Pentax A* 300mm f/4

[sammo]

A did a first test with the Pentax I got really cheap (was mentioned in the biggest bargains thread).
It is really compact for a 300 f/4 which is nice for carrying, but the weigh is all towards the front of the lens. I think that handling would better if the lens would be longer.
Wide open the lens is quite soft, showing lots of spherical abberation, but not so much chromatical. When stopped down to 5.6 it is sharp and at f/8 it's very sharp.
Bokeh is not so nice, front out of focus patten is circles with very bright center dots, and objects further away from focus show as circles with brighter edges.

All images are straight out of camera JPEGs (Canon 350D).
The first three are wide open



Bokeh test:


100% center crop, wide open:


100% center crop, @ f/8

[sammo]

And with some PP (I might overdone it)..

[Lloydy]

Damn you, that's another lens on my 'wanted' list.

Great images, they are all good but the water splash is simply superb.