| Author: | | New Member Registered: November, 2015 Location: Walnut Creek, California Posts: 23
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 14, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $170.00
| Rating: N/A |
| Pros: | Great Price, Great Performance & Lightweight | | Cons: | None really | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: 645z
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Purchased this lens mainly for portrait work and my continued frustration with the sync speed of the 645z. More than pleased with the optical performance, sharp and even shooting against high contrast backgrounds there was no fringing. Tested the lens initially with a sync cord and my Profotos. Rediscovered why I hate sync cords, but a PC cord and Pocket Wizard eliminates the cord. When the 645z is in LA mode is looks as if the hot shoe is disabled so mounting the Pocket Wizard in the hot shoe makes it a compact wireless solution. Coming from large format cameras I have no problem having cocking the shutter 
So all in all a great lens at a great price
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: September, 2015 Location: Nevada Posts: 12 | | Review Date: November 28, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Great studio lens | | Cons: | The coking method not so fast | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: 645Z
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I am using this lens about two month ago with my Pentax 645Z. Really satisfied with it! Sharp and the bokeh is great.
The coking method need to be improve in the future models. I am slow a bit with that. No speed confirmation on the display only the LS notice.
I have used few times the bigger and heavier Pentax 67 165mm LS lens with adapter before. This one is much lighter.
No problem to use with my Elinchrom Quadra strobes and the EL Speed Transmitter (luckily my Elinchrom package included the right cable connection). Sometimes the cable is in the way to use the focusing ring.
Will be nice to find a good lens hood for it, but I do not know if the hood make difficult to use the speed ring or the coking action!
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: February, 2010 Location: Eerbeek Posts: 1,857 | | Review Date: February 10, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $180.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp, good rendering, light, leaf shutter | | Cons: | no dedicated lens hood | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: 1 year
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Because I have the 120mm (A) and 150mm (FA) as well, I have not used this lens as much as I had hoped. Recently I thought I'd test it in view of selling it—and ended up withdrawing the lens from sale. I was very pleasantly surprised when I received the results, because the lens is not just suitable for portrait, it actually is very very good for landscape too. I really like its rendering and the sharpness was up there with the other two lenses when stopped down, I have some incredibly sharp photos at f16 and f22 (smallest aperture is 32). Wide open it is soft, possibly on purpose for portraits; it gets sharp when stopped down to f8. I did not do the brick wall test, as there are very few brick walls that I consider photogenic (although they do exist). On the whole, the results are truly good. I had read this in a review by a user who had mounted several lenses on his 645D, but it still surprised me, possibly because of my enchantment with the 120mm and the reputation of the FA 150mm. I would still like to know how it performs on the 645D in comparison, as the focal lengths are so close. I did notice flare on one occasion. There is no dedicated lens hood for this lens (the one in the database is the one for the 75mm), which probably explains this.
There is no autofocus, and the minimum focusing distance is longer than either the 120mm or 2.8/150mm, but the latter has no f32. The barrel is solid and the focus ring smooth and easy to use. In normal mode, this lens just works as any other A lens except that you always choose the aperture. I do that anyway with all my lenses, A or FA, so the lens works as fast as any other A lens does for me. It is a very compact lens compared to the others, and light, so easy to carry. A shame that there is no dedicated lens hood, the one given in the database is just the rubber lens hood for the 75mm standard lens but these days you can find aftermarket lens hoods with bayonet.
In leaf shutter mode, it is important to cock the shutter every time after you have taken a picture. Yes, I have forgotten to do that at times, very annoying. You get used to it, but it takes an additional step. Still, it is a bonus that you can actually take pictures with flash at 1/500. I do have to get the hang of using this lens for fill-in flash, which is one of its niche-qualities, but I have not fully mastered that yet. It does work on the 645N and has also been confirmed to work on the 645D which automatically recognizes the lens as LS. I like the bokeh, it is a very nice portrait lens.
Note: the mark for aberrations was filled in by accident, I have not tested this at all, not noted anything either. The mark for sharpness is for smaller apertures. Wide open it is soft, but that is on purpose so hard to fault.
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: March, 2009 Location: Cotati, California USA Posts: 4,461 | | Review Date: September 10, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $160.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Rock solid build quality, Leaf Shutter (LS) feature | | Cons: | LS is a bit slow to use. | |
My principal interest in using this lens was to experiment with the LS feature. Which allows you to, with a 645 camera, to use flash photography at shutters speeds up to 1/500 sec. It has LS settings for 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, and 1/500. Finding the right flash to work with it is a problem as it uses a PC connector to trigger the flash when using the LS feature. You can use this without the LS feature and then it's like any other A prime lens, except that there is no A setting for the f-stop so metering is a little tricky. My copy came with the manual for it, that was helpful to have.
As just a 135mm prime lens, this works fine and is a good length for portraits.
It is just slower to use than any of my other 645 A primes. The LS feature is even slower. I will say that the 645 camera knows what to do with it and recognizes it as an LS lens. I have tried this on my DSLR with an adapter and it the LS feature will not work as the camera needs to actuate it.
This is a quality, special purpose lens.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2008 Posts: 434 | | Review Date: December 16, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $127.00
| Rating: N/A |
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I just received this lens, so I will not yet rate it. I do want to correct the description: the lens works with the 645D, in fact the 645D manual supplies specfic instructions.
I will say that this lens, like all the 645 A lenses, is beautifully made. And yes, it only cost me $127; hard to believe considering the cost of new lenses made with plastic.
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