| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Long Island, New York Posts: 2,703 | | Review Date: January 12, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $750.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, fast, and incredible IQ.....did I mention sharp? | | Cons: | Nothing I can think of other than a hood that's almost as big as the lens itself. | |
I cannot rave about this lens enough. I thought the A70-210 was the best lens I'd ever used.....until I picked up the DA*50-135. This lens is an absolute dream to use. From the very first image I saw in the viewfinder, I knew this lens was special.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2006 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 431 | | Review Date: February 22, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $699.95
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Build-quality, IQ, Bokeh, Sharpness, Color Contrast, f/2.8, Useful zoom range | | Cons: | Minimum focusing distance | |
Just as my DA*300, the sharpness, color contrast, and bokeh is superb. Sharp wide open and once you stop down, it takes it to another level. Straight from the camera (RAW), photos are sharp and the Pentax SMC coating gives it that special color contrast. Bokeh is smooth as well. I worried that I might not like the focal range, but find it very useful for day to day shots when you're not wanting wide angle. The overall build quality is top-notch and although focusing is not super fast, it's nice and smooth. I'm use to walking around with my DA*300 so size and weight are no big deal for me. Once you invest in fast quality glass, you get use to the weight. My only complaint is the minimum focusing distance - I wish you could focus a little bit closer.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: May, 2008 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 1,725 | | Review Date: March 25, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $749.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Smooth, Fast, Quiet, IQ | | Cons: | None | |
I can't say it better than has already been said. This lens is AMAZING. I can't believe how much joy I have using this lens.
Get it!! Don't wait...
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: April, 2009 Location: Alta Posts: 279 | | Review Date: April 13, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $1,045.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, bokeh, colors, weather sealing, size and weight | | Cons: | | |
I've had this lens for over a year now, and it's become my favorite lens by far.
The sharpness and bokeh of this lens is outstanding. I get sharp photographs at any aperture I use, f/2.8 to f/16, I haven't tested f/22 as I haven't needed to use it and I know diffraction has a big impact on the sharpness at that aperture, so no need to verify.
The SDM focusing was weird at first since I only had lenses without a focus engine and the camera motor was used, the SDM is almost perfectly silent, and when you're outside alone in the quiet, you can hear it moving, but not otherwise. It could be a bit faster, but unless an animal or car is fairly close coming straight at you, you will get your shot with continous focus (I use the K10D). I've caught birds, dogs, cars, snowmobiles and dog sleds with this, and it works very well.
It's not a macro, but you can do flowers without any problems, and do it very well. The bokeh is just cream. I have yet to see anything do it better.
Strong light sources in the image renders very beautifully. I love photographing streets at night when the street lights turn into stars, and this does it perfectly. The 9-blade aperture works very well.
The size and weight is very good I think, it's balanced well for the K10D, and then also the K20D. I alwayse use the battery grip, and that works well as well. The Tokina version has a tripod collar, and I'm not sure if it does any good or not, it's not that big a lens, but it wouldn't hurt to have it if it could be taken off :P
Some photographs made with the DA* 50-135mm: | | | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: October, 2007 Location: Irvine, CA Posts: 485 | | Review Date: April 30, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $620.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Spectacularly Sharp, Beautiful Colors | | Cons: | Gigantic, Heavy, way too large with the hood on | |
I love this lens, but I don't have that many uses for it. I'm one hundred percent happy with it's performance in the limited purposes I've put it through (mostly shooting my car during her outdoor adventures).
Everything comes out of this thing sharp as hell and beautifully rendered, color-wise. You really couldn't ask for more- the IQ is outstanding.
I just wish I lived somewhere that telephoto lenses were more useful. I'm not sure I'd want to take this guy on long travels either, since it's so bulky, so I might have to move before I can really put it to good use, which might be worth it!
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2009 Location: Lithuania Posts: 490 | | Review Date: May 1, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $650.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, fast, good build quality, weather sealing, great colors, silent AF, bokeh, lens cap is nice. | | Cons: | slow AF, not quite enough zoom at the long end, huge hood. | |
well since it's a DA* it's weather sealed, and the best of pentax. the photographic qualities of this lens concerning Image quality it's perfect.. it's reproduction of colors and contrast is amazing.. build quality is top class.
however: i do not like the speed of the AF, it's silent, but quite slow.
zoom range seems a little to short.. however the quality of the pictures says it all.
great for outdoor portraits.
not great for any action.
great for still photography, landscaping (if the focal range fits),
not so great for dramatic closeups, they are sharp, but not dramatic..  not close enough.
if the zoom range would be 50-150mm and the photographic qualities the same, and a faster AF it would be perfect.. however nothing is perfect... so this lens is also not perfect. but I like it.. i rarely shoot at f/2.8, more at 3.2 or 3.5 to get sharp the desired point.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: September, 2007 Location: Buffalo NY Posts: 38 | | Review Date: May 8, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $749.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Silent focus, Sharpness, I think it balances well in hand | | Cons: | | |
I am going to do this review in two parts. First off, I just got the lens today, so my familiarity with the lens is limited. I purchased it for the main purpose of photographing motocross races and with the reviews I have read, and they were many, it seems most agree that it is not quick enough for action photography.
 Well I have been using the kit lens for two years with great success and I find that so far this lens is neither faster, nor slower than the 18-55. This lens will get a complete workout in 8 days as I have 2 races to shoot.
Second part of this review will come after the races, hopefully with photo samples
| | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: South of Sweden Posts: 10 | | Review Date: May 11, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Image quality, build quality, Color, Contrast, Detail | | Cons: | very slow AF | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 8
New or Used: New
| |
I've had this lens for only one week but it seemes be well up to my expectations.
Sharp, good color and contrast, This lens has quickly been my favorite lens.
After using it for some years this lens i still my favorite an excellent multipurpose lens.
Comment 2011-12-09
The lenshood isnt that good anymoore it will easyly fall off and is very loose in its fastening.
Comment 2013-11-14
I havent used it for about a year and suddenly the SDM didnt work on my K5, then i tested it on my K10D and then i worked again, after a month the SDM gave up completly. The cost for repair are very high so the solution was to use the screwdrive instead thanks to this link
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/208353-how-...m-f-2-8-a.html
i got a fully working lens again.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: February, 2007 Location: Omaha, NE Posts: 111 | | Review Date: May 12, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $760.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp as a prime | | Cons: | It's a big lens | |
This lens should be on all aspiring photographers want list. I had heard rumors of the prime like sharpness, and the overall smoothness of the images that were produced by this lens. However, I was totally blown away once I had seen first hand the images that were produced by the K20D/DA*50-135mm combo.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: May, 2009 Location: Bangkok Posts: 4 | | Review Date: May 18, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very very sharp | | Cons: | | |
Sharp, Stunning, Values, Awesome, It very good lens i have found. Thank you Pentax for created this!  | | | | | Junior Member Registered: February, 2009 Posts: 38 | | Review Date: May 21, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Image quality, build quality, silent AF, lightweight. | | Cons: | SDM can be quirky, hard plastic of the hood. | |
Typical MTF tests (photozone.de etc) just fall short to give a real comparison between the possibilities of lenses in this range of quality.
First thing that surprised me was the color rendering - I just do not have to correct the colors on processing the images taken with this lens - there are only few rare exceptions...
It is just lightweight enough to be excellent lens for street photography - I have no problem to walk around having camera in the hand with grip and this lens attached for hours. FL range is also good for indoor (portrait) photography.
Only drawback from the excellent feel of this lens is the clunky, rattling and squeaking hard plastic of the hood - even Tamron can do better - but then... Pentax has this little opening in it for turning the polarizer etc. Very clever.
Here is the example illustrating the sharpness of this lens.
P.S. Quantity can not be of any substitute for quality - I had thoughts about Sigma 50-150 before (pentax having shorter FL range etc), now I do not  | | | | | Forum Member Registered: June, 2007 Location: Paris, France Posts: 50 | | Review Date: May 29, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $900.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Lens and image quality and In-door versatibilty | | Cons: | Weight and size | |
Pros- Build high quality
- Silent and fast AF
- Lens and image quality
- In-door versatibilty
Cons- Some vignetting
- Weight and size
- Specific handling of the K10D + 50-135mm
Wrap-up- With this new lens, we're dealing with truly professional gear. I would say that the DA* 50-135mm is the lens the K10D was waiting for.
- As always with Pentax, ergonomics and ease of use are great.
- But this comes at a price, in term of weight and size, which may imply a learning curve, and also a stronger bag .
- During my test today, I haven't felt the limitation to 135mm and haven't missed the extra zoom provided by the DA 50-200mm.
- Most important, image quality is here and I had a lot of fun.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: October, 2008 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 7 | | Review Date: June 22, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $943.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | stop up to 2.8 | | Cons: | The auto focus MIGHT be a little slow, | | New or Used: New
| |
I rated this lens a 10, but really it should be rated 9.9999999 since nothing is perfect. I mentioned that the auto focus might be a little slow, but only because I have been influenced by other reviewers. Others have said it is not a good sports lens. I am totally satisfied with it for this purpose, and it can focus much faster than I can manually. I am just entering the world of digital. I would hope that earlier reviewers remember what it was like to "work" to get a good shot, before being too critical on equipment that will or won't do everything for them. Here are some shots from today. Hats and helmets play havoc with decent exposures. With a mixture of sunny and overcast conditions, WB set to auto. These are straight out of the K20, JPEG, no PP. Please comment, (settings, tweaks or tricks for my photos) positive or negative, all welcome
(Non working links deleted)
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2009 Location: Sugar Land, TX Posts: 684 | | Review Date: June 30, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $750.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, AMAZING color/contrast (compared to my other lenses), Great build quality, Nice big MF ring | | Cons: | 1st copy was defective (loose focus ring is a rare problem) | |
1st copy had loose MF ring. My review is based on the 2nd copy.
This lens is great. Before I purchased I had a Pentax K10D, 18-55mm kit, and FA 100mm macro.
Build: 9/10
Although this IS a DA* lens, don't assume this lens is made of solid metal, although this is not a bad thing at all. About 80% of the lens is covered by the soft, rubbery rings and the only part that isn't made of rubber is the golden DA* ring, green DA indicator ring at the bottom, and the medium between the MF ring and zoom ring. Don't make this a deciding factor though, because this lens is made of real high quality plastics and most of it is in rubber anyways.
Just FYI the 16-50mm is also made of the same materials, although the DA* 200mm, 300mm, and 60-250mm are made of metal. Not sure about the 55mm.
Auto-focus Performance: 9.2/10
The AF is relatively quiet compared to my other lenses, but it is about the same speed as them. The AF in poorly lit room isn't terrific, although to be honest, no lens really is (for the AF to be accurate, the room should have at least 2 80watt light bulbs) In broad day light however, this lens is a dream to use, with the speed of the FA 100mm on focus limiter and the quietness of Canon USM (almost but not quite  ) Canon USM is still faster and quieter, but Pentax is getting ridiculously close... The SDM sound is comparable to the Sony 70-200mmG lens just for reference, speedwise and sound wise.
Manual Focus Performance: 8.5/10
The MF ring is very smooth and slightly damped and about equivalent to my macro lens (although not as precise due to the clamp that exists on that lens). It is not comparable to the old K/M/A/M42 lenses that have extremely damped rings, but compared to the Canon and Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses, this is about the same or better (according to user).
General Usage 9.5/10
I spent a lot of time debating whether to get this lens or the Sigma 70-200mm. After 5 months of constantly working I had enough money to finally purchase one of the lenses. For shooting events (in-door or outdoor), weddings, or in-door sports, this lens is a dream. Even the 50mm isn't wide enough for me sometimes (That's why I am going to purchase a used 35mm f/2) To be honest, if you compare 50mm to 70mm, I don't even know how I would survive. The 50-70mm is REALLY useful. For shooting outdoor sports or where you can't get real close, the 70-200mm lenses might suit you better, but even 200mm isn't really long enough for sports or birding and adding a TC would make them really bad quality (although from the Tamron TC shots that is subjective). The Sigma performs much softer at 200mm and especially with the 1.4X TC.
Also remember this lens weighs only about 1.5 lbs (700 grams) and about 1.7lbs (800grams) with hood on. The 70-200mm lenses weigh about 3 lbs (1300 grams). This lens, although quite big with hood on, is just small enough to where it doesn't scare your subjects. If this lens was any bigger width wise or length wise, some subjects would freak out and some of your pictures might look artificial. For those of you that don't know if you can or can't handle the weight, I recommend going to cameralensrentals.com and renting a 50-135mm AND 70-200mm for 3 or 7 days and see if you can handle the weight/ focal lengths. For most 135mm won't be long enough for wild life or out door sports, but at the same time, 70mm might be too much for indoor/ out door events and weddings.
Another awesome quality of this lens is the weather sealing. At first I was extremely skeptical of the weather sealing until a unfortunate turn of events forced me to use this lens under the rain. In the end, it was STILL working with no water ANYWHERE. I don't suggest putting this under a faucet or waterfall though because the weather seals can only handle light/medium rain, dust storms, snow, and sand. Anything more extreme will allow sand to scratch your elements, water to ruin the AF motor and cause fungus/mold, or make your elements "misty". This is also a big plus over the third party offerings (although they aren't bad at all from the images I have seen)
Image Quality: 10.5/10
Now this is where the lens REALLY shines. It is sharp as my macro lens even when it is set to f/5.6 and my 50-135mm is wide open (even more contrasty too!). If you stop it down it gets even MORE sharp, although there isn't enough head room because f/2.8 is already near perfectly sharp. The photozone review of this lens isn't great, but from user reviews and other online reviews, I can agree with them. This lens is unbeatable IQ wise.
Overall: 9.8/10
I'd say the only reason this lens isn't perfect is because of the FL. If they had the lens at 35-135mm or 50-200mm f/2.8, this lens would be perfect, although I suspect that a lens such as those would cost at least $1500.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2006 Location: Ontario Posts: 744 | | Review Date: July 20, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Solid, sharp, sealed and useful range | | Cons: | Focus speed | |
Build quality: 9/10
I'm docking a mark because it's not metal, but in spite of that it's a solid lens. And the fact I can use it in the rain makes it that much better.
Handling: 10/10
This is a beautifully sized lens. It's not a monster but it's not petit either. When you're holding on to it, you can have a good, solid grip. The focus and zoom rings are also a good size, making adjustments easy. Also, having an internal zoom & focus makes it a pleasure to use, including using polarizing filters.
Bokeh: 8/10
Generally very smooth. Not quite 'FA limited' smooth, but still very well done.
Optics: 10/10
For the photos I've taken using it so far, it's what I expect from a pro-level lens. It's sharp, shows good contrast and the colours are natural.
AF: 6/10
This lens surprised me with just how slow it plods along to acquire focus. I knew it wouldn't be a rocket, but I thought it would be faster than this.
Having said that, once it acquires a target, it will track reasonably well. It could follow my daughter running towards me, so long as I had a lock on her before she started running and would yield an average of 8/10 keepers. That result dropped if I didn't have her in focus before she started running.
Conclusion: 8/10
For my purposes with this lens, AF speed isn't a major deal as it will be used for landscapes and some event photography, meaning it's a keeper. However, for a lens of this caliber, I expected better and this is where it looses points. In every other category, this lens meets my expectations of a pro-level piece of kit and if focus speed is not required, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this lens.
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