| Author: | | Senior Member Registered: January, 2012 Posts: 103
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 1, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Amazing piece of glass! | | Cons: | None! | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-01, K-30
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I share the previous reviewer's musings about whether this is the sharpest lens ever. Perhaps, perhaps not - I certainly have not tried every lens ever made for Pentax. But it is by far the sharpest I have ever used! I thought the 50mm M F1.7 was sharp (and indeed it is), but this one even beats it's venerable older brother. It truly is an amazing piece of glass. It's not just sharp, it also gets nearly perfect scores in bokeh, CA, distortion, you name it - this lens can do no wrong. And the fact that you can use it with full auto-aperture functionality is an added plus - no green button metering necessary! If you can find one, don't part with it!
| | | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: November, 2013 Posts: 9
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 26, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Is this the best 50mm ever ? | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K5. K10D
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Just gets the edge over the 50mm M f1.7. Not on sharpness but on colour rendition .
I think this lens is actually better than the f1.4
This is my " baby " and so so good. Don't think about it , just buy it
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: October, 2013 Posts: 94
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 23, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Very sharp, small, light, well made | | Cons: | None so far | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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Another bargain buy, another 50mm prime - I'm building quite a collection. My first impressions are that it's sharp but images are not as pleasant as with my Ricoh and Chinon 50mm f/2 lenses in bright contrasty light. In shade the Pentax steals it with excellent colour and tone reproduction (see 2nd sample below).
It's very small and very light but feels like a quality lens, with smooth, even focusing and a positive, precise aperture ring. It looks and handles like a proper lens should. At f5.6 it's nice and sharp, wide open it's a little softer but still acceptable and aberrations are notable by their absence.
Samples here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1630revello/sets/72157637968472706/
Edited JPEGs with FRC below
 | | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2013 Posts: 15
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 9, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $7.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Size, IQ, ease of use | | Cons: | Non | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-5II
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Bought this lens for $7(!!!!!!) in an op-shop in mint condition.
Probably my best buy ever!
It is compact and easy to use and gives great results.
Love the build quality and the large focus scale.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2013 Location: Ontario Posts: 726
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 23, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Fast, built quality, sharp | | Cons: | Manual only | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K5
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I got this lens along a few other A and M series lenses and a SuperProgram 35mm camera from my parents a few years ago.
This is by far the sharpest lens in my collection, if ... you focus it right. A bit soft at f/1.7 but very sharp at f/2 and up
Bokeh is very smooth and is attractive, as expected from a fast prime.
If you pixel peep, you'll notice some very slight aberrations, especially when using longer exposure.
Being a manual focus lens, handling it is a joy with a long focus ring travel for precise focussing and a nice compact body.
Pair this lens with a Takumar macro focussing + doubling adapter and you end up with a fast 1:1 100mm f/2. macro lens which works beautifully.
This is a very good lens which often gets overlooked being a manual focus but it should find it's place in more photographers collection. It is cheaper than the other Pentax 50mm primes (f/1.2, f/1.4) yet it delivers almost as good image quality. 9/10
| | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2013 Location: Samara region, Tlt Posts: 1
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 9, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $110.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp wide open, build quality, "A" | | Cons: | expensive in aftermarke | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: Kr
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It was my dreamlens. Bought in Moscow last summer. Sharp, silky focusing, nice colours with hood. Excellent lens.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: September, 2012 Posts: 41
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 15, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Small, solid, sharp, very cheap, 49mm filter | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: KX
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Is sharp, even from f1.7. The narrow depth of focus at wider apertures requires careful manual focusing, or ensuring the camera body has been accurately calibrated. Produces nice images, with really good color.
The 49mm filter thread is shared with a lot of other Pentax primes, so filter and hood sharing is possible. Helps keep the kit small and costs low.
Fantastic lens for the price. Makes it hard to justify moving to FA/DA series.
| | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2013 Posts: 11
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 7, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Bokeh, sharpness, construction | | Cons: | Non AF | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Kr
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Just a must have!
It's a classical lens and shooting with it is a real pleasure, it gives amazing pictures at 1.7 in B&W.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2013 Posts: 161
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 4, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $55.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Price | | Cons: | none i can think of | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-30
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I just got this lens and i feel is really good for the money. This is my first prime so I cannot really say that this is better or worse than other lenses. However, I can say that for $50 you can't go wrong.
You can spend 4 times that to get an autofocus lens with this same optical characteristics. In my case it made total sense to check out different primes on their older version and once I decide which focal length or lengths i use the most, then i will look into autofocus.
This is *hands down* better than my 18-55 WR that came with the camera at 50mm. The kit lens is good when stopping it down, but then makes low light really challenging.
Overall, i would recommend this lens in a heartbeat.
Some photos:
 | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2013 Posts: 2
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 23, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Fast, sharp, light, well made | | Cons: | Boring | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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The 1.7 was the standard lens on Pentax mid-level 35mm SLRs in the eighties. That's how I got mine: Attached to a new Program Plus body. This lens has been used for everything from party snapshots to duping multiple exposure transparencies while mounted backwards on a Auto Bellows A. The pre-Photoshop days, oh yeah....
This lens is boring, pedestrian, common, cheap....and very, very good. I don't use it very much any more, but when I do, it still delivers. I have a 50mm Sigma macro f2.8 with autofocus that should relegate the Pentax to the storage box, but unless I need autofocus, the Pentax seems to be a little better optically. It's staying in the bag, until there isn't room for it anymore, which is unlikely.
The lens hood is really weak - held in place with two spring loaded shoes that press into the filter threads. The slightest touch either rotated it out of alignment, or knocked it off the lens. Finally, one of the wimpy plastic spring retainers unraveled, rendering it useless. I epoxied the hood to a filter step up ring of suitable size, and cured the security problem permanently.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: April, 2012 Location: Melbs Posts: 1,240
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 12, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $35.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Small, light, A setting | | Cons: | Ugly | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K10
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Its a fast 50. Its light, it has an "a" setting, its probably no different to the M 50 1.7
The A is handy, but no big deal. If you have a M 50 1.7. just use that for peets sake. If the stop down metering bothers you that much, sell it and find one of these.
The Aperture ring does feel like crap. but you are going to buy it and leave it in A mode aren't you?
This is my "I'm outside drinking and I want to take photos of things lens". In that leaving in in Green SUPER COMMANDER mode, you can be sure exposure will be accurate :P Thats exciting because I really haven't got that sort of accurate results from a non "a" setting glass before.
Anyway. If you want a excuse you buy one, It looks alright if you are facing front on. :P
But have no illusion it feel like a proper 1980's artifact. plastic, disposable, all that jazz. you can just feel the pending economic recession of the early 90's in the air when you use it :P
Still. Optically it's great.
Heaps of colour like an M, A, K glass.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: December, 2007 Location: In the most populated state... state of denial Posts: 1,852
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 9, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Great construction, perfect image, electronic contacts | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Film Cameras, DSLRs K100, K5ii, KX, K3-iii
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Wonderful lens to use with all the Pentak K mount cameras
from the old Kx to the new DSLRs....
I got it as part of the SuperProgram Kit, and has been in use ever since
Images are vivid, and sharp
No major drawbacks on this lens
PS - I see people complaining about the aperture ring, haven't had a problem with it
PS2 - It works great in the K3-III and fringing is well controlled.
| | | | | Closed Account Registered: January, 2011 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 25
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 4, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharp, smooth focus ring, excellent value | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K7
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 Bought it online and seller included a polarizing filter and lens hood for $60. Very happy with its performance. My eye sight isn't the best so I have difficulty focusing in low light situations. I'm planning to pick up a split screen to help with that. I like this lens alot.
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: June, 2011 Location: Westerville, OH Posts: 1,588
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 12, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp, smooth focusing, f1.7, A setting, great value | | Cons: | plastic aperture ring | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-01
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Found this little gem in a local camera shop along with an M 135/3.5, in their used lens case. I was able to get them both for $60. So, for me at least, this lens started out as a really good value. I haven't had it very long, but from what I have seen so far I am liking it a lot. It is of typical Pentax build quality, except for the cheap plastic aperture ring. But since I will almost always being using it on the A setting, that isn't that big of a deal to me.
The focus ring works smoothly. And on a K-01, with focus peaking, focusing, for me, has gotten way easier and better. I just installed a split screen on my K-5 and am looking forward to shooting with it on that.
The images below were taken, handheld, with the A 50 1.7 on a K-01, wide open, using only available light in a conservatory on a cloudy day. Other than converting from RAW to jpeg, there was no post processing done. I think they are a good demonstration of the sharpness of this lens wide open and the smooth creamy bokeh.
I gave this lens an overall rating of 9. I think it is a great lens, but I had to take off 1 point for the cheap plastic aperture ring.
I can definitely recommend this lens.
   | | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2012 Posts: 1
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 25, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | compact, price, weight | | Cons: | focusing at night | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-5, ME1000
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Every SLRs are very compact with this lens. It is realy good lens for portrait. It have nice draw and colours. Very sharp.
Absolutly recomanded.
Photo for example:
Bonsai | | |
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