Just got my DA*60-250 from MS Color today. With all the talks about lens price increase, I am happy that this lens cost me slightly less that the RRP set by MJ.
In my personal opinion, this lens cannot be compared with the DA*300 for sharpness, but then again I do not expect it to. Sharpness is consistently good rather than peaking excellently at a certain f-stop. Without a prime telephoto to compare, the result looks sharp. But I had the DA*300, and the difference is obvious.
All these photos were taken at infinity. At this distance, f4.0 does not look so bad. But at the shop, during an hour of test, I constantly got soft images at f4.0 and sharper ones at f5.6 and f8.0. That was done hand held. Back home with the lens mounted on a tripod, the result looks much more consistant. I don't know is it because I was shooting at a closer range of 20 to 30 meters; I have to test more.
The photos for the 2/3rd were focused with the extreme right AF point. The edge photos were focused with the centre AF point and then the camera shifted to take the pictures.
This is the scene for the test. I know it's boring, but I am just too lazy.
*A slight disappointment, I don't know what is going on in the Vietnam factory! There were 2units of this lens in the shop. On closer inspection, both lenses have the scratch marks on the bayonet mount. To think that the QC inspectors should handle the lenses more carefully when testing. Anyway, I guess this is irrelevant to most as over time, mounting and dismounting the lens will cause those scratches anyway.
In my personal opinion, this lens cannot be compared with the DA*300 for sharpness, but then again I do not expect it to. Sharpness is consistently good rather than peaking excellently at a certain f-stop. Without a prime telephoto to compare, the result looks sharp. But I had the DA*300, and the difference is obvious.
All these photos were taken at infinity. At this distance, f4.0 does not look so bad. But at the shop, during an hour of test, I constantly got soft images at f4.0 and sharper ones at f5.6 and f8.0. That was done hand held. Back home with the lens mounted on a tripod, the result looks much more consistant. I don't know is it because I was shooting at a closer range of 20 to 30 meters; I have to test more.
The photos for the 2/3rd were focused with the extreme right AF point. The edge photos were focused with the centre AF point and then the camera shifted to take the pictures.
This is the scene for the test. I know it's boring, but I am just too lazy.
*A slight disappointment, I don't know what is going on in the Vietnam factory! There were 2units of this lens in the shop. On closer inspection, both lenses have the scratch marks on the bayonet mount. To think that the QC inspectors should handle the lenses more carefully when testing. Anyway, I guess this is irrelevant to most as over time, mounting and dismounting the lens will cause those scratches anyway.