are pretty balanced, the 50-135mm especially so.

Having already got the DA 16-45mm f4, I personally feel the DA*16-50 doesn't't offer very much more other than the 1 stop difference in aperture, additional 5 mm focal length on the long side, SDM and weather sealing. Like the DA 16-45mm, the DA* 16-50 mm lens barrel extends quite a bit when zoomed.

Being more than double in price, I'll be keeping the DA 16-45 f4 for quite a while longer. Much as the DA* 16-50mm is a better lens, I feel that it would have been a more attractive proposition had the focal range gone 10 mm more on the long end. And oh, by the way, that's the new K100D Super as well.

To me the DA* 50-135mm is by far the more impressive of the two lenses. This lens restores the popular 70-210 mm focal length range in 35mm film format because of the crop factor. Easy to handle, the lens barrel doesn't extend in length when zoomed and as a tele zoom, the faster focusing provided by the SDM is notably evident. Image quality is very good, as is the contrast. The bokeh is nice too. Again weather sealing is present. I predict this lens is going to be even more popular and versatile than the DA* 16-50mm Definitely a lens that's on my wish list.

Sadly the local list price for the two lenses here in Singapore is a little steep and coupled with a 7% goods and services tax, it's not so attractive for me to buy any of them locally.