Hello dear friends,
I had the opportunity to "touch and try" the new and a bit awaited wide angle D-FA 25mm f/4 lens, as i poped up in the Paris' HD Forum a few days ago.
I was first of all very impressed with the size and weight of the beast : close to the FA 80-160mm zoom in dimensions, but even heavier du to the metal barrel and thick lenses. The lens cap is of the K "Limited" strain, metal cup plus inner black tissue. The lens tip is actually going frankly downwards, when the lens is hold at base ! It inspires a nice quality feeling, looks strong and solid / lifelasting altogether. The inner filter shelve is very practical to handle and stays well fixed, with the same conception as on former K primes as FA* 300/2.8 and FA*600/4.
The existing filter is a standard skylight/UV one, the polarizing brother being apparently still awaited.
The lens fits correctly equilibrated in terms of handling on both 645D and 645N bodies. The Focussing ring is very large and smoothly moving, a good news as it is not functionning with AF contacts of film 645 bodies, on which it scopes the equivalent of a 15,5mm lens in 135mm format.
Now, what about optical qualities ?
First, i have to state that this item was a "pre-serial" lens according to the Pentax France representative.
The main quick features i could notice on the few shots i took are :
1- no flare in backlight, or when pointed towards the sun : this seems to be a very scarce and appreciable quality, given the strongly curved front lens !
2- very good lineated or "squared" image design, with barely noticeable, and easily correctable barrel distorsion,
3- pretty good resolution, as from wide open to f/13 or even f/16 stops
4- excellent contrast,
5- slight blue-coloured chromatic aberrations against some green or contrasted subjects, this being easily correctable as only a few pixels large
I post thereafter 3 shots to give you an idea.
I impatiently await my film samples i.o. to confirm these impressions on a full frame 645 format.
Last edited by Zygonyx; 06-21-2011 at 03:18 AM.
Reason: orthograph correction