Is the pentax hd da 55 300mm f 4 5 6 3 ed plm wr re good for portraits?

It can work for portraits, but I wouldn't make it your first portrait lens. It's a telephoto zoom for Pentax K bodies, and on APS-C it frames like 82-450mm. Longer focal lengths flatter faces, as the portraits page explains, so the long end is the part to use for headshots taken from a comfortable distance.

The catch is the aperture. It's f/4.5 at the wide end and f/6.3 at the long end, so you get less background blur than a faster portrait lens would give, and it isn't stabilised. Outdoors in good light, zoomed in, it can make clean headshots. In dim rooms you'll struggle, and a brighter lens will serve you better. For the full specs and camera compatibility, see the Pentax HD DA 55-300mm f/4.5-6.3 ED PLM WR RE page.

Written by Claude from this site's pages.