This is the fastest Pentax 200mm lens ever produced. It has a longer minimum focusing distance and is slightly heavier than the A* 200mm lens that it resembles.
Registered: July, 2007
Posts: 1
Location: Hollister, CA
Lens Review Date: July 17, 2007
I can recommend the SMC Pentax 200mm F2.5: Yes |
Price (U.S. Dollars): N/A
| Rating: 8
Pros:
A workhorse, and it's great in low light
Cons:
It's a telephoto so you have few options
It's a fast telephoto. I bought it around 25 +/- years ago so I don't have a clue as to what it cost. I originally bought it for low-light situations, so it's worked out well. It's next to impossible to find information on this lens anywhere on the Internet!
I can recommend the SMC Pentax 200mm F2.5: Yes |
Price (U.S. Dollars): N/A
| Rating: 9
Pros:
Amazing image and build quality, a fast f/2.5
Cons:
CA wide open, Weight.
The optical quality of this lens is great, and its a K lens, so build quality is superb. Many from the PDML consider this lens to be as sharp as the M* and A*. While I have no experience with the * lenses, I do not see how they could be any sharper. This lens is SHARP from f2.5 and a razor at and above f/4. Out of focus rendering is very smooth, and visually appealing, rating right up there with Pentax's best. All in all, a great lens that lives up the to the Pentax name.
Registered: September, 2007
Posts: 881
Location: Salt Lake valley, Utah
Lens Review Date: September 13, 2007
I can recommend the SMC Pentax 200mm F2.5: Yes |
Price (U.S. Dollars): $350.00
| Rating: 9
Pros:
Sharpness, general image quality
Cons:
Slooooow manual focus, lack of 'A' setting on aperture ring
Bought this beast used in 2006 from B&H. It's a great lens for any film camera (except the MZ/ZX 50/60 and any others using the 'crippled KAF' mount) and for the K10D. Operation can be a bit of a pain with the K100/110D but the Green Button changes all that with the K10D.
Sharpness is great, as is the way it handles Chromatic Aberrations. Head to head with the DA 50-200, FA J 75-300, and a Quantary (Tamron) 75-300 it consistently outperformed the other three at all apertures. The focusing is very, very slow so it can be hard to catch action with it. If you can find it, it makes a great addition to an LBA collection as well as being an excellent telephoto lens.
I can recommend the SMC Pentax 200mm F2.5: Yes |
Price (U.S. Dollars): $525.00
| Rating: 10
Pros:
Fast, razor sharp, contrasty, great bokeh, world class build, very bright in viewfinder
Cons:
Fully manual, hefty, expensive, fairly rare
Like all its K-series brethren the Pentax K 200mm f 2.5 is beautifully built, optically great and feels just wonderful in the hand. As in sports so it is in photography, there is just no substitute for speed. Fast glass is like fast cars and fast women - it's always more fun, more exciting and a lot more expensive. I do a fair bit of image making in school gyms, auditoriums and murky light and this lens delivers. Boz Dimitrov provides additional technical details for the curious:
Weighing in at 950 grams (just under 2 1/2 lbs.) the lens is heavy but is so fast it can still be hand held in many situations. I don't find the lack of a tripod collar a problem at all. It is unusually bright in the viewfinder and tight tolerances make manual focusing smooth with the large checked rubber focusing ring providing a sure grip. In a bit of a departure from other K series lenses information such as: focal length, lens speed, serial number etc. is engraved on the barrel just above the focusing ring. There is a double knurled ring around the short but handy built-in lens hood. This is a small thing but illustrative of the attention to detail found in this series of lenses. The K series as group appear to have been built for a lifetime and to break a salesman's heart. No coming back in 3 years for a new one. How times have changed. The lens takes 77mm filters which add to the front end weight and such filters can be on the expensive side. The lens is tack sharp, contrasty and provides those alcoholic out of focus highlights one wants in a telephoto lens.
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The “digital dividend” on the Pentax K10 turns this brute into a 300mm f 2.5 telephoto. At f 2.5 this is the fastest 200mm lens Pentax ever produced. The K10’s shake reduction is an added bonus which makes it even more versatile in low light situations. Shake reduction really does work! It is good at sports venues but bear in mind this is not an auto focus lens and has its limits on a digital camera. Metering will be stop-down only with no AF and there will be no aperture reading in the viewfinder. Great shots are possible but you will have to practice and refine your manual focusing technique. On the plus side this sort of practice is pretty cheap on a digital camera. As I experiment with the SMC K 200mm/2.5 I keep finding more uses. Currently I am alienating most of my family with "ambush portraits." I like the look of the people picutres I am getting. This lens is a joy to use in the field and ranks as my all time favourite manual focus optic. Highly recommended if you can find one.
Registered: November, 2008
Posts: 8
Location: South Florida, USA
Lens Review Date: June 2, 2009
I can recommend the SMC Pentax 200mm F2.5: Yes |
Price (U.S. Dollars): $400.00
| Rating: 8
Pros:
very sharp, well built, great manual focus "feel" to it.
Cons:
very slight but noticable CA towards the corners
Great lens but there is one caveat. It has a very slight but definitely noticable
amount of visible CA. This can be corrected in photoshop fairly easy on something critical but thats not as good as not having to deal with it. My A*300mm.F4 is better in that regard. Other than that, this is a really nice lens.
Registered: March, 2009
Posts: 280
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Lens Review Date: September 27, 2009
I can recommend the SMC Pentax 200mm F2.5: Yes |
Price (U.S. Dollars): $240.00
| Rating: 9
Pros:
High IQ and large aperture
Cons:
Heavy, moderate CA at f2.5
Mine was beaten up a bit. But it does not affect the image quality at all. Built like a tank.
In combination with my 1.7X converter, it makes a 340mm f4.25 lens or (510mm on DSLs). Not bad at all.
Click on the image to view it in a larger size
Click on the image to view it in a larger size
The sample photos are automatically down-sampled and the resolution is lower than what it really is. Click on the picture to see the real resolution.
Tight focusing ring (may be not prevalent). The lens hood could be a bit bigger. BTW, my copy has been beat up quite a bit. But it is built like a tank. I am not worry about the use.
There is moderate CA and PF at f2.5. It is a bit soft at f2.5 if toward light source. But it is acceptable for regular portrait use.
I have the K 135mm. These two use a similar optical formula. I am not sure why, the images out of these two brothers are different from other lenses that I have used. I have used about 20 lenses more or less. It is not only about resolution. It is also about how the lenses present images. Can anyone explain why?
I can recommend the SMC Pentax 200mm F2.5: Yes |
Price (U.S. Dollars): $685.00
| Rating: 10
Pros:
Speed, build and optics.
Cons:
Some may find this lens heavy.
The K200/2.5 is still the fastest 200mm lens that Pentax has made and is also the fastest Pentax lens over 135mm. Not bad for a lens released in 1977, as a late addition to the K series lineup. Pentax already had the K200/4 as a budget 200mm and the K200/2.5 was added as a fast high end alternate. The K200/2.5 replacement, the A*200/2.8ED, is very similar in looks and has the same 6 elements in 6 groups optic design. The A*200 is also 100grams lighter, which I suspect is less metal and more plastic parts.
The K200/2.5 has a built in lens hood and a 77mm filter thread. This makes filters rather expensive, especially multi-coated ones. A good UV filter is still a must, especially when shooting film. The K200/2.5 is very well built and is a thing of beauty to hold. It is on the heavy side, but I still find it easy to hand hold down to shutter speeds of 1/125 second.
The K200/2.5 is very fast for a lens of this focal length and this makes for a nice bright camera view finder. The K200/2.5 is also quite sharp and passable wide open. The K200/2.5 is definitely the best K series lens over 135mm and a must purchase if you are after a solid fully manual medium telephoto lens. You’re not going to find a faster, better built one.
I can recommend the SMC Pentax 200mm F2.5: Yes |
Price (U.S. Dollars): $550.00
| Rating: 9
Pros:
Fast, hand holdable, built like a tank.
Cons:
Only one, some purple fringing at times.
Rating at a 9 only because of the purple fringing I get under extreme conditions. I use the AF 1.7 teleconverter with this lens a lot and it works very well. Over all it is just a great Pentax lens.
