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SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL Review RSS Feed

SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL

Sharpness 
 9.1
Aberrations 
 8.6
Bokeh 
 8.3
Autofocus 
 8.5
Handling 
 8.8
Value 
 9.7
Reviews Views Date of last review
157 765,246 Mon October 31, 2022
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Recommended By Average Price Average User Rating
98% of reviewers $159.74 9.14
SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL

SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL
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SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL
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SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL
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Description:
The SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL is a budget lens retailing for only $219.95 in the USA. This lens features SP coating. For a limited period of time, the DA 35mm was available in 12 different colors to match different camera bodies. Despite being labeled as a DA lens (as opposed to DA L), it does NOT feature quick-shift focusing, and has a plastic bayonet and no distance scale on the focusing ring.

SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL
© www.pentaxforums.com, sharable with attribution
Image Format
APS-C
Lens Mount
Pentax K
Aperture Ring
No
Diaphragm
Automatic, 6 blades
Optics
6 elements, 5 groups
Mount Variant
KAF
Check camera compatibility
Max. Aperture
F2.4
Min. Aperture
F22
Focusing
AF (screwdrive)
Quick-shift
No
Min. Focus
30 cm
Max. Magnification
0.17x
Filter Size
49 mm
Internal Focus
No
Field of View (Diag. / Horiz.)

APS-C: 44 ° / 38 °
Hood
PH-SA49 (rectangular plastic clip-on), RH-RC49 (threaded folding rubber hood)
Case
S70-70
Lens Cap
Coating
SMC,SP
Weather Sealing
No
Other Features
Diam x Length
63 x 45 mm (2.5 x 1.8 in.)
Weight
124 g (4.4 oz.)
Production Years
2010 to present (in production)
Pricing
$146 USD current price
Engraved Name
smc PENTAX-DA 1:2.4 35mm AL
Product Code
21987
Reviews
User reviews
In-depth review
Unofficial Full-Frame Compatibility Tests by Pentax Forums
★★☆ Full coverage at some F-stop and focal length combinations
Show details
Notes
User tests show that this lens covers the 24x36 mm format.
One aspherical element.
Lens hood and case are not included with the lens.
Plastic lens mount.
Variants

Produced in many colors


Features:
Screwdrive AutofocusAutomatic ApertureAPS-C Digital Only
Purchase: Buy the SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL
In-Depth Review: Read our SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL in-depth review!
Sample Photos: View Sample Photos
Price History:



Add Review of SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL Buy the SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL
Author:
Sort Reviews by: Date | Author | Rating | Recommendation | Likes (Descending) Showing Reviews 61-75 of 157
Forum Member

Registered: February, 2011
Location: Okinawa, Japan
Posts: 91
Review Date: September 22, 2014 Recommended | Price: $130.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Super light, compact and decently sharp
Cons: No quick shift
Sharpness: 8    Aberrations: 7    Bokeh: 8    Autofocus: 8    Handling: 9    Value: 10    New or Used: Used    Camera Used: K5iis   

I really like the size of this lens. So small and compact. The focus on it is fast and accurate. I find that the focus motor is a little loud, but that's the trade off for something so small. I wish it had quick shift. It does show some aberrations, and sharpness is good, but not great. Overall I'm very pleased with the lens, I would buy it again in a heart beat. This is going to be part of my holiday kit. Nice and small and unobtrusive!
   
New Member

Registered: July, 2013
Location: Essen / North Rhine-Westphalia
Posts: 8

12 users found this helpful
Review Date: August 19, 2014 Recommended | Price: $140.00 | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: Lightwight, compact & cheap, nice color rendition, fast and very sharp
Cons: Plastic mount, no Quickshift
Sharpness: 10    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 9    Autofocus: 9    Handling: 10    Value: 10    New or Used: New    Camera Used: K20D, K200D   

The DA35/2.4 is a very good standard lens @ APS-C.
AF is fast, but a little noisy. The color rendition is very good and the wight/size value is excellent.
The only No Go is the plastic mount. Plastic body is ok for its value.
I change the plastic-mount crap to a metall mount from a Pentax F 28-80/3.5-4.5 and now i have a 1/4 Limited^^

   
Veteran Member

Registered: November, 2013
Posts: 4,854

5 users found this helpful
Review Date: August 17, 2014 Recommended | Price: $230.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: great color rendition, very sharp wide open, very light, stuning flare resistance.
Cons: purple fringing, low quality build.
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 9    Autofocus: 10    Handling: 8    Value: 10    New or Used: New    Camera Used: K-3   

This lens has very few drawbacks.

One could say that the plastic finish is not good; This is very true. Compared to ltd, you don't benefit of an included hood (there no hood at all included in fact !). The plastic will suffer if you mix the lens with other more robust metal lens. It is also very important to have caps at any time to protect the lens as the lens body will not do anything on this topic.

The bokeh honestly I don't use it often. For me it is quite good and smooth, except it miss rounded blades. Stopped down it will show.

In term of aberrations you'll see purple frigging occasionnaly.

So you'd say me, what is good on this lens? Well everything else !

This is the best 35mm of all system you can get for the price. It is sharp, edge to edge from f/2.4. It perform very well in dim light allowing to use this f/2.4 apperture, and still get the whole scene in focus.


For landscape, you can see the really nice colors, the very good contrast and the sharpness, even for very distant background; Infinite focus it is very sharp even at f/2.4. It is also a flare killer, even if you don't buy a hood for it. That the perfect lens for landcape ! A little long, but if you can frame it, you'll love the result.

One could wish for more, that really the build quality. Overall nothing beat it for the price and optical quality is outstanding. A must buy for thoses on a budget. If money is not a problem you might look for FA31 or DA35 ltd instead. Having already this lens, I feel it is hard to justify any upgrade. It is just too good and too cheap to not buy it !

Edit: Now I have the DA35 f/2.8 macro ltd and man of course the ltd manage to be even better, more sharpness, more clarity, more flare resistance, and no minimum focussing distance constraint. So if you have the money, by any mean the 35 ltd is better... As would be I guess the FA31. But this doesn't mean this DA35 f/2.4 is not great. It truely is even if you can find better.

Some examples:


IMGP4316
by Nicolas Bousquet, on Flickr


IMGP8396_DxO
by Nicolas Bousquet, on Flickr


IMGP8894_DxO
by Nicolas Bousquet, on Flickr


IMGP0905 by Nicolas Bousquet, on Flickr

I didn't put 10 everywhere because it could have the nice hood system of the DA21 or DA15... It could have the build too. It miss rounded apperture. Other than that this a perfect lens, no less.
   
Senior Member

Registered: April, 2014
Location: New York
Posts: 150

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: July 16, 2014 Recommended | Price: $139.99 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Cheap, light, small, sharp, great colors.
Cons: Plastic, bokeh could be a tiny bit better.
Sharpness: 10    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 8    Autofocus: 9    Handling: 10    Value: 10    New or Used: New    Camera Used: K-5   

This lens is extremely cheap for the IQ it delivers. The lens itself is plastic rather than metal, to make it more economic but at the end of the day the glass is what matters and the glass truly shines. I feel like I stole this lens for what I paid for it.
   
Veteran Member

Registered: April, 2013
Location: the Netherlands
Posts: 2,444
Review Date: July 4, 2014 Recommended | Price: $150.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Sharpness, small and light, cheap
Cons: bokeh, could be f/2

It's sharp right from wide open, and its sharpness improves as you stop it down.
small and light and cheap for what it delivers.

I think they could have make it f/2 and add one aperture blade and make them round like DA50/1.8 to have better bokeh!
   
New Member

Registered: November, 2013
Posts: 14
Review Date: June 20, 2014 Recommended | Price: $130.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: extremely sharp single lens, stopped down to f 4.5 - f 8
Cons: plastic buidt, very few CAs
Sharpness: 10    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 10    Autofocus: 10    Handling: 8    Value: 10    New or Used: New    Camera Used: k-x k200 k-5 k-s1 fuji x-T100 + x-e1   

What a extremely sharp leight weight lens, ok - plastic housing (I'm not friend of this), but optical qualities from the finest.

Resolution with 24 PM sensor 90 LP/mm = 180 black and white lines /mm, which is a professional value

More than 80 LP / mm similar to ZEISS and LEICA lenses.

++ excellent sharpnes still at f 4.5 up to f11.

++ color saturation very high,

++ contrast excellent,

+/++nice bokeh, too,

++ very sharp up to the corners. stopped down a few

+ CAs must be corrected for very big magnifications in the corners

Kit lens WR is still really good, but the single wide angle lens is one of the the best; I ever had.

My Takumar 3.5/35 was very fine, my Pentax 2,8/28 wonderfull, but this lens is nearly perfect. highly recommended - for this low price.

PS. a few stopped down, the Pentax 2,4/35 is sharper in the corners than its competitors of other famous professional brands.


*******************************************************************************************************************************************
   
Veteran Member

Registered: March, 2014
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 890
Review Date: June 19, 2014 Recommended | Price: $140.00 | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: Reasonably priced. Comapct in size. Sharp. Excellent color reproduction.
Cons: Focus is a bit loud. Plastic with no metal mount typical of DA
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 8    Autofocus: 9    Handling: 10    Value: 10    New or Used: New    Camera Used: K500   

After reading about this "Plastic Fantastic" I had to get one. It was One of my first purchases to add to my kit lenses and boy am I happy to have added this lens to my portofoio. Very sharp at center with slight softening as you go out to the edges -- across virtually all aperture settings. I would definitely call this a "Sharp" lens and it does make for some very crisp photos. It is a very useful FOV on a APS-C sensor camera -- not too wide and not too narrow -- a "what you see is what you get" lens. The color reproduction and contrast is OUTSTANDING!! Images taken with this lens require little to no post-processing if taken properly. Highly recommended!!
   
New Member

Registered: February, 2009
Location: Rome (Italy)
Posts: 16
Review Date: June 9, 2014 Recommended | Price: $200.00 | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: Small and lightweight, sharpness
Cons: none
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 10    Bokeh: 9    Autofocus: 9    Handling: 10    Value: 10    New or Used: New    Camera Used: k5II   

I bought this lens just a little while after DA 50mm, because I find that this new series of DA budget lenses are a very good opportunity.

On aps-c you get the field of view of human eyes, so it's very good when walking around.
You have a good autofocus and wide aperture to work with.

Highly recommended.
   
New Member

Registered: April, 2014
Posts: 17
Review Date: May 3, 2014 Recommended | Price: $142.00 | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: Sharp wide open at 2.4
Cons: Plastic built
Sharpness: 10    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 8    Autofocus: 9    Handling: 10    Value: 10    New or Used: New    Camera Used: K5-IIs   

So, I put this lens today on my K5-iis and was pleasantly surprised with the IQ and sharpness of the lens. Bokeh is not as good as 50mm 1.8 but this lens is sharp.

   
Forum Member

Registered: January, 2014
Location: Scotland
Posts: 96
Review Date: May 2, 2014 Recommended | Price: $100.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Price, Lightweight, Sharpness
Cons: Noisy AF, CA wide open
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 7    Bokeh: 8    Autofocus: 7    Handling: 9    Value: 10    New or Used: Used    Camera Used: K5   

Overall an excellent lens - this was the 4th lens I bought for my Pentax.

I probably use this less than my other four lenses, save for the 100-300mm zoom which is obviously more of a specialist (and relatively poor quality) lens.

I do shoot more portraits than almost anything else, but this still gets some use capturing the occasional landscape as well as doing more contextual shots of the kids.

It is an easy lens to use - sharp straight from widest up to about f/11 or so. It's in its prime between about 3.2 and 5.6 and tails off pretty gradually from there until you get to more diffraction problems after f/11. It's impressively sharp considering its price etc. from f/2.4, as evidenced by the attached 100% crop, which was taken at f/2.4, There is some amount of CA above and below the in-focus "N", though:



All in all, a great lens and a very good starter lens given it's effectively "normal" on a crop sensor. Others will probably get proportionally more use out of this than I do, because of my usual subjects. but I'd still carry this around in preference to a broader spectrum zoom, if space were tight.

To highlight what this lens is capable of under less stressed conditions, the following is a 100% crop taken at f/4.0 on a tripod with flash. It's the same subject (at a slightly different angle because of tripod) as the first image:



Pretty impressive sharpness for a "cheap plastic lens". Note: all images are straight out of camera, save for cropping. No sharpening or other touch-ups have been applied.
   
Veteran Member

Registered: August, 2010
Location: Florida
Posts: 551
Review Date: March 29, 2014 Recommended | Price: $140.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Light-weight, good construction
Cons: noisy AF, no focus scale, little soft wide open
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 8    Autofocus: 8    Handling: 8    Value: 9    New or Used: Used    Camera Used: K5II   

This lens is a nice little gem. It's very light due to the plastic construction but it's a great value for the money. It does not come with a lens hood, however a 49mm thread on hood works well (I tested the hood from my 70mm limited and worked great although it wasn't fully extended). Since I did some resolution test shots to compare my own lenses, I will include samples that show the sharpness at different apertures. Overall it's a great little lens although one might find it't focal length too narrow for all-around walkabouts. The 21mm might fit better, at least in my opinion.

For a budget lens the optics are high quality. Mine is a little soft wide open esp in the corners but it gets sharp stopped down a bit.

The auto-focus is a bit noisy but accurate. It would be really nice to have a distance scale though but it is a budget lens.

Overall, if the 35mm range is what you are looking for, this is a fantastic lens especially considering it's price.Small and light, less intimidating for street photography.

Here are the samples I mentioned earlier

The test chart I used, tripod, no SR, remote triggered, custom lighting and live view close focus.


35mm f2.4 center

35mm f2.4 left upper corner

35mm f5 center

35mm f5 left upper corner

35mm f8 center

35mm f8 left upper corner

35mm f11 center

DA35 f11 left upper corner
   
Junior Member

Registered: September, 2013
Location: Brwinow, Mazovia, Poland
Posts: 46

3 users found this helpful
Review Date: March 21, 2014 Recommended | Price: $240.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Very sharp from close-up to mid-distance, sharp from full-open aperture, pleasant boken, nice colour rendition
Cons: Too soft for landscape. Improper focus at infinity.
Sharpness: 10    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 9    Autofocus: 10    Handling: 10    Value: 10    New or Used: New    Camera Used: K-5   

I fell in love with this tiny lens since I bought it. I was in search of a sharp prime for close-ups (food photo), portrait (more than just a face), street, gigs in small clubs. Yes, I own a Tamron 28-75/2.8 which is very good, yet I aimed at something yet sharper, good from full aperture opening and, well, handy.

When we are talking close-ups and mid camera-to-subject distances, the lens is just excellent. I love exceptional sharpness, pleasant bokeh, nice colour rendition as well as "that little something" that makes the photos stand out.

Yet, I found a flaw in this inexpensive lens, not only confirmed by a test but also by talking with several other user. The lens does not seem to focus properly at infinity, AF or MF, so it seems useless for landscape photos. This is where my far more expensive Tammy takes the lead. Yet, taken into accound the ground-level price and the fact the lens serves me very well at closer distances, I can recommend the lens to everyone -- except the landscape fans.

The lens appears to have its sweet-spot at f/4


Sharpness, colour, bokeh, why ask for more? Taken at f/2.8



Hand-held at f/2.4. You can tell the corners become slightly soft at full open but not that much. Taken from MFD.


This is where the lens is not at its best. The photo taken from tripod, f/5.6, I think 1/125s, ISO80. I first focused on the pole knob in AF, then did a second attempt with MF and magnified LiveView. I used my hat instead of the hood as a sun-shade. In both cases the resolution came out far from acceptable. Interestingly, in the hard lighting conditions (photo against the sun), fair amount of purple fringing was to be seen (I have corrected this in LR).
   
New Member

Registered: February, 2014
Posts: 5

3 users found this helpful
Review Date: February 25, 2014 Recommended | Price: $210.00 | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: Light, nice bokeh, good focus, nice colors, low price
Cons:
Sharpness: 10    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 9    Autofocus: 10    Handling: 10    Value: 10    New or Used: New    Camera Used: K-500   

Recently I own this lens and my first impressions are very good. This is a very good lens for the price. Lightweight, nice bokeh, very good focus, great colors. I recommend it to everyone.
   
New Member

Registered: October, 2013
Location: NW Indiana
Posts: 19

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: February 18, 2014 Recommended | Price: $185.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Cheap, Sharp, Light weight-small
Cons: for the price nothing...Not considering the price...nothing.
Sharpness: 10    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 7    Autofocus: 10    Handling: 10    Value: 10    New or Used: New    Camera Used: K-30   

I didn't like this lens at first, but I ended up taking it to an event because it was the shortest I had that would work. The colors were better than my favorite lens(k 85 f1.8) very sharp even at 2.4( I am a pixel peeper). I ended up not even having to PP 75% of the pictures I liked. other than some spot healing.
   
Forum Member

Registered: July, 2012
Location: Braga, Portugal
Posts: 69

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: February 8, 2014 Recommended | Price: $230.00 | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: Really good sharpness
Cons: ...
Sharpness: 10    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 10    Autofocus: 9    Handling: 9    Value: 10    New or Used: New    Camera Used: Pentax K-5   

For this small price do you want better?

https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1/1661343_10202106143387997_302621262_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/1920485_10202104091576703_1708692709_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1/1900040_1020212483...41626593_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/t1/1948140_10202116670291163_570939183_n.jpg
Add Review of SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL Buy the SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.4 AL



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