Author: | | Pentaxian Registered: September, 2009 Location: Dayton, OH Posts: 403 | Review Date: December 22, 2022 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Price, build quality, sharpness. | Cons: | None | | As with the other 645 lenses, it's very solid and has a great feel and I like it as a portrait lens (on film).
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: October, 2018 Location: Quebec City, Quebec Posts: 6,493 | Review Date: February 1, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $110.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Extremely sharp, beautiful colors and contrast. Solid build. | Cons: | None | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax 645Z, 645N
| | I really wanted an FA 150 mm f/2.8. I read it was "plasticky", meaning it was built of plastic to lower the weight of moving parts inside the autofocus lens. Plus, a second-hand like-new version cost more than 500 $ and it was said to be barely usable wide-open. I found a nice copy of the manual-focus "A version" for only 110 $. Built of metal, crazy sharp, very light and compact, with a built-in lens hood, what more can anyone ask ? | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Posts: 10,846 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: September 7, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Good build, seems competent | Cons: | Lacks the medium format magic of my other 645 lenses | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax 645
| | I must admit to having used this lens much less than my other two 645 lenses (55mm & 75mm). It seems on medium format I'm not much of a telephoto shooter.
This lens is solidly built like the other A series 645 lenses. It handles well and works smoothly.
It's hard to identify shots taken with this lens because film has no EXIF data but from the shots I have looked at I can say that this lens is competent - decent contrast and sharpness and good bokeh. However, photos taken with it seem to lack the medium format magic that I see in many images taken with the other lenses. They look like sharper, smoother-toned 35mm shots.
I bought this lens for portraits but have found that the 645 with this lens attached are far too big to pint at people without them noticing so I it's not really fit for that purpose. I will endeavour to get out and use it more so that I can get a more accurate feel for it and what it's capable of but it's a solid perfomer if nothing else.
Here are a few sample photos.
Pentax 645 Rollei RPX 100 009a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Untitled by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Pentax 645 Acros 2015 008a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
| | | | New Member Registered: August, 2015 Posts: 1 | Review Date: August 8, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Image quality, size and weight | Cons: | Lack of AF? | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 7
Camera Used: 645D, Nikon D800
| | It has only 4 elements but performs impressively.
I rated 10 because I couldn't find any negative part.
Sharpness is nice despite the fact that it has only 4 elements. On 645D and used in landscape, even F3.5 ensures top notch sharpness if focused correctly. Initially I had some difficulty to focus precisely when the lens was combined with 645D; the focus was somewhat foreground when I felt it was on.
Aberrations are well controlled; I actually can see longitudinal CAs between F3.5 and F5.6 in high contrast part, but it is minimal. Besides CAs, there's nothing I should mention.
Bokeh is smooth. At wide open, vignetting (fall off) causes not circular bokeh, but it doesn't matter for me.
Handling is really good. Small and light weighted, so quite easy to handle.
Value was little bit expensive though both appearance and optics are so clean; also it should be noted that FA 150/2.8 costs more!
| | | | | New Member Registered: September, 2014 Posts: 1 | Review Date: September 3, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Sharp wide open, dirt cheap | Cons: | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: 645D
| | Truly impressed with the sharpness of this lens wide open; and the gradation into bokeh is buttery smooth. I was a bit reluctant to go as slow as F/3.5 for a portrait lens, but I have no regrets since there's no need/advantage to stopping down. Built like a tank, mid-sized, easy to focus. As others have mentioned, the minimum focus range makes it not the best choice for smaller products or isolated flowers, etc.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2008 Location: Greensboro,NC Posts: 503 1 user found this helpful | | | | Forum Member Registered: July, 2011 Posts: 72 | Review Date: July 11, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $180.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | light, small, sharp, built in lens hood | Cons: | manual focus | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: 645D
| | I bought this lens because of it's size and price. It is much smaller than the FA version, but provides the same image quality. Of course it is manual focus only and that may or may not be a problem for some people. I primarly do landscape photography with my 645D so manual focus is not a problem for me.
At f3.5 the lens is a little bit soft, but already from f4.0 on it gets better. I would say the sweet spot for this lens is between f6.7 and f.8 and it has a nice bokeh too.
Overall I am really impressed by the performance of this small, light and also cheap lens. For landscape I prefer it to the FA version because of it's size and weight. For portrait I would not recommend the lens, because it can be quite hard to focus when you have not enough time.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2008 Location: Albuquerque NM Posts: 9,830 | Review Date: May 5, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Sharp, compact and fast | Cons: | Needs a bit closer focus | | I bought this as part of a package with a well used 645 last year. It has performed admirably. This is a great focal length for portraits, and its resolution is far beyond anything I expected from medium format. Because I don't have a longer lens for my 645, I have needed to crop down to 35mm-sized negatives, and the results are as good as I would get with a good 35mm tele lens. Color is also snappy.
My only complaint would be that it could focus a few feet closer. The minimum focus is just a few feet too far to take a "product" shot. It is a shame to need to purchase the bulkier and far more expensive macro lens to get that focus, but perhaps an extension tube is the answer. I'm sure that closer focus would have affected one of this lenses other attributes--relatively small size.
Overall, for the price, this is one of the best bargains out there.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2006 Location: NJ USA Posts: 13,072 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: January 11, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Small, light, built in hood, very sharp etc | Cons: | I wish it focuses a bit closer | | There's really not much I can say about the 645 lenses - what to compare them to? How much is due to 120 film?
This is a modern manual focus lens, very well made - feels more solid than the SMC-A 35mm lenses I've used, though probably this is due to the size of the lens.
There are no optical problems that I can see.
The only complaint I have is common to most Pentax primes - I wish they'd focus a bit closer for greater magnification. Using the smallest extension tube works great, but of course you lose infinity (and past about 10 feet or so, if I recall right).
| | | | New Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Toronto Posts: 2 | Review Date: July 15, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | great value, crisp optics | Cons: | a bit slow at f/3.5 | | I'm finding this SMC Pentax-A 645 lens to be a great value. It feels solidly built (as all the A-series primes do). In the 645 lineup, this lens makes a portraiture/near-telephoto focal length option available without being exceptionally costly. It may be a bit slower than Pentax's other 645 150mm offering (f/3.5 for this versus f/2.8 for the FA autofocus version), which is a downside for the low-light shooting I prefer, and it may have fewer elements than its autofocus successor, but I find the optical resolution is still quite crisp. I already had a screw-mount lens hood readied for it, but it comes with a built-in, polycarbonate-rimmed hood. Because autofocus lenses may be where demand is greater, I feel this to be a sleeper value. I shall recommend it to colleagues who've adopted the Pentax 645 system, even if they're using a recent 645NII kit and are typically used to working with autofocus lenses.
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