[taktoon]

DA* 11-18 is the kind of lens that can convert a photographer to Pentax. It is the perfect lens for astrophotographer, Pentax should market it more... and pair it with a great DA* standard zoom and a new body quickly. I cross my fingers

Mine are crossed as well. Money for DA*11-18/2.8 and "new DA*16-50/2.8" are prepared. First one will be available soon but I still have two problems with the purchase: Lack of new APS-C camera and lack of very good standard zoom ("new DA*16-50/2.8") in Pentax offer. New DA* 50-135/2.8 would be also nice. I have at this moment current DA* zooms and two primes on the wide side (Samyang 10mm and 15 Limited) and plastic fantastic 50. I use them on K-70. I would buy KP if it had deeper buffer and 2 card slots (even if it would be a feature built-in vertical grip). As somebody said You buy a system and for each person "system" means something different (can be a camera with "kit" lens, can be a 10 cameras and 25 lenses). For me it is simple: solid camera and those three 2.8 zooms - not the best but they will do the job, after that more "specialized" primes. One could think that RICOH has similar idea as they started digital FF from K-1 and three 2.8 zooms covering 15-200. I hope they will apply this thinking to APS-C line this year. I am really interested in any news from CP+. RICOH you have my money on the table

[superdave]

I’m sorry to hear of your issues with the 20-40 superdave; I have to say that it’s not my experience. You go on to say that you’ve also had focus issues with the 40 and 35 Limited - are you sure that it’s not your camera body that’s at fault? What do you use?

Thanks. I'm using a K-3II but it was different types of focus issue between 40/35 and 20-40.

40/35: I had not problem during day, but lenses seems to have difficulties to focus precisely at night (even at long range) resulting in soft or blury images. I never had such issues with my other lenses (12-24, sigma 17-70, 50mm, 70mmLtd...)

20-40: Edges was always out of focus (OOF) in the long end of the range. Hyperfocal -> OOF edges, Focus at infinity -> OFF edges, Focus after infinity -> better but still slightly OOF edges. Never had this problem with any other lenses I tried. Moreover, samples that I can find on the internet at 40mm never have sharp edges, except for close subject. After a search on the Internet, I think the lens has what is called a "runaway" field curvature.

See here: https://tashley1.zenfolio.com/blog/2013/5/field-curvature---a-practical-guide
and more details here: https://tashley1.zenfolio.com/blog/2012/8/the-28mm-f1-8g-nikkor-on-d800 -> look at the castle photo in full size to see the exact problem I had.
and also here Field Curvature, A Tricky Problem in Photography

Sorry for the off topic

[microlight]

Not a problem. I’ve seen Tim Ashley’s blog post with Roger Cicala of LensRentals before, and it’s very illuminating. Did you try his suggestion of modifying the front focus slightly to se if that made any difference? The focus-peaking trick is good too.

[biz-engineer]

Maybe leakage on information on new products , soon to come , a few days before CP+ ?

[northcoastgreg]

20-40. Yes runway field curvature at 40mm, but it is possible to master it for landscapes with experimentation and practice. It may have been designed specifically this way for OOF rendering at the long end for portraits and objects. I'm happy to take the trade off. This is possibly my favorite lens. Stunningly beautiful rendering. Wouldn't change anything on it.

I don't have any experience with the DA 20-40, but other limiteds I've shot with, particularly the DA 15, have similar issues with field curvature, reduced sharpness toward the edges even when stopped down, etc. etc. In terms of practical output, this means that a lens like the DA 15 doesn't deliver much sharpness away from the center at longer distances --- although it is fairly sharp edge to edge at close distances. I have found that if you are willing to play to the strengths, rather than butt your head against their weaknesses, you can get great images out limited lenses like the DA 15 --- because at their best, in their sweet spot, they're better than anything else out there that isn't much more expensive. If you want to get the best out of the DA 15 in landscape photography, you have to make foreground prominent in your picture. If you do that, you can produce really striking images, images with outstanding contrast, color, and rendering, that you won't necessarily be able to get with technically superior lenses from other brands.

[superdave]

Not a problem. I’ve seen Tim Ashley’s blog post with Roger Cicala of LensRentals before, and it’s very illuminating. Did you try his suggestion of modifying the front focus slightly to se if that made any difference? The focus-peaking trick is good too.

Yes, I tried the trick to focus farther the subject, I can see improvement but it was not perfect and it was not always possible. For a landscape, it mean to focus on the most distant element in the scene, but it does not work on scene with equal distant elements, for example a line of buildings across the street... Focus peaking do not help too much as it is not precise to the pixel level, and try and error method is not perfect too as picture could look sharp on LCD but not on screen.
Basically I spend 90% of my time on the field trying to focus a basic scene... that's not fun at all and I miss lot of opportunities. The only scene I was able to shoot was vertical landscape where the bottom of the frame was in focus because it was close, and the top of the frame was sky and so you can't see that it is not in focus. See attached. I prefer when you can rely on hyperfocal or focus 1/3 into the frame...

---------- Post added 12-02-19 at 17:07 ----------

I don't have any experience with the DA 20-40, but other limiteds I've shot with, particularly the DA 15, have similar issues with field curvature, reduced sharpness toward the edges even when stopped down, etc. etc. In terms of practical output, this means that a lens like the DA 15 doesn't deliver much sharpness away from the center at longer distances --- although it is fairly sharp edge to edge at close distances. I have found that if you are willing to play to the strengths, rather than butt your head against their weaknesses, you can get great images out limited lenses like the DA 15 --- because at their best, in their sweet spot, they're better than anything else out there that isn't much more expensive. If you want to get the best out of the DA 15 in landscape photography, you have to make foreground prominent in your picture. If you do that, you can produce really striking images, images with outstanding contrast, color, and rendering, that you won't necessarily be able to get with technically superior lenses from other brands.

Yes exactly, you can take vertical shots where foreground is prominent in your picture better than with another lens (see my comment above), but not horizontal shot. You can play to the strengths of the lens if you have backup lens for horizontal landscapes, but it was my only standard zoom at the time as I purchased it to replace a broken Sigma 17-70. I keep the lens for almost 1 year but it stayed in the bag most of the time...

---------- Post added 12-02-19 at 17:16 ----------

I forgot to mention that one copy of my 20-40mm has been checked by Pentax and they said it has no problem. At 20mm the extreme right of the frame was blurry at every aperture.... but that's normal for Pentax.

---------- Post added 12-02-19 at 17:21 ----------

Mine are crossed as well. Money for DA*11-18/2.8 and "new DA*16-50/2.8" are prepared. First one will be available soon but I still have two problems with the purchase: Lack of new APS-C camera and lack of very good standard zoom ("new DA*16-50/2.8") in Pentax offer. New DA* 50-135/2.8 would be also nice. I have at this moment current DA* zooms and two primes on the wide side (Samyang 10mm and 15 Limited) and plastic fantastic 50. I use them on K-70. I would buy KP if it had deeper buffer and 2 card slots (even if it would be a feature built-in vertical grip). As somebody said You buy a system and for each person "system" means something different (can be a camera with "kit" lens, can be a 10 cameras and 25 lenses). For me it is simple: solid camera and those three 2.8 zooms - not the best but they will do the job, after that more "specialized" primes. One could think that RICOH has similar idea as they started digital FF from K-1 and three 2.8 zooms covering 15-200. I hope they will apply this thinking to APS-C line this year. I am really interested in any news from CP+. RICOH you have my money on the table

My money is on the table too, but for 1400€ I am still waiting for few reviews and more samples shots. And like you I regret the lack very good standard zoom ("new DA*16-50/2.8") in Pentax offer. For the 50-135, I am confident that the future 70-200/4 will be good enough for landscape, all 70-200 are good at medium aperture. In regards to the lack of new APS-C camera, I am confident too. The longer the wait, the better it will be and also I will have no more money for a new body after I will purchase the 11-18 and a sigma 18-35 ^^. Lenses are more important right now.

[reh321]

Yes, I tried the trick to focus farther the subject, I can see improvement but it was not perfect and it was not always possible. For a landscape, it mean to focus on the most distant element in the scene, but it does not work on scene with equal distant elements, for example a line of buildings across the street... Focus peaking do not help too much as it is not precise to the pixel level, and try and error method is not perfect too as picture could look sharp on LCD but not on screen.
Basically I spend 90% of my time on the field trying to focus a basic scene... that's not fun at all and I miss lot of opportunities. The only scene I was able to shoot was vertical landscape where the bottom of the frame was in focus because it was close, and the top of the frame was sky and so you can't see that it is not in focus. See attached. I prefer when you can rely on hyperfocal or focus 1/3 into the frame...


Yes exactly, you can take vertical shots where foreground is prominent in your picture better than with another lens (see my comment above), but not horizontal shot. You can play to the strengths of the lens if you have backup lens for horizontal landscapes, but it was my only standard zoom at the time as I purchased it to replace a broken Sigma 17-70. I keep the lens for almost 1 year but it stayed in the bag most of the time...

-I forgot to mention that one copy of my 20-40mm has been checked by Pentax and they said it has no problem. At 20mm the extreme right of the frame was blurry at every aperture.... but that's normal for Pentax.

Do these issues still exist when the lens is stopped down?

I have to admit that I don't notice these issues - I follow the old standards that focus on the middle of the image and don't worry about corner-to-corner sharpness - but I can understand why you would want something better for a lens that costs $$$$.

[eddie1960]

I have to admit that I don't notice these issues - I follow the old standards that focus on the middle of the image and don't worry about corner-to-corner sharpness - but I can understand why you would want something better for a lens that costs $$$$.

having edge sharpness opens up composition possibilities frequently I shoot my main subject in the side of the frame myself, .....but i only shoot primes and mostly very high quality ones now ( all in Fuji now but there are Pentax equivalencies . I would never give up my 23 1.4 , 35 1.4 or 56 1.2.... all crazy sharp and render oof beautifully ... that said some of my old taks are just as good but not AF or as well coated)

the 20-40 looked like such a great lens pre-release I was tempted to get a KP to pair it with as a walkabout ...i got an X100T instead ...)

[superdave]

Do these issues still exist when the lens is stopped down?

I have to admit that I don't notice these issues - I follow the old standards that focus on the middle of the image and don't worry about corner-to-corner sharpness - but I can understand why you would want something better for a lens that costs $$$$.

Yes edges at 40mm were out of focus at every aperture, not soft, really out of focus. Sweet spot was f/5.6 or f/11 on my copy. The PF review also said "At 40mm, the lens really struggles in the corners. The lens simply isn't sharp in the corners at this focal length, and in practice, only F11 and F16 produced results that could be considered usable".

If you have a good copy, keep it 😉

[microlight]

You’d have to prise it out of my cold, dead fingers...! 🤣

[reh321]

Yes edges at 40mm were out of focus at every aperture, not soft, really out of focus. Sweet spot was f/5.6 or f/11 on my copy. The PF review also said "At 40mm, the lens really struggles in the corners. The lens simply isn't sharp in the corners at this focal length, and in practice, only F11 and F16 produced results that could be considered usable".

The B&H description of this lens has the words "First Limited Series Zoom Lens"; is it your experience that primes in the Limited Series are corner-to-corner sharp?

added: We aren't talking about a "DA*" lens, afterall. The silver variant is priced at under $500 right now {why is the silver variant so much less expensive than the black one right now??}.

[RonHendriks1966]

The B&H description of this lens has the words "First Limited Series Zoom Lens"; is it your experience that primes in the Limited Series are corner-to-corner sharp?

added: We aren't talking about a "DA*" lens, afterall. The silver variant is priced at under $500 right now {why is the silver variant so much less expensive than the black one right now??}.

They produce lenses in batches and maybe the Silver is more available. I bought a Silver sony smartphone because it was way cheaper then a Black one.

[monochrome]

The B&H description of this lens has the words "First Limited Series Zoom Lens"; is it your experience that primes in the Limited Series are corner-to-corner sharp?

added: We aren't talking about a "DA*" lens, afterall. The silver variant is priced at under $500 right now {why is the silver variant so much less expensive than the black one right now??}.

They are likely overstocked on the silver.

[RonHendriks1966]

CP+ is really going to look like a real Ricoh party with all the new camera's coming under the Ricoh Brand. Theta, wg-6 , G900, GRiii. Looks like a nice set.

Wouldn't it be great if they top that Ricoh party of with a real killer?

To memorate the 80th anniversary of the first Ricoh camera coming to market....

Gokoku and Ricohl - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia

They could just swoop in with a Ricoh K-1.

[biz-engineer]

Wouldn't it be great if they top that Ricoh party of with a real killer?

Ricoh was never recognized as a good SLR brand (worse than Pentax). But dual brand is a bad idea. Ricoh should have either moved everthing under Ricoh brand or everything under Pentax name. Being small and have two brand weaken even more the brand. They've rebranded the WG series as Ricoh, but I wonder what was the value of doing this (beside internal politics).