[JamesDCrockett]

I am getting close to buying my next lens and until I heard about the Pentax Shift 28mm F3.5's sharpness was all set on the Rokinon 24mm 3.5 TS.
I have read the Pentax is a really sharp lens and well made. Rokinon I heard is sharp enough but not very well made. The used Pentax would save a few hundred dollars but I would not get the tilt. This lens is for my FF K1.


Question is: for landscape and taking pictures of interesting buildings would I be satisfied with the Pentax Shifts ability?

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Last edited by JamesDCrockett; 02-13-2018 at 01:25 PM.

[Adam]

The 24mm is also quite a bit wider, so I would go with the Rokinon. Check our in-depth review for details on the build, but as far as I recall it's quite good.

[HarisF1]

I recently got myself a K28 Shift and had the chance to use it on some pretty boring looking buildings. It does a pretty good job of bringing the buildings to a decent level, and there was enough scope to shift even further (I fit a wide 2 storey building into a single shot, and I used a shift of around 60%).

In terms of sharpness, the lens seemed pretty decent at f/8 but I had to remove CA and also correct for a bit of barrel distortion. The distortion was a little bit annoying since it wasn't completely removed in post - that might be due to inexperience over anything else however.

The colours of the lens were decent, and the lens handled very well, as you'd expect from the K series. Overall very happy but I am still eager to test the 24mm TS should I get a nice and cheap copy.

[RobA_Oz]

The Pentax 28 shift lens doesn't appear on the market all that often, so if you find one and discover that it's not giving you what you want, you should be able to sell it again at little or no loss.

I have that lens, although I haven't used it all that much on my K-1. What I have used it for has proven to be as much as I need for this type of lens, which has been photographing landscape and buildings. I have thought about the Rokinon, but I don't need the tilt function, although it would be good to have for some types of work, where you need to tilt the plane of focus. Otherwise, I note that the craze for taking photos where the upper and lower areas are out of focus seems to have passed.

On the Pentax lens, one thing I noticed early was that the corners can show quite a bit of CA and what looks like coma, although it could just be rectilinear distortion, so stopping down is advisable. Otherwise, in my experience, it's a good though not spectacular lens, but there's nothing else like it in the price range, apart from the Rokinon (Schneider makes tilt-shift lenses in K-mount, but their price matches their reputation).

[JamesDCrockett]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I am still thinking about which to get. I like the idea that the Pentax is said to be built like a tank; but the tilt/shift of the Rokinon is more flexible.

[gofour3]

In the manual for the Pentax 28/3.5 Shift, it's recommended using f/8 or f/11 for any shift work.

Phil.

[JamesDCrockett]

The Pentax 28 shift lens doesn't appear on the market all that often, so if you find one and discover that it's not giving you what you want, you should be able to sell it again at little or no loss.

I have that lens, although I haven't used it all that much on my K-1. What I have used it for has proven to be as much as I need for this type of lens, which has been photographing landscape and buildings. I have thought about the Rokinon, but I don't need the tilt function, although it would be good to have for some types of work, where you need to tilt the plane of focus. Otherwise, I note that the craze for taking photos where the upper and lower areas are out of focus seems to have passed.

On the Pentax lens, one thing I noticed early was that the corners can show quite a bit of CA and what looks like coma, although it could just be rectilinear distortion, so stopping down is advisable. Otherwise, in my experience, it's a good though not spectacular lens, but there's nothing else like it in the price range, apart from the Rokinon (Schneider makes tilt-shift lenses in K-mount, but their price matches their reputation).

Here in Cincinnati I will use it primarily for pictures of interesting buildings. Then what I have in mind for a trip out west is to to get the sharp DOF from the nearby ground all the way out to the mountain range.

I am going to get one or the other; it is just a matter of which.

[pentaxfall]

Question is: for landscape and taking pictures of interesting buildings would I be satisfied with the Pentax Shifts ability?

I have not used shift lenses but done panos. Panorama route supports multiple rows and can be used with many lenses. Panorama gears can be used for other things also. For example: Sliders can be used for macro photography. Drawback is extra weight. My suggestion is to try Panorama instead of Shift lens.

[JamesDCrockett]

In the manual for the Pentax 28/3.5 Shift, it's recommended using f/8 or f/11 for any shift work.

Phil.

What I have read on the Rokinon states that is its sweet spot also for sharpness.

[clickclick]

Check out these two articles over at Lens Rentals. I found them interesting, and they compare the lens to Canon and Nikon counterparts. Short story is by about f8-f11, they are pretty comparable. I know Nikcon/Canon is not the Pentax shift you are looking at, but I think it gives some perspective on how good the Rokinon can be in it's sweet spot range. Also, I've read folks being concerned about the small knobs and the little levers. I think the key to this (I have the lens) is not being hamfisted. You don't need to give these knobs more than a slight snug to hold, whereupon I can't see why you'd have a problem. Again on the levers. Line things up, actuate and twist as two distinct movements instead of some sweeping grab/yank/smash, and I think it looks just fine.

Here for the overview of optical performance:

Lens Rentals | Blog

and then a strip down:

Lens Rentals | Blog

It's a neat lens, and happy to have it. I'm just starting to learn how to use it and have just been playing around with pictures of the house, but I don't think I would want give up the tilt function. Figuring out how to control the plane of focus when tilting is the trick I'm still working on. Seems like when tilting and doing something large like a building, you'll be stopping the lens down to at least f8-f11, whereupon you're into the sweet spot.

[WPRESTO]

I used to own the Pentax shift, I now own the Rokinon. I may be repeating comments above, apologies to those who posted before me.
1) The Rokinon @ 24mm is a lot wider;
2) If you know how to use it, the tilt feature on the Rokinon enables depth-of-field manipulation that isn't possible with the Pentax;
3) Both lenses are big, bulky and heavy. I don't have them side-by-side, but I'm pretty sure the Pentax was bigger and heavier. I never carried it casually because I might use it. It only came along when I specifically knew I would use it.
4) The shift mechanism on each lens operates differently. The one on the Pentax is slightly easier to use. Neither of them is anywhere near as easy to use as a Canon 24mm TSS I once had (old breech-mount, not EOS). I actually bought it to replace the Pentax because I wanted the tilt feature to get DOF control. And BTW, I would rate the Canon IQ better than either the Pentax or the Rokinon.
5) As I think someone mentions, the Pentax 28mm shift was not made/sold in large quantities. It is somewhat of a collector's item, so they don't appear on EBAY all the time, and price for a good clean copy can be an ouch.

I just checked on EBAY and found quite a few Pentax 28mm shift lenses on offer, more than I've ever seen. Most sellers are asking about $450~550, one is hoping to get over $1000 which was the typical price I saw several years ago when last I looked for one of these lenses.

[eyeball]

I have not used shift lenses but done panos. Panorama route supports multiple rows and can be used with many lenses. Panorama gears can be used for other things also. For example: Sliders can be used for macro photography. Drawback is extra weight. My suggestion is to try Panorama instead of Shift lens.

Panoramas can look strange if a sequence of pictures is taken with the camera pointed a little up or down from the horizon as it's rotated. For instance, a set of panoramic forest photos taken with the camera pointed a little upward to center the tree tops vertically, can be stitched into a single photo, but the different sections of the woods in the final photo will taper upward toward separate vanishing points. You can, I suppose, straighten each component photo using perspective adjustment software before merging. OTOH, a vertical shift lens can rectify each individual photo as taken, allowing a distortion-free merge to be made immediately. This can be useful if you want to use a panorama function built into the camera, in which case pre-stitching perspective adjustment isn't possible.

When in doubt, do everything.

[DDoram]

Don't worry about sharpness on the Rokinon as you will be using manual focus and peaking and it works fine; it is also wider and offers tilt which is useful for landscapes.

[SpecialK]

I would go for the wider Rokinon which has tilt. I have a 17mm TS that I would tilt more often if I had focus peaking. In a plain viewfinder the line of focus is mostly hit or miss.

[pentaxfall]

For instance, a set of panoramic forest photos taken with the camera pointed a little upward to center the tree tops vertically, can be stitched into a single photo, but the different sections of the woods in the final photo will taper upward toward separate vanishing points..

Assume I use 50mm lens, rotate camera on nodal point and also provide reference point to stitching s/w. Do you think the problem will still show up?. PTAssembler lets you provide reference point.