SMC Pentax-DA, Digital ED, 50-200mm

The SMC Pentax-DA 50-200mm f/4-5.6 ED is a compact telephoto zoom designed for Pentax APS-C digital SLR cameras.

Its 50-200mm range gives you roughly the equivalent of 76.5-306mm on a 35mm camera, making it a useful step up in reach from a standard kit lens. It's well suited to portraits, travel, events, sport and more distant subjects without being particularly large or heavy.

Pentax included an ED, Extra-low Dispersion, glass element in the optical design to help control chromatic aberration, while SMC multi-coating is used to help reduce flare and ghosting.

At around 255g, it's also remarkably light for a lens that reaches 200mm. That makes it a practical companion to smaller Pentax DSLR bodies when you want more reach without carrying a much larger telephoto lens.

Best for

• Pentax DSLR users
• Portraits
• Travel
• Events
• Family photography
• Outdoor sport
• Animals and pets
• Casual wildlife photography
• Distant subjects
• Anyone adding a telephoto to a standard Pentax kit lens

What to expect

At 50mm, this lens starts in short-telephoto territory on a Pentax APS-C camera, making it useful for portraits and tighter everyday compositions.

At 200mm, you get roughly a 306mm-equivalent field of view, giving you substantially more reach for distant subjects, sport and wildlife.

The maximum aperture changes from f/4 to f/5.6 as you zoom. It's therefore better suited to daylight and well-lit situations than very low-light photography.

One of its strengths is portability. At approximately 255g, the original DA 50-200mm ED is small and light enough to carry alongside a standard zoom without adding too much weight to your bag.

It also focuses down to approximately 1.1 metres, with a maximum reproduction ratio of around 0.24x. This isn't a macro lens, but it can get reasonably close for details and smaller subjects.