Pentax SMC DA* 60-250mm f4 ED (IF) SDM is a STAR!

This mountain peak is about 6.22 linear miles from my home (as the crow flies), and the elevation is 5,689ft (I reside about 800ft in elevation).

I have shot this peak countless times, with 50mp FF Canon cameras, 50mp GFX medium format cameras, and other high resolution cameras in FF and APS-C systems with multiple prime and/or zoom lenses. It's just one of the many tests I do to confirm the amount of detail that a lens and camera combination are capable of, but one of my very favorites as it puts a lot of demand on a combination.

Typically the best time to take this shot is in the morning prior to any atmospheric heat distortion setting in. The radio towers at the top of Santiago Peak are the ultimate detail giveaway. They tell all, particularly with how much detail that I'm able to pull out at max telephoto (with either a zoom or a prime).

This shot was hand held with the K3III, 250mm @f/8 (375mm equivalent) at 8:17am in the morning. Typically ISO 800 on Canon and Medium format systems would show enough noise that I'd use lower ISO settings to reduce it, and increase dynamic range.

Not so with the K3III where almost no noise is present and it retains an incredible amount of dynamic range at this setting.

Bottom line: The results I achieved hand held, are the best results I've had with any camera/lens combination in terms of outright detail of the towers (on other combinations I tried hand held or on a tripod using multiple methods to get the most detail, such as e shutter or shutter delay, etc... etc...). I also shot wide open at f/4 and at f/5.6/6.3/7.1 and saw almost no change in the amount of detail through the images, which is also telling of how good this lens is.

This lens is impressive, to say the least. But so too is the camera's sensor. The combination together is just magic. Like I was saying in my review of this lens, this lens is awesome on the K3III.