Originally posted by fwcetus For Pentax 28/2 lenses, I've had the A 28/2 and I have the K 28/2. The A is a nice lens (and maybe better than just "boring"), but the K is nicer in nearly every respect (except for Ka functionality, of course, and for compactness, if that's important to the user -- the A 28/2 is indeed pretty small, while the K 28/2 looks and feels like a short telephoto lens in comparison) -
Certainly part of its "worth" (at least to some serious Pentaxers, alhough many other people wouldn't care) is its history -
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/60011-smc-p...-distagon.html
For optical qualities, it is known for sometimes showing an enhanced "3-D" look, which may be due to some field curvature, Certainly it produces oftentimes superb bokeh.
Thanks Fred, for posting the interesting cut-out made available by Marco Cavina (who lives a few Km from where i was born :-) )
I bought this wonderful lens shortly after its release. Some dumbass with more money than common sense returned it to the shop, in favor of the (then new) 28mm series-M.
I don't use it often with digital, but i will give it some more action when the Pentax full-frame will be available second hand! .-)
It is my preferred Pentax manual lens, along with the A Star 85mm and 300mm. Unfortunately i am mostly doing travel photography, for which i'm using a small selection of good AF third-party lenses.
IMHO it's a "bokeh-lens", good for close focusing with a lively background. The floating element and the high speed come handy...
Better than the recent Cosina-made Zeiss?
Can't say. The old SMC, exceptional for its time, is probably no match for a more modern coating.
On the other hand, classic optical layout recalculated for environmentally-friendly glasses are often slightly worse than the old ones, despite the huge advances in computing power and optical calculation platforms.
Variations on the double gauss layout allow for small improvements, not ground-breaking innovations. Normal zooms with a huge number of elements are a completely different thing...
Mechanical quality is often overlooked, If the lenses are subject to rough use, or bus traveling in third world countries (plenty of vibration and knocks), those plasticky lenses with glued glasses, which often performs so amazingly (sometimes with field curvature corrected in-camera), can loose their specs over time, with noticeable performance degradation.
On the other hand, if you favor manual focusing, the dampened, smooth ring of the best old lenses is a pleasure to operate, and it shows in the pictures! Better, and more consistent focusing.
A side note:
with the arrival of the full-frame, all high-quality old wides will increase in price. Collector's items will increase the more
ciao
Paolo