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>short to mid telephoto range zoom
>all metal construction
>good autofocus
>sharp and contrasty optical design
>not a slow lens - f/4 at the long end
>under $600 new, $450 range used
Does Pentax have an equivalent to this lens without going into the $1000+ category? I fell for the Pentax meme a number of years ago and am recently wanting to upgrade my 55-300 DA HD WR, which has lots of reach, but hasn't been consistently sharp for me, has a cheap-feeling plastic design, and has a slow autofocus that tends to hunt (probably because the lens is so dark, at f/5.8 at the long end, crippling the AF).
I know there's the 50-135mm DA* and the 60-250mm DA*, but they are $900 and $1200 lenses, respectively, and the SDM is known to fail in older samples, so buying them used is out of the question.