| Author: | | Forum Member Registered: August, 2011 Location: essex Posts: 75 | | Lens Review Date: February 16, 2012 | I can recommend this lens: Yes |
Price: $45.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp and good build quality | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax ME
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I got this lens when i bought my Pentax ME, it is one of my favorite lenses as it contains good all around sharpness. It also has Macro mode for those close ups, and mine has produced many good photos, overall a briiliant little lens!
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: September, 2010 Location: Temuco, Chile Posts: 28 | | Lens Review Date: September 30, 2010 | I can recommend this lens: Yes |
Price: $15.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | price, zoom range, bokeh | | Cons: | build quality, heavy | |
The good: overall a decent lens, good contrast. Being a non-smc lens, i use the hood of the K135mm i own on it, but shades the corners at 28mm. The 8 blades gives a very pleasant bokeh.
The bad: both the focus and zoom rings are very loose, and when the focus ring reaches a limit, it sound like when you walk on a piece of glass laying on concrete. The minimum focusing distance of 1 m. isn't very good for indoors, and the focus ring travel is very short for a manual focus lens, around 90º
The ?: on a K200 it gives me a constant aperture of f/4 ...?
The conclusion: it CAN make pictures and, if you know what you're doing, it can make very good ones. I think the best meaning for this lens is "patience".
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: January, 2009 Location: University of Waterloo, ON Posts: 239 | | Lens Review Date: July 17, 2009 | I can recommend this lens: Yes |
Price: $26.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | great IQ for the price, A contact, inexpensive, very contrasty, rich colours, quite sharp at F8, beautiful bokeh | | Cons: | rotating front element, "loose" focusing, sensitive to harsh lighting conditions, slightly soft wide open | |
I bought this for pseudo-macro work and use it as such, thus my review shall be mostly based on this lens' merits in its macro mode. Furthermore, I use this lens on digital, which means I'm getting extra reach and DoF, and am less prone to falloff and edge softness.
Being a zoom, it is inevitable that, wide open, some softness will be noticeable. That said, images taken wide open are still quite usable. By F8, it's actually quite sharp. The following was taken at only F5.6, wherein various filamentary components of the flower are quite distinguishable.
On the K200D, I find metering is generally quite accurate. Colours are quite vibrant straight out of camera. Contrast is quite marked as well, rendering images with a strong feeling of depth and life. The only exception is when there is a strong light source shining across the front element at an oblique angle, but this is easily solved with a lens hood (though finding an adequate one may be a trick).
My main gripes with this lens are mostly related to build quality. I find the focusing ring to be far too loose - there's almost no resistance to movement. Furthermore, the front element rotates, making polarizers tricky to use, and rectangular hoods out of the question.
Overall, I'd recommend this lens as an inexpensive "starter" macro. Its optical qualities seem to outweigh its shortcomings in build quality.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: August, 2007 Location: Bournemouth, England Posts: 36 | | Lens Review Date: September 21, 2007 | I can recommend this lens: No |
Price: $80.00
| Rating: 3 |
| Pros: | decent colours/ contrast | | Cons: | Poor IQ, poor build quality | |
I have had this lens for several years having purchased it on ebay. Never liked the quality of the end result, images always looked far too soft and indistinct. Despite not much use the lens seems to have become very loose over the time I've had it, not something expected of an old Pentax lens.
In most conditions colour and contrast are ok but CA is apparent as soon as any well lit highlights appear. When I purchased my K100D I took some images and compared them closely with my other lenses and it only confirmed what I already knew. This was the budget range from Pentax and it shows in the images produced. If anyone wants it let me know. It's just taking up space, and it will only cost you postage.
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