Author: | | Forum Member Registered: December, 2013 Posts: 83 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: March 29, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | light weight, cheap, sharp | Cons: | none | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K3
| | I like this lens because it does not have the smc fungus growing coating . I have noticed most of the older pentax lens with the smc coating have fungus growing from the coating . I have found on my lens that between f8 and f13 is the sharpest at 200mm zoom . Here is a squirrel about 15 yards away. 200mm, 1/250, f13, iso 800. As shot. no sharping . Pentax F 70-200 f4-5.6 by myridevlx600, on Flickr
| | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2010 Posts: 23 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: November 14, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Sharpness, quick autofocus | Cons: | A bit loud autofocus, tiny focal ring, does not retract all the way like SMC version | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
| | I think Pentax-F 70-200 4-5.6 is almost identical with Takumar F 70-200 4-5.6 in terms of lens formula, elements and mechanism like barrel retraction. I own the latter so I also post my comments here. If you get a good copy and stay a bit away from 200mm, it is a hidden gem. The lens is reasonably sharp and has nice bokeh. Shooting with hood is recommended. | | | | Site Supporter Registered: April, 2010 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 813 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: May 11, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Good sharpness, accurate AF, virtually nil CA, solid build | Cons: | some AF hunting in low light. | | Firstly, I have both the Pentax-F 70-200 and the SMC Pentax-F 70-210 and they are equally sharp, both have excellent resolution, and virtually nil CA.
Very many of the SMC Pentax-F 70-210 I have seen seem to be fungus affected, it seems to be a common problem, but the non SMC Pentax-F 70-200 doesn't seem to have this problem.
The lack of SMC really doesn't affect the colour and contrast rendition all that much,and shooting with a good lens hood takes care of any flare issues too.
This lens also just seems a little better balanced in the hand (IMO of course).
Very sharp all the way out to 200mm, I highly recommend this lens, a good lens at a bargain price .
Cheers
John
| | | | New Member Registered: September, 2008 Location: Viet Nam Posts: 17 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: May 19, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Great contrast, sharp, great color from 7-200 with all "A", AF lens | Cons: | No SMC | | I'm very happy with this lens
Some images from this lens | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: April, 2012 Location: Melbs Posts: 1,237 | Review Date: November 17, 2021 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Performance, price, looks cool | Cons: | Heavier | | This lens was tossed in with a K5 i recently bought, thought nothing of it, another old 90's zoom righht?
Well... Suppose it is, heavier then similar lenses today (looking at you DAL 50-200) but, dam the auto-focus is great and images look bloody fine.
Have been comparing it to the DAL 50-200, not much in it. DAL 50-200 perhaps with slightly more contrast on the JPEG, but who cares? Move that slider in post and boom.
And, the 80's is long enough ago that it's style is nearly cool again. The grey looks stupid on the K5, I imagine I'd want a Z10, MZ, etc to properly dress the part,
Really impressed, so much so that I'm now trawling ebay for second hand Pentax-F's
First image @200, f5.6, second @70 f4, JPEG's from camera & just resized. | | | | New Member Registered: December, 2019 Posts: 7 | Review Date: November 2, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | great zoom | Cons: | none yet | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Focusing: 9
| | Great zoom to use for various situations, from portraits to action scenes or even landscaping. Great colors, nails the focus quickly and provides very nice photos. The picture below is unedited. | | | | New Member Registered: April, 2015 Posts: 11 | Review Date: December 6, 2019 | Recommended
| Rating: 1 |
Pros: | | Cons: | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 1
Camera Used: K-30
Focusing: 1
| | This lens makes extremely loud and grusom sounds. Unbearable!!! The only thing this lens deserves is a hammer :-D
| | | | New Member Registered: April, 2017 Posts: 12 | Review Date: April 27, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | sharpness at 70-135mm, low aberrations | Cons: | sharpness 200mm, just a bit noisy | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K-50
| | This zoom is good (very good, I'd say) at the shortest focal length, bad at 200mm; I have tested it against two others. The work is not professionally done but may help, there is a lot of full-crop samples...: http://www.rustichelli.net/Hobbies/Photography/LensTests/Zoom-for-Pentax-K-g...group-test.php
Good reading!
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2014 Posts: 421 | Review Date: January 15, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $29.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Sharp at F8, Nice colors, CHEAP, light, quick AF | Cons: | AF kicks, loud, not very pretty | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-5IIs
| | Great zoom for $29 USD.
Where I live there are very few used Pentax lenses, so I buy stuff on ebay.
In this case, the lens was $29 and shipping was $20, and I'm happy overall with the lens and the price.
The picture below was shot at F8, 1/125 s, 200mm. Not much PP, in Lightroom +9 on contrast, -30 on highlights, -11 on Shadows, +7 whites, -5 blacks.
No sharpening
===
An update after almost two years. I had a lot of fun with this lens. If you know the limitations, it can produce pretty solid results.
Today, I reverse mounted it (49mm thread adapter to PK) and it produces some nice macro shots.
Here is a sample: | | |