I have not handled all that many autofocus lenses, but I have made myself less than welcome in the eyes of some PDML-ers, who have not appreciated my criticism of focus feel in some of the af lenses (including the 43/1.9 and 77/1.8 Limited lenses). But, in that light, I find the focus feel in the F* 300/4.5 (and between my wife and I we have 3 samples) to be really quite good, and that's coming from someone (me!) who is pretty demanding about focus feel.
But the F*300/4.5 has more whirr... sound than the 43 or 77. How do you explain that? :-) Personally, I like the "feel" of the 77 most.
I do like the mount (even if it's annoyingly larger than it has to be - I much prefer the substituting the interchangeable mount from the A* 200/4 Macro). However, one other nice feature of the F* lens (in my personal opinion) is the very nice sliding hood arrangement: It's not overly short, is very sturdy, and it locks into place securely whether extended or retracted.
You can always buy the A*200/4 tripod adaptor from Pentax although not cheap. But the built-in hood is very nice though. Those FA* hoods are just too "fat".
regards, Alan Chan
_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus
