Hello Matt, Certainly when shooting sports in poor light, you need all the speed you can get. I personally would stick with the Pentax A 70-210. You have a constant f4 at all focal lengths. More than likely you will be using the long end of the zoom - the other choices you mentioned will also be f4 at those lengths. One thing to be concerned with is wide open performance of the lens. Before getting mine, I did a test drive of Godfrey's and specifically tested that performance. Here is a sample at f4: http://www.daytonphoto.com/Galleries/NorCalSJ/bkd_1305.htm All but the first cactus shots are done with the A 70-210/4 - shooting info at the bottom.
One thing to be aware of is the Pentax is a one touch zoom. That means that you can focus and zoom at the same time. For sports that could be quicker for you. Some people don't like it because you can shift your focus off while zooming. I rather like it and my college daughter loves it. That is her favorite lens - I ended up getting her one. -- Best regards, Bruce Monday, September 4, 2006, 6:34:28 PM, you wrote: MK> Thanks for the response. MK> So, even taking into consideration the inteded usage (sports in MK> relatively bad lighting), the slower 50-200mm is what you think I should MK> get? MK> Looking at the pricing of the 50-200 it is probably out of my budget a MK> the moment. Being back to school means I can't work many hours. I'd be MK> happy with manual focus, though the option of autofocus would be nice. MK> Can you be more specific on how the Cosina lens compares perfomance wise MK> to other lenses, considerign it can be had for around 50.00. I'm MK> thinking that it will serve the purpose for now until I can geta few MK> hundred dollars to spend on better glass. MK> Thanks again, MK> Matt -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
