| Author: | | New Member Registered: January, 2014 Posts: 2 | | Review Date: September 12, 2016 | Not Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 4 |
| Pros: | fun of using a fisheye | | Cons: | chromatic aberrations | | Sharpness: 6
Aberrations: 3
Bokeh: 4
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 4
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K5 ii
| |
fun to use as fisheye, average sharpness,
a lot of chromatic aberrations,especially when making HDRs
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2009 Location: Rome (Italy) Posts: 16 | | Review Date: June 9, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | Lightweight, solid construction | | Cons: | Huge purple fringing and CA | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 1
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 6
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K5 II
| |
I bought this lens to complete my Pentax lenses collection, in the 10-20mm range.
I like very much fish-eye creative effect, I see with this lens you have a multi-purpose wide angle lens, because at 17mm the fish-eye distortion is very low and at 10mm you can get a nice fish-eye effect.
I was disappointed by its big purple fringing, especially compared with some third parts alternatives like the Samyang 8mm fish-eye manual focus lens.
When shooting outdoors it's very difficult to get rid of purple fringing, even if stopped down. The same problem is indoors if you have spotlight in your frame.
All in all, I can recommend this lens only if low priced, otherwise I suggest a third part fish-eye lens and, in the 10-20mm range, I suggest a linear wide angle.
| | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2016 Posts: 8 | | Review Date: July 1, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $170.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Sharp , colors, contrast, very close min .focus | | Cons: | distortion, edges, aberration | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 6
Handling: 7
Value: 8
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: k5iis
| |
It's a lens that is super fun to use and very sharp at f11. I love to put the sun in my pics, just does grest in transforming the sun into a day statr. Stoping it down makes it a great lens. What I love in the minimum close up distance you can acheive with this lens, it's just perfect fo landscaping. At 17mm there is a lot less distortion, but you always have to put the horizon line in the middle to have it strait, since it'a a fisheye.
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2014 Location: Washington Posts: 2,176 | | Review Date: September 16, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $285.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Wide angle, you can get an image when nothing else will. | | Cons: | Not really sharp until f11. Chromatic aberrations. | | Sharpness: 6
Aberrations: 4
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 6
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K3
| |
I bought this lens as a demo from a reputable store. The price was right, $285.
I should have tested it before I went on vacation. I have a habit of shooting at f5.6 and it was a mistake. My copy does not get sharp on the edges until f11. Oh well, lesson learned, shoot at f11 and the results will be fine.
Check out my test on Flickr. Download the images so you can check them at 100%.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/24877856@N00/albums/72157673965333695 | | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Florida Posts: 514
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 30, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Fun! Wonderful color rendition & contrast. Quick focus. | | Cons: | Not particularly sharp. Not especially wide | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 6
Value: 7
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K200D
| |
Terrific little lens if you're into a distorted perspective. Truely great fun to use and takes very colorful & contrasty pictures.
Many have rated the sharpness quite high, but considering the pictures posted and my own experience with the lens, it's not particularly sharp - but I think that may also have something to do with the nature of a fisheye lens. For the close distance you can achieve on your subjects, a traditional lens would show much better defined edges and detail. The contrast and wonderful color make up for it in large measure.
Overall I had a great time with this lens and my daughters were especially enamoured with it, but ultimately I sold my copy to persue a more traditional perspective.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2010 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 2,653
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 25, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Compact, good build, fun | | Cons: | Some purple/blue fringing and CA | | Sharpness: 4
Aberrations: 4
Bokeh: 5
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 7
New or Used: New
| |
Nicely made, not the lightest of lenses but well balanced and of solid, precision feel. Some fringing and CA effects with a K-7. No internal reflections or flare, you can shoot straight into the sun without any problems.
Fun to use but takes some practice since some shots work better than others.Great for shooting 360 degree panoramas, being arty or just messing about.
Edit :
I've had this lens for over a year now and the novelty has largely worn off. These days I tend to use it mainly for 360 degree panoramas since it lacks sharpness over all of its zoom range. At 10mm you can live with this as you'd be using it for the fish-eye effect, but at 17mm it is worse than the kit 18-55 at 18mm. Purple and blue fringing can also be bad in some situations.
The https://www.pentaxforums.com/userreviews/samyang-8mm-f3-5-fisheye-cs.html is a better and cheaper fisheye alternative if you don't need autofocus and zoom.
  
  
And an interactive 360 degree panorama - click image below and follow instructions, or better still use this link :
http://www.360cities.net/image/snow-in-manchester
Have a play with the different views or follow the big arrows for other of my 360 degree panos nearby.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: November, 2008 Location: Lismore, NSW, Australia Posts: 144 | | Review Date: November 11, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Fun factor | | Cons: | Getting people to accept a lens 1" away from their face | |
Bought for 'something different'
Wanted to try a fish-eye look on the world and to get different perspective on a traditional viewpoint.
Can be quite interesting when I am virtually touching the car with my camera as I take a shot looking for that artistic angle. People do look at you strangely.
Obviously a big hit with children and for family gatherings as portraits 'with a difference' are taken.
| | | | | New Member Registered: December, 2007 Location: Tallinn Posts: 22 | | Review Date: December 18, 2007 | Recommended
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | FOV, close focus | | Cons: | CA | |
One negative aspect - serious CA and this takes away most of fun using it for landscapes, where it would be real hit, except for the macro with extreme DOF. Still it's big fun and I enjoy every hour spent using this lense.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: June, 2018 Posts: 131 | | Review Date: January 8, 2020 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Light, versatile, fun! | | Cons: | CA | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 6
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K3ii
| |
Easy to carry, goes from fish-eye to super-wide (with distortion). Close focus is really useful. Most importantly to me is it makes photography fun. I shot my brother’s wedding and afterwards I didn’t want to pick up a camera at all. After a week it was this lens that got me out of my rut and into the swing of making and taking photos again. I’m not a fish-eye aficionado and there weren’t many keepers but there were a couple of good ones and it made me think about composition in a fresh light. Very difficult to rate but makes me happy.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: August, 2011 Location: Melbourne Posts: 4,843 | | Review Date: January 28, 2019 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Compact; great FL range; covers FF over 14-17 mm | | Cons: | CA | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K3 and K1
| |
I bought this lens from my son when he shifted to Nikon. Although I mostly shoot FF, it is still useful to me since it covers the FF sensor from 14mm upward. It is also a far more compact UW option than the DFA 15-30 when I don't mind the fishiness.
It is hard to rank this lens for "Aberrations", since one aberration (fishiness) is its raison d'ętre. Ignoring that, it does produce pronounced colour fringing, but is very easily cleaned up in LR. So it's not a problem. On the other hand, its resistance to flare is astonishing, which is very useful for such a wide angle lens.
Sharpness is reasonable, especially at frame centre, and especially in the context of a fisheye lens. It's not going to compare in that regard with a top-quality recent DFA lens, but it is more than acceptable.
The fisheye perspective is of course a rather niche feature. However, in the right time and place, and with the right artistic intent, it produces some striking images. This rather unique 10-17 fisheye is a very nice for occasional use.
The main reason my son had this lens was for underwater (SCUBA) photography, where he got many great images. So much so that he has now bought the identical Tokina version for his Nikon D850. The Pentax/Tokina 10-17 fisheye is very highly regarded by the underwater photography community.
K1 + DA 10-17 @ 17mm
Crop near centre of previous image
 | | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2017 Location: Kiev Posts: 12
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 23, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sturdy metal case. Small sizes. Original photos. Universality (two in one: both a fisheye and a wide angle). Not afraid of backlight. It gives bright, rich colors in the photo. It has no analogues in other systems. | | Cons: | It is easy to scratch the front lens of the lens on the objects being photographed. Chromatic aberrations are very strong. Especially at extreme focal lengths and wide open aperture. | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 3
Bokeh: 6
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 8
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-5
| |
This is a very good lens! There are no analogues to it. Can also be used as a 10mm fish eye. And as a normal 17mm wide-angle lens.
The lens is firmly assembled. Metal reliable design. Not afraid of backlight. Excellent and bright colors. It has small dimensions, as for such a wide constructive.
At 10mm, this lens distorts space. It is necessary to get used to build a frame profitably so that the distortions of this lens create an interesting picture favorably. At the center point of the frame, everything remains almost without distortion. Distortion appears to the left and right of the center. The farther from the center of the frame, the more pronounced they are. But the most intense distortions appear up and down from the central horizontal frame. The farther from the central horizontal up or down frame, the stronger the distortion will be expressed. In accordance with this, as soon as you change the angle regarding the subject of shooting, the picture itself will change a lot. If you learn to choose the most favorable angles with this lens, you will get original and beautiful photos.
The lens has a very wide field of view of the image. At 10mm, you can easily get into the frame with your shoes. It will be visible at the bottom of the picture. Consider this point when taking a picture and do not lean back while taking a picture.
The disadvantages of this lens include strongly pronounced chromatic aberrations. Which occur on all borders between light and dark objects in the frame. To the edges of the frame, the aberrations are enhanced. They can be completely removed using image processing in Photoshop.
Also, when shooting, be careful. The front lens of the lens is so convex that it is very easy to scratch it against hard objects (metal, stone) during the shooting. To remove this lens is capable of being very close to the subject. The image in the viewfinder is moved back due to distortion. And you can easily and imperceptibly rest against the front lens in the object being photographed. And to scratch both the lens itself and the antireflection coating applied to its surface. The lens hood protects it poorly.
I recommend this lens! But when I save a message, it automatically appears "no" instead of "yes." I can not fix it. I do not know what it is connected with.
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2013 Posts: 796
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 11, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $430.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Small, light, versatile zoom range | | Cons: | Purple fringing, not WR | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-30, KP
| |
This lens is a special effect lens, it has a 180 degree diagonal FoV and close focusing capability. Zoomed to 17mm it's near rectilinear. The lens has a built in hood and the hood is visible with any composition adjustment, so with the astrotracer it will show up at the edges.
The lens is very sharp even after using the FA limited other primes, but the much worse purple fringing (CA) makes the overal resolution worse.
Here are some images:
 IMG0139_150228 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG0071_150404 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG0612_141003 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG0222_141002 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170414_0004 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170319_0060 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170626_0083 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170627_0094 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: November, 2014 Location: Michigan Posts: 6,005
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 14, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Size, build, sharpness, color rendition, zoom | | Cons: | Chromatic aberrations, protruding front element, can not use filters | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K10D, K50, K-01, K3
| |
I have not written many lens reviews but I feel this lens deserves one. This was the first DA lens I ever owned purchased used back in 2008. This was also the last lens I ever purchased from a brick and mortar store. The two stores here will not carry any Pentax merchandise. Now on to the review.
This is a special lens and most likely not something you will use every day. Mine sat idle for a very long time till I rediscovered it. Lately I have been using it for cityscapes and night shots. The sharpness of this lens has really amazed me. In night shots I have found the star bursts to be really nice. The fisheye effect diminishes after around 14mm. The angle of the lens to the subject dramatically enhances the fisheye effect as well. If you would like you can defish your shots to some extent in post processing. Chromatic aberrations can a problem in high contrast situations. Stopping the lens down helps alot, of course this makes it slower. Most purple fringing can be fixed in post but this still the major downfall of this lens. Most of my shots with lens are between f8-f11.
The size of the lens makes it easy to carry in your bag anytime. The lens is surprisingly heavy for the small size, but there is a lot of glass packed into this little guy. The lens barely extends or retracts while zooming or focusing. I find manual focus to be quite easy especially using focus peaking. The extremely close focusing ability of this lens makes for some very dramatic shots.
Conclusion
I have almost sold this lens a few times. I am very glad I did not. This a lens for the creative photographer. There are so many possibilities. It really is a fun lens to use once you get used to it. I had a difficult time rating this lens. I really feel 8.5 was the right rating, but I can not rate 8.5 overall. If not for the aberrations I would rate it a 9, but the aberrations are there and they can not be ignored. Here are some examples.
10mm f8 K3
i
Fredrick Meijer Gardens-2015-1.jpg by Michael, on Flickr
13mm f8 K3
Fredrick Meijer Gardens-2015-2.jpg by Michael, on Flickr
17mm f10 K50 defished
Moon Over The Blue Bridge-2015-1.jpg by Michael, on Flickr
13mm f8 K3
Downtown Grand Rapids At Night-1.jpg by Michael, on Flickr
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: April, 2013 Posts: 33 | | Review Date: December 11, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | fisheye | | Cons: | fisheye | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 6
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K5IIs
| |
being a fisheye, clearly has problems of fisheye.
But has excellent performance!
You can see my photo here:
http://goo.gl/UdmGdt
 | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2011 Posts: 8 | | Review Date: September 7, 2014 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Small, colors, angle | | Cons: | purple fringing, possibly fish eye effect...? | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: k5
| |
It is a typical Pentax DA lens: full, rich colors, compact and light. The distortion can be used in a creative way, and almost must, since - especially at 10 mm - the lens cannot be simply used as a wide angle. The 15mm limited does much the same (colors, compact), but without the distortion.
For the fun effect: very good!
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