[pepperberry farm]

SMC Pentax-DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro

I like this lens for 3 reasons: 1) relatively light-weight and acceptable size, 2) superb sharpness, even wide open (though, of course, the image I show below doesn't really highlight this feature), 3) macro function



---------- Post added 04-16-21 at 05:36 AM ----------


nice shot - did you use a tripod for the low-light, or did the lens handle that for you?

thank you - completely handheld...

[SFTphotography]

Here's my entry with the wonderful Pentax 645Z and the incredible HD Pentax-DA 645 28-45mm F4. 5


This was taken at 31MM at F16, ISO 100 at 1/6th sec.



This was taken at 31MM at F16, ISO 100 at 1/6th sec.


The shutter speed was used to allow for a small degree of movement in the water to be captured but not so slow that the waterflow wouldn't retain some texture. I used a Lee 0.6 soft edged GND to hold back the sky to allow the darker area's closest to me to be exposed without blocking the shadows and I used a 1 stop ND filter additionally to darken the whole scene to allow for that slower shutter speed.


What's so special about the lens. It's the best wide angle zoom ever made for any DSLR. Most wide zooms, particularly on FF formats distort badly, and have soft frame edges - even stopped down. What is truly remarkable about the 28-45 is sharpness is completely uniform centre to edge. This means as a professional landscape photographer I can completely trust the lens and compose the scene how I would like in camera, rather than compose around cropping smeary edges off the frame - or worse still discover the sides of the picture are too soft to pass muster when printing large or supplying for commercial use.Centre to edge sharpness is just as important as back to front sharpness in landscape photography. This lens was the main reason I bought into the 645z system after finding Nikons 14-24, 16-35 hopelessly substandard for my needs.


What's also useful, is the lens has a 82mm filter thread - which is ideal as most landscape photographers do use some sort of filter system.


28-45 is also a really great focal length for landscapes - wide enough to fit everything in without that awful distortion that comes from ultra wide lenses - and long enough to fit in scenes that may not have much foreground at all. It is a lens I can cover the entire of my Glencoe shooting with.

[ramseybuckeye]

The K-01 has the same flange focal distance as other Pentaxes, so doesn't help with rangefinder lenses etc. I was thinking about.

Does the Q count as a DSLR? It doesn't usually seem to be described that way, which is why I asked the question.

My bad, I did not realize it specifically said Pentax DSLR/SLR cameras. Kind of hard to use a Q lens on a K-1.

[RichardJ]

Here is my entry, taken with a Pentax K-70 and an SMC Pentax-M 1:2.8 28mm lens. This is an old manual lens that I get out from time to time. One thing I like about it is the textured bokeh effect you get when the aperture is wide open. A lot of modern lenses aim for super smooth bokeh, which is of course very nice. But occasionally I find I really like the non-smooth textured bokeh that this old lens gives to photos. This photograph of snowdrops was taken at the widest aperture, F2.8 with 1/500 and ISO 800.

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[MossyRocks]

80-odd pictures I've taken with Pentax 110 lenses on Micro 4/3 might suggest that there are other options than K-mount, and the competition rules specifically say other makes can be used. Then there are other Pentax formats such as umpteen years of M42 classics.

When it is the month for 70mm lenses I may very well be shooting the auto 110 70mm f/2.8. If you can figure out a way to get it to mount it really gets interesting on digital but requires using it wrong.

[S.M.]

This is Pentax Forums, so the K-01 and Q series qualify, they are the only Pentax mirrorless.

The K-01 has the same flange focal distance as other Pentaxes, so doesn't help with rangefinder lenses etc. I was thinking about.

Does the Q count as a DSLR? It doesn't usually seem to be described that way, which is why I asked the question.

I am curious about that because I would like to insert a lens used with the Q-S1 in the 70-100mm, so to know if that is possible or not.

[Wenwald]

My entry was taken with the HD PENTAX-DA 20-40mm F2.8-4 Limited at 36mm, 1/640 sec., f/4. I shot it in RAW and processed it in RawTherapee into black and white. I like the depth-of-field effect of this lens when wide open, even at f/4 when zoomed in.

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[othar]

I nominate the SMC Pentax-F 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 zoom in combination with a crop camera like my K-3.

It is lightweight, sharp and has a perfect zoom range as a walkaround lens, because and not despite beeing 'only' a normal to short telephoto lens on APS-C (so when you are too lazy to go further back and just use the wide end of the lens when making some snapshots of family and friends you still don't end up with weird distortions like you sometimes do with wider zoom lenses).
It also handles flare reasonably well for an older lens and can therefore be used for nightphotography on a tripod as well.

@35mm

[Grey Man]

Here is my submission for the "something about that lens" contest. This was taken during a snow storm with fog at Carvel, Alberta. The train was waiting for his turn to continue heading east, and I asked him to wait until he was about 100 yards down the track before turning his headlights on.

The cool thing is that this was shot with my K5 using my 16-45mm lens at 28mm. Not the best lens in my arsenal but it's really tough when in the crazy weather.

Thanks for your consideration in this contest.

[dougieazar]

Ok here is a photo taken 4-17-2021, today, of the Sedona, Arizona "Wetlands". Actually the wetlands are the treatment facility settling ponds and are a great place for bird sightings. Today they were cleaning the overgrowth so no birds but I did get this shot of a person operating a "reed removal machine". It was shot with a K-3 and 18mm - 270mm lens set at 31mm....................Douglas N.

[HoutHans]

Here is my submission for the "something about that lens" contest. This was taken during a snow storm with fog at Carvel, Alberta. The train was waiting for his turn to continue heading east, and I asked him to wait until he was about 100 yards down the track before turning his headlights on.

The cool thing is that this was shot with my K5 using my 16-45mm lens at 28mm. Not the best lens in my arsenal but it's really tough when in the crazy weather.

Thanks for your consideration in this contest.

That's a very nice image. It's nice to see this equipment being used in these adverse circumstances. You could also post this in the Bad weather makes good pictures thread.

[candid]

Street capture from Lisbon. Taken with Pentax K-1 and HD PENTAX-D FA 28-105mm, F3.5-5.6ED, Focal Length 34 mm, F/5.6, ISO 100, 1/180

[lukarch]

Photo taken with old, manual Soligor 28/2.8 lens @ f2.8 with K-1 body in FFmode.
This lens has an extraordinary bokeh and very pronounced flare that could be deliberately used to make the photo more attractive.

[bobphoenix]

Photo taken with old, manual Soligor 28/2.8 lens @ f2.8 with K-1 body in FFmode.
This lens has an extraordinary bokeh and very pronounced flare that could be deliberately used to make the photo more attractive.

Very nice!
When I was taking my digital imaging class in college, one of our lessons was creating lens flair in Photoshop...
As good as I was, I could never create as good of a lens flair as this one... Excellent!

[othar]

This lens has an extraordinary bokeh and very pronounced flare that could be deliberately used to make the photo more attractive.

Looks nice, I might have to increase my vintage lens collection a little more