[joostdh]

I'm on my tablet and tbh hate typing on it so I'll keep it short and just add these test shots I made a few weeks ago with the HD version of the lens. Hope it helps.

1. Effect of hood (don't use it)


2. Vignetting


3. Vignetting close/far and open/stopped down


And test shots are all well and good but this is an actual photos off the type I like to take with this lens. Nothing wrong with it at all... This is at minimal focus distance.

[Na Horuk]

Btw, does the DA 35mm macro have a baffle on the back, as the DA* 60-250mm does?

[Na Horuk]

Every Pentax K lens has a baffle of some sort or another.

Touché. But is it restricting the image circle, in this case?

[micromacro]

Yep, the hood is a killer. I would prefer to have an option for that lens with wider hood which is not build-in.
Hope Ricoh will start "rebrending" Pentax lenses for FF soon.

[Sandy Hancock]

To put this one to bed, I just went out into the garden to get some test shots. I'm pretty sure there are two types of vignetting which take place here.

Please ignore the sensor dust and flare, as the hood was (of course) fully retracted for all shots.

First, there is what I will call optical vignetting, which is worst wide open, and occurs from MFD to infinity. It looks to be significantly more than half a stop to me (at least at infinity focus, where it almost extends to APS-C frame), but should be correctible in post processing.


MFD f/2.8


Infinity f/2.8

Stopped down, the optical vignetting is gone at MFD, but at infinity there is what I shall call physical vignetting, where the leading edge of the lens casing (not the hood, which is in all cases fully retracted) impinges into the field of view. Only a crop will fix this.


MFD f/22


Infinity f/22

And a couple of intermediate focal length shots to demonstrate how the two types of vignetting interact.


Landscape f/2.8


Landscape f/22

Bottom line: the Pentax-DA 1:2.8 35mm macro limited is NOT a full frame lens, except stopped down at close focal distances.

[melander]

That's not image circle vignetting. It's you taking a picture of the inside of your hood! If you pull the hood back in, the image circle actually does cover the entire sensor. That's why you are counterintuitively getting the more defined edge when you stop down - the DOF is increasing, so the insides of the hood are closer to being in focus.

If you look at Joost's images above, you can see what I mean.

See sandys reply above. Hood in, high f number and focus at longer distan es gives hard vignetting. For macro its a completly different story

[joostdh]

One thing that has gone unmentioned: sharpness and contrast hold up very well in the extended FF area though not in the extreme corners.

Personally I have no qualms about using this lens on the K-1 if it suits my needs but I will factor in that I might need to crop and/or remove some vignetting in PP. That is not a problem for me as everything goes through Lightroom anyway.

Basically: as with any lens you need to be aware of its character and traits and therefor of its restrictions.

---

Last edited by joostdh; 06-12-2016 at 03:06 AM.

[Snakeisthestuff]

To put this one to bed, I just went out into the garden to get some test shots. I'm pretty sure there are two types of vignetting which take place here.

Please ignore the sensor dust and flare, as the hood was (of course) fully retracted for all shots.

First, there is what I will call optical vignetting, which is worst wide open, and occurs from MFD to infinity. It looks to be significantly more than half a stop to me (at least at infinity focus, where it almost extends to APS-C frame), but should be correctible in post processing.


MFD f/2.8


Infinity f/2.8

Stopped down, the optical vignetting is gone at MFD, but at infinity there is what I shall call physical vignetting, where the leading edge of the lens casing (not the hood, which is in all cases fully retracted) impinges into the field of view. Only a crop will fix this.


MFD f/22


Infinity f/22

And a couple of intermediate focal length shots to demonstrate how the two types of vignetting interact.


Landscape f/2.8


Landscape f/22

Bottom line: the Pentax-DA 1:2.8 35mm macro limited is NOT a full frame lens, except stopped down at close focal distances.

I can confirm this, still the lens is very usable in FF mode in my opinion.

Here a sample in FF mode with F8 without correction of vignetting:


Same picture vignetting corrected, but beware that the darkened corners also have a drop in resolution which is not fixed:


In worst case one can slightly crop the picture if the lower resolution in the corners disturbs one.

I linked some other samples in this thread already:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/169-pentax-full-frame/291365-da-lenses-fu...ml#post3641826

[melander]

even tho its not the best landscape lens anymore due to vignetting. Macro works great and I still love my DA 35 macro ltd

[RobA_Oz]

To put this one to bed, I just went out into the garden to get some test shots. I'm pretty sure there are two types of vignetting which take place here.
…
Bottom line: the Pentax-DA 1:2.8 35mm macro limited is NOT a full frame lens, except stopped down at close focal distances.

Thanks for that demonstration, Sandy. The weather's been so adverse here since my K-1 arrived, that I haven't had the inclination to go out and do some more testing.

A post script to this might be, that the DA35/2.8 macro may evolve into a D-FA35/2.8 macro, with some optical redesign. Even ignoring the variety of tastes in macro focal lengths, the low weight and general performance of this lens is enough to earn it a place for a redesigned version in a future lineup of full frame 35mm format lenses.

[Sandy Hancock]

even tho its not the best landscape lens anymore due to vignetting. Macro works great and I still love my DA 35 macro ltd

Absolutely.
Don't get me wrong - it's still a fantastic, even uniquely wonderful lens.

[johnmb]

I have used the 35mm Ltd lens a few times recently, with the Pentax K-1. My experience is the following: (a) Quite a lot of vignetting if you use the incorporated hood (b) a small amount of vignetting if not using the hood. I enclose a couple of photos to illustrate this. The waterfall was at f16 to reduced the shutter speed. The panoramic shot was two photos stitched and taken at f8. Both photos taken using a tripod. Neither have been corrected for vignetting, which is slightly noticeable, but not significant for me. The image quality seems excellent to me, across the frame. Regards, John

[RobA_Oz]

With the variations that people are showing here, I can't help wondering if we're seeing production tolerance differences or even production variants that are responsible for those differences. I'll run some tests on my own sample now, to see what it produces.

[Sandy Hancock]

The waterfall was at f16 to reduced the shutter speed

It's a nice shot; the dense physical vignetting is only not a problem here because the corners are already dark. My test shots were designed to demonstrate the problem, this seems designed to hide it.

The panoramic shot was two photos stitched and taken at f8. Both photos taken using a tripod

The overlap conveniently removes the vignetted corners of the right and left corners of the left and right image respectively. The vignetting in the remaining corners looks rather weird given the aspect ratio of the resultant stitch. You'd get a much better result in crop mode stitching four or five images in portrait orientation.

The image quality seems excellent to me, across the frame.

At the size they are posted it is impossible to say with certainly, but the edges look pretty fuzzy to me.

---------- Post added 13-06-16 at 07:27 PM ----------

With the variations that people are showing here, I can't help wondering if we're seeing production tolerance differences or even production variants that are responsible for those differences. I'll run some tests on my own sample now, to see what it produces.

I reckon the results in johnmb's post are entirely consistent with mine, for the reasons stated above. By all means do your own tests though

[BarryE]

I've found that if crop to 24mp at 3:2 aspect ratio there's no obvious vignetting, thus getting a k-3 worth of pixels with the greater scope to push in post. Handy option to me.