After waiting for a week, I finally got the call today that the lens I ordered last Thursday has arrived! Jeng jeng jeng... I present to you... my new toy!

• Sigma f4-5.6 70-300mm APO DG Macro
• Tamron SP F 7-Element 2x Teleconverter
• Pentax AF 360FGZ Flash

(post continue below...)

Sigma f4-5.6 70-300mm APO DG Macro (K-mount)

I bought this lens from a shop in Sg Wang for RM8xx. Most camera shops in KL that I know of stock very few Pentax-related stuff. I went to this particular one as I've been pretty much a regular i.e. nuissance there by now. They had to order it and wait for a week for it to arrive. Something that I don't normally do as I always like to try the product before making the final decision. But with the dearth of Pentax stuff in Malaysia, what choice do I have? I've done a lot of research on this lens and it's Tamron counterpart, so I already have a good idea of what to expect anyway.

I haven't been able to really test this lens but based on the few pictures taken so far, I have to say that this lens is really keeping up to it's reputation. Click the thumbnails below for larger (640x428) image. All of them are night shots and the pictures were simply resized and exported to JPG from RAW, no cropping and no post processing whatsoever.

1) Focal length 210mm, aperture F6.3, with flash (bounced)

2) Focal length 190mm, F4.5, with flash (bounced). This is my dad's old Nikon F301, the camera that started it all for me. Sadly it no longer work but I intend to send it for repair soon. If it's repairable

3) The PETRONAS Twin Towers and KL Tower from my balcony, at 300mm, F5.6, shutter speed at 4" and of course, no flash. If you only have a kit-lens (regardless of brand), you can have a good idea of what 300mm lens can give you by comparing the image below and the one taken with the Pentax 18-55mm kit-lens (at 55mm) here.

So based on these pics, I am satisfied and for just slightly over RM800 this lens is really, really good value for money.

As luck would have it, tomorrow I'm meeting with an old timer, professor, collector and avid photographer who has quite a few Pentax stuff (lenses, tc's, etc). I'm looking to buy at least one good old Pentax prime and he seems to have a few. Well, we'll see... LBA anyone?