| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2007 Location: Warsaw Posts: 338 | | Review Date: May 1, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $370.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | looks and feels like Limited | | Cons: | | |
Classical limited lens, looks like 77/1.8. Beautiful pice of metal.
Very sharp from 2.8, nice colors with good saturation.
Interesting macro feature, 1:1 at 14cm so it can be difficult for bugs and flys.
Overall veary good lens for this money. This is what we should always expect from Pentax.
few macro examples http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/da35 | | | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: January, 2008 Location: BC, Canada Posts: 302
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 3, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $419.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Image and Build Quality | | Cons: | | |
- The color rendition is very accurate and the sharpness is excellent throughout the aperture range.
- Auto focusing is fast.
- Manual focusing is smooth.
- True macro just makes the lens that much more useful.
- The built-in lens hood is a plus.
All that is a solid, tight aluminum body ... who else takes this much care in quality? It's very close to a 10 in my opinion.
-=-
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: montreal Posts: 136
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 27, 2008 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | small,well built and soooo sharp! | | Cons: | nothing | |
I simply love that lens,sharp at any f/stop...even f/22!
Well built,small and with a lens hood built-in,what do you want more from a lens...and the price is good also.
It reminds me of my Takumars.
Bring more lenses like that please | | | | | Junior Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: Western Canada Posts: 37
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 13, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $389.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Size, build quality, features, optics, price | | Cons: | see note below | |
Compact, solid build quality; macro/close focusing is a nice feature; built-in hood a nice touch; good optical quality for the price
My only niggle and it's reeeaallly minor is the included lens cap- at 1st I was impressed that it was also made of steel and so solid, until I put a lens filter on and realized it's almost too heavy for it's own good. YWith a filter you have to slide out the built-in hood until it's flush with the filter to get somewhat of a snug feeling fit for the cap. It doesn't thread or snap in at all, it's just kinda pressure fitted. So it just seems that at some point with wear, even if you don't keep a filter on the lens full time, the stock cap is likely to start falling off rather easily. Mine already hit the pavement once. Buying another cap is no big deal, but such a shame.
I really love this lens though- bought mine from a Canadian eekbay vendor called Prodigital 2000 or something like that, CA$389 plus shipping, incl 2 yr warranty and a Cokin MC UV filter.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Munich, Alps, Germany Posts: 6,871
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 16, 2008 | Recommended
| Rating: N/A |
| Pros: | This review is only about full frame capabilities | | Cons: | | |
I have checked a number of DA lenses for their capability to be used on a full frame (24 x 36 mm) body.
On a scale of (-, o, +, ++, +++) this lens got this verdict for suitability with a full frame body from me:0 (full frame, i.e., with a 1.0 crop factor) + (with a 1.15 crop factor) Read the full review, incl. test shots of an ISO chart on film, here:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/318669-post38.html
Please, contribute own sample shots on film for any DA lens in this thread. Thank You.
NOTE: the general rating ("0") in the upper right corner of this review just means that I didn't rate this lens in general terms and my rating is not considered in computing the overall rating.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: t'North Posts: 166
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 27, 2008 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Great from wide open, good to manual focus | | Cons: | risk of lens cap loss if you use UV filter | |
Got this as my walk about lens (grew up with Olympus OM and manual focus 50mm f1.8) and it is incredibly versatile - for MY needs anyhow. One second I can do a pic of my kids or a nice garden shot, next it can be a close-up of some plant or bug.
It is great wide open, enough bokeh for portraits at 5-12 feet to be very natural looking with a gentle 3D effect. Not wide enough for group shots or general landscape use (it is a 50mm equiv after all) Not fast enough for super bokeh, use your f1.4 for that
Macro use is good enough for me (to about 1:3 for plants, nature and abstracts). f8 is ok for hand held outdoors and gives a depth of field about half a cm. If you want 1:1 buy a longer lens as the working distance is almost nil. If you want more d-o-f you will need flash or something to go to f11/f16+
Build is very good by modern japanese standards - my sample is a tiny, tiny bit wobbly (fractions of a mm fore and aft). Love the metal hood and lens cap, they 'feel nice' and manual focus is a joy (better than DA70 imo). However, if you like to use a filter to protect the front element then try it before you buy to be sure you are happy as the lens cap doesnt quite work as well
There is nothing like this in Canon or Nikon, this lens is what convinced me to go digital and go Pentax
| | | | | Moderator
Site Supporter Registered: June, 2008 Location: Florida Hill Country Posts: 17,377
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 29, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $375.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Nice build | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: New
| |
This is a good "normal" lens for the k200d and k20d bodies. I would like to give it a 9.5 but it is better than a 9. I really would like to see Pentax make a ltd 100mm or 125mm macro lens with this type of construction and quality(edit: They did! The D FA 100/2.8 WR macro). I personally believe from a macro stand point that this lens is better than the 50mm D FA macro which is an excellent lens for aps-c.
K20d at f22 and ISO 800 without flash, hand held
*istD
 | | | | | Forum Member Registered: September, 2006 Location: UK Posts: 53 | | Review Date: December 8, 2008 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Image quality + build + cost = lovable! | | Cons: | AF slow on *ist D (it's a macro and on the *ist D, so this is barely a con...) | |
Bravo Pentax, for making lenses that have character, something that makes you want to go out and take photographs, cos that's what this lens is and does. Honestly, if you're in a photographic rut, struggling to find inspiration, buy one of these - I then defy you not to want to go out and shoot any and everything.
And just remember, lens reviews aren't and shouldn't always be about charts and statistics, because there is so much more to this lens than numbers. (I'll stop now before I get carried away, you get the gist, I like it!)
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2008 Location: socal Posts: 1,575
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 31, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $475.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | versatile, good build quality, close focus | | Cons: | can result in inconsistent metering | |
This is a "desert island" lens, in that if you had to only have one prime, this would be a pretty good choice. While it isn't flawless, it does a lot of things well. The size and weight balance well on the K20d, it is a good walkabout lens for street shooting, the close focus/macro is well behaved and gives you a lot of possibilities. The only downside is that sometimes it'll shoot a bit dark. Maybe that is my copy but others have reported similar issues. Also some distant subjects don't quite have the clarity that an FA ltd can produce, but you can't have everything. All in all, highly recommended, and a lens that I won't sell. In fact I have shot it back to back with a 31ltd and while the 31 certainly is better in very low light, the 35 holds it's own and the close focus gives more flexibility. I didn't keep the 31, did keep the 35.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: April, 2008 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 1 | | Review Date: January 2, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $640.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very sharp | | Cons: | Be careful where you buy it, you may pay too much | |
I made the mistake of buying this from a camera shop while on vacation at a friends. It was so beautiful (the sharpness and vibrance were amazing). The lens is amazingly quick to focus, and the images are incredibly sharp (f22). I also like the ability to f2.8.
I could have saved $200 by waiting and buying at adorama or even the old standby BH photovideo.
Excellent lens. Really helping me to do some cool macro shots.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: Sweden, Umea Posts: 876 | | Review Date: January 6, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $600.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | You can use it for almost anything | | Cons: | Its not a 1-500mm 1.0 ultra sharp pancake zoom wheing 300g. | |
What can you say, it does fantastic macro shots, it does portrait fantastic. You wanna take landscape photos when out shooting buggs. Just point it, click the trigger and you got sharp landscape photos.
Its sharp from macro up to landscape (make take some manual focusing, but then you can make it unnaturaly sharp)
It was glued to my K20D my entire hike doing half the C2C in england.
Handheld panorama, 10 shots.
 | | | | | Forum Member Registered: September, 2007 Location: Missouri Posts: 80 | | Review Date: January 8, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Wonderful build quality, great macro capabilities, awesome color and sharpness | | Cons: | Wish it was faster | |
Since getting this lens it has rarely left my camera. Being able to take a normal picture from effectively any distance is a godsend, and the quality is simply unparalleled. The metal build and full-time autofocus is great also. I cannot recommend this enough.
| | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2009 Location: London, England Posts: 4 | | Review Date: January 14, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, versatile, easy to use | | Cons: | None | |
Everything good that has been written here previously is true.
It is an amazingly sharp lens good for all the usual kinds of photography: marcro, portraits, landscapes, etc.
There is very little loss of detail in cropping.
The only problem I have is a strong temptation to use other great Pentax "limited" lenses from time to time.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2007 Posts: 8,237
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 16, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, best color I've seen | | Cons: | f/2.8 | |
.
A modern classic - the colors this lens gives me may be the best in Pentax's lineup.
Contrast, tonality, sharpness - just thrilling.
 | | | | | Junior Member Registered: February, 2009 Posts: 46 | | Review Date: March 10, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $330.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | VERY sharp, great build quality, F 2.8 | | Cons: | none? | |
Got this lens for a steal of of ebay. As everyone else has said, it simply takes very sharp images with very accurate colors. Great for macro, some portraits, and I have yet to do much landscape with it.
No editing whatsoever
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