| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: August, 2012 Posts: 678 | | Review Date: September 22, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $32.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Good lens for the money | | Cons: | Plastic lens mount | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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My dad has this same lens for his Nikon DSLR, so I kind of knew what I was getting into when I bought it a year ago for $32 on eBay. For a budget priced lens, it does okay and it fits the middle range of focal lengths between my other two lenses, a Pentax 18-55mm zoom and a Sigma 70-210mm zoom. It's not quite as sharp as either of these lenses, I can't say I'm at all dissatisfied. The one area of concern for me is the plastic lens mount. I always feel like I've got to take extra care to keep from breaking it off when I have the lens mounted on one of my cameras.
Update: 7/31/17: I now have Dad's Nikon D50 with this lens attached. One major (at least to me) difference between the Pentax and Nikon mount versions is the Nikon mount is metal instead of plastic.
| | | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: December, 2007 Location: In the most populated state... state of denial Posts: 1,851 | | Review Date: July 19, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Light, inexpensive | | Cons: | unsharp corners in 35mm at 28mm | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 4
Handling: 9
Value: 10
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For a cheapo lens, is not bad
Visually it seems like a sigma lens, works fine in all-auto mode
Not bad rom 35mm onwards, but a bit soft in 28mm
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: October, 2011 Location: ct Posts: 146 | | Review Date: June 16, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, macro, nice range and very cheap, af, constant manual aperture | | Cons: | Slow af at night, flare. | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 7
Value: 10
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I love this lenses because they serve their purpose. they're pretty sharp, and have good range, and are very cheap. The only problem I have with the lens is that it's slow to focus at night, and i had some flare shooting at the sky in daylight.
Love the aperture ring. you can get 3.5 all throughout the range of the lens when in manual.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2010 Location: Somewhere in the Southern US Posts: 12,285 | | Review Date: November 27, 2010 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Fast autofocus, inexpensive, good range | | Cons: | hunts in low light, no hood, plastic mount | |
Found the thread https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/79149-cheap-au...lens-club.html and became interested in an inexpensive walk-around lens. This rebagged Sigma 28-90 Macro seemed to be a nice buy.
Nice range, fast autofocus, aperture ring, reasonable macro throw, 9 blades, and multi-coated which the Sigma 28-80 is not apparently.
Steve Beswick has an excellent side-by-side of this lens with Sigma and also points out that this lens is Made in Japan.
The Macro is a bit quirky (set at 90mm, change switch, set camera to MF, focus throw is now about twice what it is when not in Macro mode) but seems to work well. The 1in manual focus throw becomes ~1.5in in Macro mode.
Colors are very accurate with good saturation across the spectrum.
Have a hood on order so I have not shot in daylight yet, will report back once the 55m screw mount hood arrives. Despite having grooves for mounting a bayonet mount hood one could not be found for either model (Sigma or Quantaray) with a quick Google and eBay search.
Finally, its a plastic mount so some may be put off by this feature.
UPDATE: The tulip shaped hood came and works well with the lens. The hood improves its performance but to a lesser degree than hoods on my SuperTaks did Its a very useful lens but I find myself going to primes more and more and other than my 55-300 the zooms are sitting as a result.
Pulled this one out for World Pentax Day 2011 and took the above on a very overcast day. This really is a gem.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2008 Location: Chesterfield, Michigan Posts: 18 | | Review Date: March 27, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $34.99
| Rating: 4 |
| Pros: | Very inexpensive and fast to focus | | Cons: | Picture quality is low | |
Because it was so inexpensive I purchased a new Quantaray 28-90mm lens. I only had manual focus lenses from years ago and wanted something with auto focus. The very next day, I found and purchased a new auto focus Pentax kit lens (18-55mm) for $80 (USD) and never used the Quantaray again. That was eight months ago. In the one day I found out a few things.
It has quick focus ability but that is probably because it has such a short focus-ring span. Using 50mm mark, I set up the Quantaray and the Pentax Kit lens. Both were at equal settings and at the same three common objects. *(My house door, the corner of my living room, and a shot of my dining room lighting.
The Quantaray definitely had a fuzzier and lighter look on all three of the pictures compared to the three sharp and darker photos from the Pentax lens. The pictures were good but in my opinion similar to what you might experience when looking at pictures that came from a plastic lens camera instead of quality glass. *(Although I didn’t weigh them, the Quantaray was ever-so-slightly heavier just by the feel in my hands.)
If you want to use the macro ability, you 1st need to turn to the 90mm mark, and then push a small switch on the side of the barrel. This switch gives me the feel that it’s a simple plastic pin which may weaken if used a lot but as mentioned prior, $35 bucks is cheap!
You’ll also notice in the macro mode the focus ring has nearly doubled in twist distance. From the normal 15 degrees to about 30 degree of turn.
The quality of build is something I have no idea about since I've used it so little. Consider that if you should need to get it repaired, don't! Just buy a new one.
On the side of the barrel, it says “aspherical”. That tells me, someone attempted to fix the fuzziness that I noticed and/or it was a marketing ploy.
Comparing the lenses to the barrel, they should have made this to fit the more common 52mm filter size since everything seems oversized. One more thing about the filter mount, it turns as you focus the lens. Not a good thing.
At $35 (USD), this lens is perfect for parents to get their child to learn on or if you only want to post smaller shots on the internet. Since it’s very cost effective!
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: April, 2009 Location: Ontario, California Posts: 1,736
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 12, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | FAST focusing, very sharp, good contrast, light weight, price | | Cons: | Slow maximum aperture, dodgy build quality (did I mention the price?) | |
Instead of reiterating what I have already written, I will simply link to it:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/804899-post24.html
and
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/805868-post26.html
For a quick summary, I will say that I really like this lens, and I feel it is far better than it's price would suggest. It is easily as good as the 18-55 kit lens, and in a range that I feel is far more useful.
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