[Johnontheroad]

I find the center of images taken with my K3ii and DA 15mm Ltd super sharp. And, I find the edges super soft, terribly out of focus. Now I understand that the curvature of a UWA may be the cause, but is this normal? I have attached a picture, and also included it on my K3ii Flickr album ... should be the last image of the blue playground with yellow slide.

John

Attached Images

View Picture EXIF

File Date

 

[waterfall]

John, Your foreground is OOF as well as the left and right edges. This appears to be a DOF artifact at F8. If there is one lens I own that shines at foreground in focus, I would nominate the DA 15. Try the same shot at F16 or even F22 in the same light. If no improvement is observed, your copy of the lens might be back focusing?

[Paulo]

Maybe I'm wrong, but da15 at f8 should deliver relatively sharp edges SOMEWHERE on the picture regardless of BF or FF, especially on such small picture. Provided sample would rather suggest poor copy of that lens... personally I own da15, not a brilliant copy, but it is much better even at f4 :-P

[clackers]

That looks pretty bad, John.


Do your close focus test (newspaper) and distant test (big brick wall), flipping the camera upside down on its tripod for shots too, to gather evidence for a return/refund.

[Outis]

I have a 15mm Limited and, and from the picture you posted I'm almost certain that there's something wrong with your lens. That's more blur than I can get in the background at f/4 taking a photo of something at the minimum focus distance.

Edited to add: I'm also certain that it's not a problem with the lens not being in focus-- after all, it is sharp in the center.

[luftfluss]

I notice in the EXIF it reads:

Focus Range Macro

Something is fishy. Under typical circumstances, 15mm @ f/8 should make everything in focus.

[kh1234567890]

but is this normal?

Welcome to the mind controlling world of the DA15

Play with it in live view and manual focus to see if you can get it to focus on anything. Otherwise, just crop out the fuzzy edges - everyone does that.

[clackers]

Welcome to the mind controlling world of the DA15

Play with it in live view and manual focus to see if you can get it to focus on anything. Otherwise, just crop out the fuzzy edges - everyone does that.

Assuming no user error, I'd just take it back, it belongs in landfill with yours, kh.

[kh1234567890]

Assuming no user error, I'd just take it back, it belongs in landfill with yours, kh.

I'm only keeping mine so that I can justifiably whinge on every 'Why is my DA15 not sharp' thread that comes up

[stevebrot]

That looks pretty bad, John.

I agree. The plane of focus appears to be somewhere around the large tree at right center. I would expect the concrete pillars at the same distance right to be reasonably sharp and they are not. At f/8 with the plane of focus at 150' there should have been reasonable DOF from 4.5' to infinity. I would expect the foreground grass to be reasonably sharp and it is not. In addition, the foreground and corners appear smeared.

I have to ask...was there a filter mounted, by any chance?

Assuming there was not something else in the optical path (filter, grease, salt), I suspect this lens has bad problems.


Steve

(...did a short demo with the DA 15 when it first came out and it was quite adequately sharp across the field...)

[BigMackCam]

Under typical circumstances, 15mm @ f/8 should make everything in focus.

Agreed. At f/8 on my copy, foliage at the edges of the frame (at the same distance as the centre focus point) is sharp enough to make out individual leaves on trees - it's not as *tack* sharp as the centre, but still good...

[stevebrot]

Focus Range Macro

Something is fishy.

I noticed the same thing from this user's example photo with the same lens on another thread. Two possibilities come immediately to mind (there are probably others):

• The forum software is not very good at translating the exif Nope, I found the original with EXIF intact on the OP's Flickr stream and ExifTool v10.11 also indicates "Macro"
• The lens is sending the wrong data to the camera (internal damage?)

Something is definitely fishy here.

To the OP: Was this lens purchased used?

Full EXIF:

Code:

---- EXIF ----
Make                            : RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD.
Camera Model Name               : PENTAX K-3 II
X Resolution                    : 300
Y Resolution                    : 300
Resolution Unit                 : inches
Software                        : Capture One 9 Macintosh
Modify Date                     : 2016:03:01 15:01:13
Artist                          : John Laninga
Copyright                       : John Laninga
Modify Date                     : 2016:03:01 15:01:13
Exposure Time                   : 1/500
F Number                        : 8.0
Exposure Program                : Not Defined
ISO                             : 140
Exif Version                    : 0220
Date/Time Original              : 2016:03:01 15:01:13
Create Date                     : 2016:03:01 15:01:13
Shutter Speed Value             : 1/500
Aperture Value                  : 8.0
Exposure Compensation           : 0
Metering Mode                   : Multi-segment
Flash                           : Off, Did not fire
Focal Length                    : 15.0 mm
Exif Image Width                : 6016
Exif Image Height               : 4000
Sensing Method                  : One-chip color area
File Source                     : Digital Camera
Scene Type                      : Directly photographed
Exposure Mode                   : Auto
White Balance                   : Auto
Focal Length In 35mm Format     : 22 mm
Contrast                        : High
Saturation                      : Normal
Sharpness                       : Hard
Subject Distance Range          : Macro
GPS Version ID                  : 2.3.0.0
GPS Latitude Ref                : North
GPS Latitude                    : 33 deg 4' 31.61"
GPS Longitude Ref               : West
GPS Longitude                   : 96 deg 59' 52.28"
GPS Altitude Ref                : Above Sea Level
GPS Altitude                    : 161.7 m
GPS Time Stamp                  : 21:01:13
GPS Satellites                  : 10
GPS Status                      : Measurement Active
GPS Measure Mode                : 3-Dimensional Measurement
GPS Speed Ref                   : km/h
GPS Speed                       : 0.2
GPS Track Ref                   : True North
GPS Track                       : 38.27
GPS Img Direction Ref           : True North
GPS Img Direction               : 53.68
GPS Map Datum                   : WGS-84
GPS Processing Method           : GPS
GPS Date Stamp                  : 2016:03:01
Compression                     : JPEG (old-style)
Thumbnail Offset                : 1180
Thumbnail Length                : 1917
---- ICC_Profile ----
Profile CMM Type                : ADBE
Profile Version                 : 2.1.0
Profile Class                   : Display Device Profile
Color Space Data                : RGB
Profile Connection Space        : XYZ
Profile Date Time               : 2000:08:11 19:51:59
Profile File Signature          : acsp
Primary Platform                : Apple Computer Inc.
CMM Flags                       : Not Embedded, Independent
Device Manufacturer             : none
Device Model                    :
Device Attributes               : Reflective, Glossy, Positive, Color
Rendering Intent                : Perceptual
Connection Space Illuminant     : 0.9642 1 0.82491
Profile Creator                 : ADBE
Profile ID                      : 0
Profile Copyright               : Copyright 2000 Adobe Systems Incorporated
Profile Description             : Adobe RGB (1998)
Media White Point               : 0.95045 1 1.08905
Media Black Point               : 0 0 0
Red Tone Reproduction Curve     : (Binary data 14 bytes, use -b option to extrac
t)
Green Tone Reproduction Curve   : (Binary data 14 bytes, use -b option to extrac
t)
Blue Tone Reproduction Curve    : (Binary data 14 bytes, use -b option to extrac
t)
Red Matrix Column               : 0.60974 0.31111 0.01947
Green Matrix Column             : 0.20528 0.62567 0.06087
Blue Matrix Column              : 0.14919 0.06322 0.74457
---- IPTC ----
Coded Character Set             : UTF8
Application Record Version      : 4
Date Created                    : 2016:03:01
Time Created                    : 15:01:13
By-line                         : John Laninga
Copyright Notice                : John Laninga
---- XMP ----
XMP Toolkit                     : XMP Core 4.4.0
GPS Version ID                  : 2.3.0.0
GPS Latitude                    : 33 deg 4' 31.61" N
GPS Longitude                   : 96 deg 59' 52.28" W
GPS Altitude Ref                : Above Sea Level
GPS Altitude                    : 161.7 m
GPS Date/Time                   : 2016:03:01 21:01:13Z
GPS Satellites                  : 10
GPS Status                      : Measurement Active
GPS Measure Mode                : 3-Dimensional
GPS Speed Ref                   : km/h
GPS Speed                       : 0.2
GPS Track Ref                   : True North
GPS Track                       : 38.27
GPS Img Direction Ref           : True North
GPS Img Direction               : 53.68
GPS Map Datum                   : WGS-84
GPS Processing Method           : GPS
Exif Version                    : 0221
Date Created                    : 2016:03:01 15:01:13
Legacy IPTC Digest              : 73F08A00772B91433C872494A94E665A
Lens Info                       : 15mm f/?
Lens                            : 15.0 mm
Flash Compensation              : 0
Creator                         : John Laninga
Rights                          : John Laninga
---- Composite ----
Aperture                        : 8.0
Date/Time Created               : 2016:03:01 15:01:13
GPS Altitude                    : 161.7 m Above Sea Level
GPS Date/Time                   : 2016:03:01 21:01:13Z
GPS Latitude                    : 33 deg 4' 31.61" N
GPS Latitude Ref                : North
GPS Longitude                   : 96 deg 59' 52.28" W
GPS Longitude Ref               : West
GPS Position                    : 33 deg 4' 31.61" N, 96 deg 59' 52.28" W
Image Size                      : 6016x4000
Megapixels                      : 24.1
Scale Factor To 35 mm Equivalent: 1.5
Shutter Speed                   : 1/500
Thumbnail Image                 : (Binary data 1917 bytes, use -b option to extr
act)
Circle Of Confusion             : 0.020 mm
Field Of View                   : 78.6 deg
Focal Length                    : 15.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 22.0 mm)
Hyperfocal Distance             : 1.37 m
Light Value                     : 14.5

Steve

[Digitalis]

I have a 15mm Limited and, and from the picture you posted I'm almost certain that there's something wrong with your lens.

I agree, this lens is horrifically de-centered. This isn't a focusing accident.


Pentax K-7 - SMCP-DA 15mm f/4 ED ASPH Limited f/11 30s ISO 100

[kh1234567890]

I might be wrong, but looking through the history of this particular lens would indicate that it has always been a bit dodgy. I would return it to the person that you have bought it from. It is always a good idea to ask for sample shots taken with any second-hand lens before buying.

[richard_b]

I find the center of images taken with my K3ii and DA 15mm Ltd super sharp. And, I find the edges super soft, terribly out of focus. Now I understand that the curvature of a UWA may be the cause, but is this normal? I have attached a picture, and also included it on my K3ii Flickr album ... should be the last image of the blue playground with yellow slide.

John

As others had said, there is something wrong with the lens, here is a gallery of more typical 15mm DA Ltd results Richard Bird Photography | Pentax 15mm Limited Samples