Pentax Announces the All-Around Zoom smc DA 18-250mm

Good news for Pentax DSLR owners who are craving for an all-around zoom lens like the Nikon 18-200mm or the Tamron 18-250mm. Speaking of Tamron, it appears that the new smc DA 18-250 f/3.5-6.3 ED AL [IF] is in fact the AF 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 Di II LD Aspherical (IF), which raises some questions regarding the famous smc coatings applied by Pentax.

Anyway, with that observation out of the way, let's see some specs. First of all, the lens is designed for cropped-sensor cameras, all Pentax DSLRs, so it can't be used on future, possible Pentax 35mm full-frame cameras. When mounted on the aforementioned cropped-sensor cameras, the picture angle becomes that of the 27-375mm lens on a full-frame SLR, which translates into a 14x optical zoom.

In terms of optical construction, the unit consists of 13 groups with 16 elements, including two extra-low dispersion (ED) pieces and two aspherical (AL) ones to control aberrations and to improve sharpness and contrast. As a quick observation, the Tamron has the same optical construction.

As with most mega-zoom lenses, the maximum apertures are quite disappointing, especially at the long end. The f/6.3 value makes it completely unusable in low-light environments and implies that you'll have to stop it down to around f/8 in order to get some decent sharpness. Luckily, if you own a Pentax DSLR with the shake-reduction system you'll be able to use slower than recommended shutter times.

Another important feature is the presence of the internal focusing, which makes autofocusing faster and prevents the rotation of the front element, thus easing the use of the 62mm polarizing filters.

As you might have noticed, the new lens is identical to the Tamron AF 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 Di II LD Aspherical (IF), which also comes with a Pentax mount. In fact, the two lenses have about the same price, namely $500. The Pentax smc DA 18-250 f/3.5-6.3 ED AL [IF] will be available for purchase in October.

We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .