danniel Loc: North Port, Florida

Ok folks, here goes.
I got my almost virgin KP body in the mail, slapped the old lens that dropped, (DA* 300mm F4 onto it and went shooting.
Grey cloudy day for the most part, but the results are interesting.
About 60% of the shots were out of focus, and dreadfully so.
However the remaining 40% were quite nice.
I tried still shots and birds in flight.
Granted this is a heavy rig and BIF is likely past my ability these days.
But this tells me there is something wrong internally with the lens
as the same body with a known good lens focuses more than 90% of the time.

I made sure contacts on body and lens were clean, full battery, and used single point focus and multi point for the BIF shots. F6.3 in most cases

Here were a few keepers. Post processing was minimal
throwing in a seagull shot for fun.

(Download)


(Download)


(Download)


(Download)


(Download)

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

That is too bad the lens is damaged. Any idea were on the lens? I have managed not to ruin any of my 30 some Pentax lenses. I have virtually some of all types of Pentax lenses, from Auto-Takumar to DFA. No super high priced high quality HDFA yet. They are seemingly Japanese only Pentax lenses priced like Zeiss! Does anyone actually own one of those?

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

That's a shame!!
Maybe the lens can be repaired.
Most of the images posted look pretty good to me.

danniel Loc: North Port, Florida

repair is pretty much out of the question.
1, no parts in the states. very old, used a LOT, out gassing haze, and mechanical play inside and front is bent preventing removal of main lenses.
The cost would likely exceed that of a new lens lol.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Oh, figures there would be no parts for a DA* lens. I have an early 16-50mm f/2.8. These days I try to only buy full frame Pentax lenses and only ones with AE. K(A), FA, DFA models. I am in pretty much the same situation for many of my lenses. Repairs would be more than they are worth and cheaper to replace with new. All but a few of my FA and DFA that is.

The AF on my relatively then new Pentax DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 zoom died with its defective focus motor. It was a common problem but Pentax never did a recall or would service mine under warranty. I did not Web searching and found a DIY fix. I hacked the lens' firmware and forced it to use the screw gear AF in the camera bodies. Now the lens focuses more slowly and noisily but it now AF accurately all the time. Might your DA* lens have a defective motor now that intermediately works from the drop. You might see if hacking it firmware can also help. You can test it up front before making any changes to the lens with say an old digital Pentax body that has only the screw gear focus method such as a K-100D or K-110D or perhaps a K-10D. They should all be next to free on eBay. Good luck and have fun with your KP camera.

danniel Loc: North Port, Florida

Actually I had hacked it some time ago because it was soooo slow, and not as accurate as it should have been or was when it was much newer. The result was slightly faster, but not really any more accurate.
It doesnt seem to be the motor but the part of the lenses that move tgether to the proper focal point. It seems that focal point gets missed, more than not lol. The drop didn't help matters. I know this lens has taken well over 400,000 images, and the accuracy must have drifted just from use and wear.
The results from my 100mm and 55/300 are consistant, whereas the DA* is purely random.
Though I was going to save up for the 150/450, some older folks like me advised against hand holding that due to its weight and the possible lack of ability to hold it still lol.
I now agree with that, and will likely just get another Da* 300 and perhaps a TC.
I would attempt a repair myself IF the front was not bent preventing the lens removal.