Forum Member Registered: June, 2014 Posts: 58 | Review Date: July 29, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $16.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | sharp, small, light | Cons: | push-pull design, zoom creep, very long min. focus distance | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: KP, SF1n
| | This lens is small and light for its zoom range and apertures. The optical quality is very good. The lens is sharp through the zoom range at F5.6 and up. My copy has some haze, hence the low price, however, it doesn't seem to seriously affect the image quality. The lens is OK for portraits and flowers, but not as great as my Botanical Lens A35-105/3.5. Bokeh can be busy and a little bit swirling at the long end wide open.
UPDATE: Scans from the test film roll show very good performance on full frame. See the last picture shot at 135mm and F8.
The main drawbacks are zoom creep and VERY long minimum focus distance of 1.7 m. Handling on my Pentax KP is OK, this lens is much easier to use than its unwieldy big brother 35-210mm.
Pentax SF1n, Kodak Vision 3 250D
Pentax SF1n, Kodak Portra 400
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New Member Registered: January, 2017 Posts: 2 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: January 22, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $150.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Solid Construction | Cons: | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Camera Used: KS02
| | I have all a few A series manual zooms, incl the rare 35 -210 (of which i think this of the same build family) and I also have the famous 35-105. Anyway this lens is actually fantastic. it is very sharp at F5.6, and has the pentax pop. Build quality is top notch. AF indicator works fine for manual focus. It is not as good as the 35-105 (manual A series), but a beautiful piece of glass.
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Forum Member Registered: June, 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 96 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: September 9, 2007 | Recommended
| Rating: 7 |
Pros: | Nice range, sharp from f5.6, usable in program modes, light and compact. | Cons: | zoom creep, softer wide open, light CA | | You don't see this one that often. I got a hold of it together with a camera.
Pretty interesting lens.
Wide open it's a little soft, but it from f5.6 on it becomes sharper. At f8 it's actually very nice and sharp. It has some light CA wide open.
This lens is light and compact for its range. Definitely an alternative if you don't want to get noticed too much, and still want some tele-reach.
At f3.5 at 135mm you get kind of a dreamy effect, which could be used for portraits. This effect decreases when you stop down to f4.
I would say this lens is definitely usable for street and portrait photography, and is a good alternative for more expensive zooms in the range.
Like almost all push-pull zooms, my copy has some zoom creep (the focus/zoom ring moving when you face the lens up or down and let go of it) but this presents no problems when using it, as you must have your hand on the lens barrel for focusing anyway.
Tom
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