| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: April, 2011 Location: Charlotte, NC Posts: 386
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 7, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very sharp, fast, light, small | | Cons: | Chromatic Abberation wide open | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-3
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I purchased this together with a M135/3.5 to see how a manual focus tele lens would do on my K-3. I had expected to like the M135 better as there appears to have been some mixed reviews of this A135.
I was very positively surprised. I did some extensive testing, and found this lens to be very sharp. Wide open at f2.8 it is same as or better than my 55-300mm at f5.6 (good copy). Stopped down to f4, it is slightly better in the center and much better in the corners than the 55-300 at f8.
Compared to the M135, the two are about the same from f5.6 and higher. The A is much better at f2.8 than the M at f3.5.
The lens definitely generates some chromatic aberration especially wide open.
The lens handles very well, with the A setting being a definite plus. The manual focus is a pleasure to use, and I can't really deduct anything for it being a manual focus lens (doh).
Highly recommended!
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2013 Location: Florida Posts: 426
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 23, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $65.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Gorgeous on full frame | | Cons: | manual focus | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: LX, K-01
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Its a great lens... very nice on film and behaves like a 200 on crop sensors. The 2.8 is super useful for indoors no flash shots as long as you bump the ISO a bit.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: January, 2014 Posts: 143
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 23, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $180.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, Focus range is long and very smooth, Bokeh, Lets in a lot of light for focusing, reletively small and light weight | | Cons: | Minimum focus distance | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-30
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Awesome lens! This is my first lens I bought other than my kit 18-55 so I don't have expirience with too many lenses. Focusing is very smooth and easy to control. Feels good. Shoots good. Fast lens. Great buy!
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: June, 2013 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 573
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 30, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, very robust, very bright | | Cons: | CA (more so with dslr) | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-1000, K-x, K-30
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it's been with me for close to 30 years now. Bought it for astrophotography and ended up using it all the time. Much sharper than many of today's zoom lenses.
Here are links to some of the astrophotos I used it for. Notice how sharp the stars are even on the edge of the field.
Cygnus
Pleiades
Orion | | | | | | | Forum Member Registered: September, 2013 Posts: 62
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 26, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | metal construction, high speed, built-in-hood, high IQ | | Cons: | not detected | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: LX, K-30
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excellent portrait lens at FF, allow You do not put the lens into the face, than shooting face-portrait.
fast (F/2.8) and built-in hood just pleasure to work with.
use-full from wide open (f/2.8) and from f/4 are best.
at K-30 fully compatible (at "A" position of the aperture dial ring), nice for portrait too, but more longer, than at FF.
nice to, possible to stay far from model, than shooting only eyes.
I still like it a lot.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: January, 2013 Location: Texas Posts: 32
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 10, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $185.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness / Contrast, Smooth focusing, telescopic shade | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K30
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I bought this lense reluctantly, due to the 'cheap' 4 elements optical formula and some so-so professional reviews.
I was immediately stunned by the sharpness! Very good from center to edge at 2.8, and excellent at 4.0!
Vignetting and Distortion are negligeable. Good resistance to flare.
Another plus is the compatibility with the Sigma Apo extenders.
The results are near-perfect with the 1.4x Apo. Strangely, sharpness and contrast degradation are unacceptable with the 2x Apo. With my FA 200/2.8 IF-ED, the results with the Sigma Apo 2x are equivalent to the Sigma 1.4x Apo. Don't ask.
The focusing ring is a little bit hard, I suppose it is only my lens, bought used.
| | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2012 Location: Inverigo, Italy Posts: 2
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 12, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | a well-built lens, overall more than satisfactory performance | | Cons: | nothing noteworthy to me | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-5, K-01
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I use it often on my K-01 ( the manual focus with focus peaking function is very convenient ) ... taking into account that any lens is the result of design compromises and the fact that we are talking about a project that has experienced decades ... for me it is a really, really good lens.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: October, 2009 Location: Denver, Colorado Posts: 2,030
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 27, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $260.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Size, Ease Of Focusing, Sharpness | | Cons: | A bit of fringing wide open | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-7
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I was in need of a good auto-aperture 135mm and this lens fits the bill perfectly. It is bright in the viewfinder, easy to focus and renders beautifully. I find it usable at f/2.8 and tack-sharp at f/4.0 (and above).
Colors are typically warm but not overly saturated, bokeh is good and the wide focusing ring is a joy to use.
With this lens, a DA 35mm f/2.4 AL and a fast fifty, I have a handy and lightweight walk-around kit.
Prices have gone up somewhat since the "A" series lenses have become more popular, but considering what an A/F version would cost, it's still a great value!
A few sample photos here;
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/lens-sample-photo-archive/196209-pentax-1...ml#post2074582
Ron
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: March, 2012 Location: Berkeley,CA Posts: 32
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 4, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Easy to use with a DSLR, Built in Hood, f 2.8, Really Sharp when stopped down, Nice color rendering, SMC | | Cons: | f 2.8, not sharp wide open | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K-3
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I've been using this lens for the last week and I absolutely love it. Compared to my Jupiter 37a it's much easier to use and I can achieve much faster shutter speeds with it thanks to it's bigger max aperture (f 2.8 vs f 3.5). Plus I can let the camera decide the shutter speed in Av mode (or was it Tv? I mix the two up a lot) so that saves a lot of fiddling. This lens also has a much better resistance to flaring even without using the built in hood.
Leave it at f 4.5 pull out the lens hood and shoot away!
Overall I'd highly recommend the lens!
Some pics I took with this lens, after editing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slappyfin3/7714661104/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slappyfin3/7714177344/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slappyfin3/7714142650/in/photostream | | | | | Senior Member Registered: August, 2010 Location: North Caucasus Posts: 205
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 26, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, price, build quality, fun to use | | Cons: | Colors lack a tiny bit of punch | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: K10D
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It is a wonderful glass and deserves some attention.
- The lens is very fun to use, focusing ring is smooth and wide. It has nice built-in hood.
- Sharpness is very good when stopped down, but at 2.8 it is okay as well.
- Contrast is average, but not bad.
- Colors sometimes really nice, but calm.
- CA are present but rather controllable.
- Bokeh tends to be busy, but usually good.
Highly recommended.
Samples:
f/5.6
f/2.8
 | | | | | New Member Registered: December, 2010 Location: SGP Posts: 13 | | Review Date: June 8, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Compact, well built, easy to focus, colour, bokeh | | Cons: | Not easily available, minimum focus distance | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K7
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This lens is definitely under-rated by some users. The built is good and the compact size makes it an easy walk around lens. Manual focus is smooth and silky and the feel of this lens is not unlike my Osawa 135mm AI mount lens, which is solidly built.
This gem is a rather rare lens to find, once in a long while you may encounter one on sale.
At f2.8, my copy is a little dreamy which is not a bad thing for shooting portrait. Stopping down, even from f4 produces sharp images and excellent sharpness beyond f5.6. Colours are Pentax like with vibrant and 3D feel. The built in hood is convenient but I use a longer hood for better contrast (no vignetting on digital crop body). Being the A series, the ability to control the aperture from the body and auto metering is a big plus on a long focal length manual focus lens like this one. So much easier to use compared to the M and K series. | | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2012 Posts: 13 | | Review Date: April 19, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $130.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | small, light auto aperture, super sharp | | Cons: | purple fringing is bad without a hood | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K01
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This is a small gem of a lens, seriously. its much lighter than i expected, having 4 elements instead of the 6 in the K135. it is sharp, almost as sharp as normal digitally optimised lenses surprisingly (compared to tamron 1750 @ f4), on film it is even better. details are very good, though contrast wide open is a little less than i like, though tt can be solved by processing or stopping down. same thing for purple fringing too. f4 is excellent for most portraits, but 2.8 is jus fine too. bokeh is smooth and round thanks to the 8 aperture blades, and i love the rendering of this lens. plus u save on a lens hood cos its built in i believe its worth at least a 9, so i'm putting a 10 for this to balance it out | | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2011 Location: London UK Posts: 1
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 1, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: N/A |
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Can I shed a little light on this? The lens was given a real stinker of a review on the now moribund (ie not updated) website http://stans-photography.info which has lengthy reviews and commentary on most of the Pentax lenses of yesteryear. I suspect that is the source of much of the low opinion/esteem in which it is held. I passed-up on buying one several times - though the prices were very reasonable - because of these comments, and I bought the K series SMC 135mm f2.5 instead, although heavier, older, and non-A. This lens (the one I bought) really is tack sharp and has given me some wonderful shots wide open. But maybe I will pick up an A2.8 if I see one now, given the positive comments here. It will have its uses!
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: December, 2011 Posts: 95
6 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 22, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $95.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, great colors, build | | Cons: | manuial focus | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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great prime lens, real fun to shoot, really sharp
see some test photos and crops:
100% crop:
Bridge:
three 100% crops from Bridge:
Phone boot and people:
100% crop:
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2011 Posts: 437
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 12, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $14.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Color, bokeh, contrast, easy to focus, | | Cons: | Some aberations | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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I think this lens is much better than its reputation. It's great for taking portraits from a safe distance. I'm always amazed by the photos this lens produces. Wonderful colors, great contrast and beautiful bokeh. The build quality is good and solid. Because of the long focus ring precise focusing is very easy.
On the con side: In high contrast situations there is some CA and PF.
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