[ne!]

Hi everyone!

Well, as fate would have it I dropped off my DA40 Ltd. for a CLA just a few days before the Full Frame Coverage Tests article. The lens was ready last week but I just picked it up yesterday and shot these just now.

The aperture was slow on it for ages, which caused over-exposure, and even though I have a terrific FA43 the DA40 is a different beast that I’ve always liked shooting on my K-1. I originally purchased my lens second-hand without the unique lens hood, which was perfect for me because you should never use that hood on a K-1.

The FA43 is small and light, but the DA40 is about half the size and weight of that, and so it’s a really fun walk-around lens on the venerable K-1. Honestly it feels like shooting with a body cap, like snub nose pistol, or like some olde tyme box-camera (somehow from the future)! But enough of my borax, here are some bor-ing shots when I was testing out this new "mouse-trap" of an aperture arm I just got back.

These are two sets of 5 shots each at minimum focus, f16, f11, f8, f5.6, f2.8 all taken at ISO 200.

The first 5 are exposure corrected jpegs from the camera, the second were processed from RAW in Lightroom with the lens profile enabled. I didn't intend to post these pictures but since there has been a bit of chatter regarding the worse-than-expected scores the DA40 received, I thought they might be useful examples for anyone on the fence.

SMC DA 40mm Limited NO HOOD on Pentax K-1 (and one last shot in it’s own context wide-open at f2.8)

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Last edited by ne!; 01-15-2019 at 04:47 PM.

[Docrwm]

Glad your 40 is back. Nice comparisons.

[Pentax Syntax]

Thanks. My experience is similar with this lens. The thing about the excellent PF article on compatibility I found baffling was the comparison between the DA 70 and DA 40. I think the DA 40 is almost useable but the DA 70 much less so. The article suggested that the DA 70 performed better. Thanks for posting.

[kiwi_jono]

Thanks. My experience is similar with this lens. The thing about the excellent PF article on compatibility I found baffling was the comparison between the DA 70 and DA 40. I think the DA 40 is almost useable but the DA 70 much less so. The article suggested that the DA 70 performed better. Thanks for posting.

I think my DA 70 is a little better than my DA40 (xs). on the K-1 Vignetting is similar between the two but my 40 is softer in the corners (especially stopped down - where my 40 never comes right.

Of course some copies might be better than others.

[Rondec]

I typically shoot landscapes at f11 and there, the corners seem to be pretty decent on the DA 40. If I'm shooting wide open, I do avoid sticking anything in the extreme edges that I want sharp because the borders are pretty soft on mine at f2.8. But that usually isn't a big deal to me. I do wonder how much better the M-40 pancake is on full frame than the DA 40? Because my guess is it needs to be stopped down too to get strong border performance. It is just that in the film days people didn't stare at the borders of their photos with loupes like we do these days in lightroom...

[Docrwm]

Sharp corners is why we have macro lenses. In the film days people did stare at corners with loupes but they didn't use 35mm for product shots typically. We cropped back then too, it was just a bit harder to do.

[Paul the Sunman]

In real life applications, the DA 40 Limited is absolutely useable on the K1, as I argued in an earlier thread. The corner resolution can be poor, but it rarely matters. I always take this lens with me on international trips, since it's so small and light and does the job in dim interiors.

The DA 70 is similarly very useable on the K1. The corners are darker, but that is easily fixed in processing. The corner resolution is better though.

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Last edited by Paul the Sunman; 01-16-2019 at 03:49 PM.