| Author: | | New Member Registered: November, 2020 Posts: 5 | | Review Date: December 18, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | Cheap | | Cons: | Clunky and feels cheap | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 4
Value: 6
Camera Used: Pentax K1000 SE
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The lens itself is decent, but just decent. It seems to have pretty good coatings on it.
The body feels really cheap and plasticy and does not inspire the same confidence as something like a metal constructed lens. The aperture ring is clunky and sometimes fails to hold the aperture at f/2.
It's great for everyday shooting and someone who's learning photography, but I wouldn't go out and buy one just to have it. The one I have came with the camera I purchased.
The lens itself is a PITA to service and is unnecessarily complicated. There's a gazillion small parts that could potentially get lost in the process of servicing it, so you must be very careful.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2020 Posts: 24 | | Review Date: November 29, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | small, fast enough for most of photos, affordable, light, sharp | | Cons: | aperture ring feels stiff | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K110D
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Excellent handling and performance. This lightweight little prime highly enjoyable to use and results are great for it's price.
My unit had a stiff aperture ring but because of "A" mode using in camera controls is possible, it doesn't affect my usage.
| | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2016 Posts: 5
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 13, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Covers medium format digital sensor without any vignetting | | Cons: | Less sharpness bit made up with excellent colors and bokeh | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Fuji GFX 50R MF
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Lens covers medium format sensor when adapter. No vignetting whatsoever.
Beautiful colors relatively fine sharpness as compared to mf pentax equivalent lenses and dirt cheap in price but not in value.
I couldn't upload the photos because this website is still stuck in 1997.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2017 Location: Medellín Posts: 1,322 | | Review Date: January 10, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Small, pankace like, light. | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Film bodies, K-5
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It won't win any awards, but it's discrete and a good all-rounder. Small, plastic, cheap, light.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2019 Posts: 15 | | Review Date: January 6, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | As good as the f1.7 version for 90% of photos | | Cons: | Plastic feel and behaviour | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 6
Value: 8
Camera Used: Film
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A nice little lightweight lens. Many people think an f2 50mm is completely worse than a f1.7 version, but it's almost exactly the same except it struggles in low light as the glass is smaller. It cost less, too. As with all A series SMC lenses it's mainly plastic and through the years it breaks and degrades and malfunctions. And they are really horrible to take apart and service if you buy a dirty one. Because A series lenses are plastic, they are variable in quality for ease of function; some work well, some grind, some have dead focus spots, etc. Buy the M series if you want comparable optics but with finer build quality.
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: March, 2011 Location: Ontario Posts: 89 | | Review Date: December 1, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $4.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Small, effective and a huge bargain. | | Cons: | For the price, there is no much I can add here | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Super A, K3ii, PZ20
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I picked up mine at the local Sally-Ann for about $4US. For that price this is the best value out there. Do I have a better 50mm lens? Yeah for sure. I own: A50/1.7, FA50/1.4, K50/1.4, M50/4 macro, FA50/2,8 macro, Super-Tak 50/1.4 and a SMC Tak 55/1.8. They all have better image quality, but they are also all bigger (except the A50/1.7 - its exactly the same size), heavier and cost me a lot more. Even the cheapest one, the A50/1.7 was more than 15 times the price but it's not 15 times the lens.
Once stopped down to 2.8 or more it's as sharp as you could need for 90% of applications. Color rendition is Pentax great and contrast is excellent. You could use this for 11x14 or even 16x20 enlargements without a concern. It has the coveted 'A' setting, focus is smooth and the aperture setting is positive and precise even if the ring is plastic - which does not bother me one bit. The aperture setting is not quite as smooth as M and K series lenses, but is better in that respect than the F or FA series. But on today's cameras how often do you take it off 'A'.
This lens has an overall rating of over 8, and it deserves that on it's merits alone, not taking the value into account. Taking the value into account it's a solid 10. If you can pick up one of these for under $30, go for it. At that price is a heck of a bargain. At $4 it's like winning a lottery!
Mine has a permanent home on my PZ20 and is a backup for the A50/1.7 on my Super A.
| | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2016 Posts: 7 | | Review Date: August 10, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $35.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Small, good image quality, A-setting | | Cons: | Uses lot of plastic | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 8
Camera Used: Pentax K-30
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I keep this lens on my camera because its lightweight, very small, and has good image quality. It does use a lot of plastic, which is good and bad. Plastic is lightweight, but plastic is not as tough as metal and may brittle with age. Image quality is very good, but unfortunately not as good as the Ricoh XR Rikenon 50mm F2 lens. However, for the price of $35 US, I can't complain.
| | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2019 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: June 19, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $5.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Very small and light weight. Cheap | | Cons: | Aperture ring feels very stiff | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 7
Value: 8
Camera Used: Sony A6000
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This lens is great for when I wanna use a lightweight set up. The aperture ring is very stiff so usually I tend to not change it much.
It may not be the sharpest but the colors and contrast make up for it.  | | | | | Forum Member Registered: September, 2012 Location: Tokyo Posts: 72
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 10, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Tiny, Light, Smooth Focusing, Auto Aperture | | Cons: | None for the price | |
A lens that were it made today would have to be premium priced for its combination of compact size, excellent handling and performance. Capable of very good results. Automatic aperture makes it easy to use on any Pentax DSLR, and full-frame means you can re-use it on a mirrorless or Pentax full size sensor camera too should you end up there one day.
Aperture ring is a little crunchy but leave it on A and use the camera controls. Focusing is just as smooth and tactile as any Takumar, Leica or Nikon manual lens I own.
I use it on my 2005 Pentax istDS, which makes for a very small and light package. Example in first picture, followed by photos taken with this camera/lens combination.
      | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: November, 2017 Location: Garden City, NY Posts: 6,349 | | Review Date: November 9, 2017 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp - easy to focus - handling | | Cons: | Bit slow | | Sharpness: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-50, K-1000
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I got this lens with my K-1000 when I got her off ebay... ~$50 all together maybe? While I know I have used the lens with my K-50, all the pictures below were taken on Film (K-1000).
I'm not so technical, so I rather show some examples of the lens as a review.
This was my go to lens for a while; it is extremely easy to use, which aided me very much to learn Manual photography (K-1000).
While most of the shots presented for review here are taken at mid to minimum aperture (hence the big depth of field), the lens does present nice bokeh when properly used (see the orange picture for example).
Great beginner glass - it makes you solve issues of poor lighting, and gets you to improvise a bit... I'd recommend.
     | | | | | Junior Member Registered: June, 2015 Location: Százhalombatta, Hungary Posts: 37 | | Review Date: October 13, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $29.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Smooth focusing, "A" setting, quite sharp from f/2.8 onwards, compactness | | Cons: | The plastic aperture ring is definitely its weakness | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K10D
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I got this lens mainly for the reason that it is an "A" lens. This is my second 50mm, the other being an Auto Chinon MC 50mm f/1.4. Although the other is better optically, this one makes shooting a breeze, since I can just forget about stop-down metering and simply focus and shoot, which makes this lens very-very useful, even on a modern DSLR. My K10D is equipped with a split screen, which improves the usability of this lens.
My copy however isn't in mint condition; the lens has some dust inside, not visible on the images though and the aperture ring struggles, when I switch it from "A" to manual mode. However, I do not ever plan on using it manually, since the "A" setting is the sole reason I purchased this glass. The focusing ring turns very smoothly and image quality-wise the lens performs very well. It's perfectly useable wide open, but it significantly improves around f/2.8 and onward.
Another plus is that I only paid 8000 HUF for this, which is around 29 USD... you can get no lens cheaper than this in my country.
Overall I would give this lens a 9 for its price-performance ratio, but it wouldn't be correct, since the 1.7 version is better. I give this a strong 8 therefore.
Autumn Leaves ~ Pentax K10D + smc PENTAX-A 50mm f/2 ~ f/2.8 ; 50mm; 1/250s ; ISO200 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2014 Location: Nagoya Posts: 577 | | Review Date: August 13, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Small, light, Pentax rendering | | Cons: | Nothing for the price | |
This lens (along with its M sibling) gets a bad rep, which seems to be mainly based on the fact that it's slower and cheaper. It really is still an excellent lens. Sharp (in fact, sharper and more usable wide open than my A50/1.7), nice bokeh, lovely Pentax handling and colours, and so tiny it's essentially pocketable.
The A50/1.7 is probably my favourite Pentax 50mm prime, but if I only had the f2 version instead I certainly wouldn't be complaining.
Wide open on K100D:
 | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2016 Posts: 6
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 13, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Cost. Portraits. | | Cons: | Manual Focus. | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 8
Camera Used: Pentax K Bodies
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Not a fan of primes or manual focus. That's just me... I'm fully aware many people love primes and they produce great photos. I like the practicality of a zoom.
However, every now and then I get a good photo from this lens at F2. Good for portraits and fun to rekindle the manual focusing approach- at least for portraits.
And I dig being able to stick a film lens on a digital body - just to be different but also frugal! Seems to catch people's attention.
 | | | | | Forum Member Registered: December, 2015 Location: Charleroi (Belgium) Posts: 60 | | Review Date: May 4, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $24.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | decent and cheap | | Cons: | decent and cheap | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-50
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So, here's the deal: it's a good lens, but... the 50mm A f1.7 does better. It's as simple as that.
Color rendering is good, sharpness too, handling too, bla bla bla. It's not really an "exciting" lens, but it does the job.
Buy the 1.7 version if you can, otherwise this is nearly as good, for cheaper.
I don't have much to add.
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: February, 2016 Location: Moab, Utah Posts: 90
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 18, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $5.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, color rendering | | Cons: | bokeh, only 6 aperture blades | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: Sony A7s, A7m2
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This lens is the lens I used in high school with the camera Mr. Schaeffer let me borrow for journalism class . I also own the 1.4 which he would never let me touch. This lens, as far as I can tell is just as sharp as the f1.4, colors just as good. It's sharper than my Sony 28-70 kit lens. Where it lacks is the 6 blades of the aperture just don't make for cool looking out of focus stuff. It's not bad, but not the same wow factor as the 1.4. I've had at least 3 of these. They're easy to take apart and get any dust out of and put back together. Really a pleasure to use this lens too. It just feels right.
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