| Author: | | Forum Member Registered: December, 2010 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 90 | | Review Date: May 15, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, aperture, size | | Cons: | manual focus feel, aperture ring can be nudged | |
I love this lens. I needed a slightly wide normal equivalent with a reasonably wide aperture. This lens seems to fit the bill, and I happened to find one on Ebay. I'd previously used a screwmount 28 f3.5 v1.
The lens - Sharp sharp sharp, especially when stopped down a little. This lens sings around f5.6. The colors are wonderful (though not quite as pleasing to me as my M50 1.7...). This lens is the perfect length for indoor events, some landscapes, and thrives as a city walk-around.
Absolutely recommend.
Samples:
 | | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2010 Location: California Posts: 1,602 | | Review Date: December 20, 2010 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Great IQ, very sharp, good price, quick AF | | Cons: | None | |
This is a truly amazing lens. It has quickly become one of my favorite lenses.
The image quality is second to none. I had read reviews and seen some sample images but I was still surprised by the quality and sharpness of the images. At 2.8 the images are good and only get better up to and around F8 where they are amazing.
Color rendition is also very good. I think the lens produces accurate and "true" real world colors. I do a lot of PP and I personally like very vibrant and saturated colors. The lens gives me good levels for both of those. I bump them up in PhotoShop but that is for personal preference and for most casual shooters I think the vibrant and saturation levels will be very good.
The auto focus is just as good as other Pentax lenses I have. It is just as fast as my kit lens, 16-45 and 10-17 and faster than my Tamron lenses. It rarely hunts and will usually lock on very fast, even in relatively low light. The focus ring is very smooth and distances are easy to read. The focus ring is a bit small. That might bother some but not me.
The construction feels really good to me. I have read others complain that the build feels a bit cheap but I do not see it. It has good weight to it, all of the parts have no give to them, they fit very tight to each other. Granted that a lot of plastic parts are used but that does not mean that the build is cheap. The plastic parts seem of good quality and are assembled with precision so that there is no give on any of the parts.
The lens is somewhat compact and attached to my Kx it is a very nice discrete set up. Perfect for street shooting and some family indoor shots.
I have read some people list the look of the lens as a negative. I personally do not care how the lens looks. As long as it is relatively compact and either the basic black or gray color base, that's all that matters to me.
All in all this 28mm is a really great lens. For well under $300 you will be hard pressed to find a 28mm that performs as good as this one.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: December, 2009 Location: Oakland, California Posts: 1,250 | | Review Date: June 26, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, lovely bokeh, great color saturation and contrast | | Cons: | None, just arrived today and all I can say is "wow!" | |
Was indulging my LBA by cruising ebay and came across this lens. I read the reviews in this database. It wasn't a "must have" focal length but I was intrigued by its minimum focusing distance. I just reviewed my first pictures taken this morning and all I can say is "wow!" I captured a bee on a sprig of lavender and did a 100% crop. The result was worthy of my DA 35mm macro. Sometimes taking a chance on a lens doesn't pan out and I thought if this one didn't, I'd just sell it. Nope, it's a real keeper!
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: June, 2009 Location: British Columbia Posts: 146 | | Review Date: November 24, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Snappy AF, Edge to edge sharpness, great color and clarity | | Cons: | Haven't found any | |
This was a gift from a friend who was switching to a Canon set up. He used it on his older Pentax film bodies, but it has jumped onto my K10 with a flair. When I picked it up I expected it to be much like a kit lens due to its light weight, plastic body parts, but ever since I first snapped it on I have never regretted the choice. The color and contrast is always spot on, which is highlighted by the fact that the image is so sharp. The AF is the fastest and most accurate of any of the lenses I own. I am no professional, but it is hard to imagine this lens leaving my bag.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2009 Location: Gold Coast Posts: 43 | | Review Date: September 7, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $299.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, excellent image quality, fast focus | | Cons: | rare | |
This is absolutely excellent and beautiful lens for me.
It is very sharp in wide open with very fast focus speed. AF is very fast.
It is small lens so it is easy to carry. I am always satisfied with photos produced by this lens. I am so lucky to own this lens.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: December, 2008 Location: MN, US Posts: 139 | | Review Date: May 7, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, small, build well | | Cons: | none | |
My k20 body cover. Love it!
Sharp, fast glass, fast focus, well build, easy to carry. My favorite walk around travel lens.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: April, 2008 Location: Florida Posts: 7 | | Review Date: December 14, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Color and contrast, sharpness, small and light | | Cons: | none found | |
The more I use this gem, the more impressed I am by it. It's currently the widest lens I have and so I use it for all my landscape photos. Fast autofocus even in low light, and though the manual focus ring is small it has ridges which makes it very easy to use.
This one is a keeper!
| | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Marion, IA Posts: 15 | | Review Date: June 18, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $160.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness and image quality, accurate/precise focus | | Cons: | Contrast a tad low wide open (but this is nitpicking) | |
One of my favorite primes. Sharp from f2.8 on up. Colors are amazing. Don't let the fact that this has the same lens elements as the A f2.8 fool you. This is an amazing lens. It seems to hit the focus perfect every time and is sharp edge to edge on my DSLR even at f2.8. Color rendering is excellent. The focus is consistent and it always seems to be sharp.
Don't review this lens and complain about image softness if you haven't actually used one of these lenses and instead are basing a review on the A 28mm f2.8. This is a nice compact prime for use on a DSLR, and is a great value compared to FA 31mm ltd.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Southern California, USA Posts: 729 | | Review Date: March 1, 2008 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Image Quality superb, Fast AF, nice color, sharp wide open | | Cons: | Can't think of any | |
I tested this lens wide open and it's very sharp. (Subjective test)
No problem with focus speed. AF is very fast. I feel a little bit faster than my 43Ltd (in low light situation).
It locks object very fast w/ my K100D and always spot on.
The color and rendering are very nice.
What I like are the focal length and speed.
It's more usable indoor than my FA 43Ltd but of course the built quality and sharpness stopped down can't match FA 43Ltd. I still love my FA 43Ltd.
But this F 28mm/2.8 will be accompanying me side by side w/ 43Ltd.
None the less, the size is not that much different.
Very compact and not intimidating like zooms.
The most important is how fast this lens is (f 2.8) and the sharpness wide open really surprise me.
Really good for low light photography.
It's a rare lens, not so expensive compare to 31 Ltd but has almost similar focal length.
Just as 43 Ltd is considered to be "the real" normal focus lens on 35mm SLR, F 28 mm/2.8 is "the real" normal length of Digital SLR.
My recommendation is get it if you see one, I'm sure you won't regret it when you get a good copy.
| | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2007 Location: Sweden Posts: 21 | | Review Date: January 19, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $150.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | IQ, AF, handling | | Cons: | none | |
This lens is a ten. Tack sharp even wide open. It has amazing color
and contrast.
Great bokeh, no sight of CA / PF, small and light. Build
quality is better then most FA-lenses.
I can't understand why people complain about the small focus rings on
the F-lenses but not about the even smaller ones on the DA-limited
series.
However, there is no need to focus manually with the F 28 mm. The AF
is super fast and always spot on. This lens can lock focus on a black
cat in a coal-cellar in a fraction of a second. I haven’t missed one
shot due to focus error.
Highly recommended!
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: August, 2011 Location: Melbourne Posts: 4,843 | | Review Date: September 4, 2023 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Fast and accurate AF, small size, wide open bokeh | | Cons: | Weak corners, AF in Live View, not WR, no hood, no quick shift | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K1
| |
This is a delightful small lens, sharp enough, especially at centre. Focus is fast and accurate, except in Liveview where it hunts but gets there in the end. The extreme corners are a bit weak, but that's to be expected of a 28mm lens of late 1980's vintage.
However, the real party trick of the F 28mm is its beautiful etherial bokeh up close and wide open. It's worth the price for that alone.
Due to its compact size, this will be in my bag more often than not.
  | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2023 Location: Leicestershire Posts: 4 | | Review Date: July 19, 2023 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, colour rendition, size/weight | | Cons: | Focus ring, aesthetics (subjectively) | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 5
Handling: 10
Value: 7
Camera Used: K5-iis
| |
I'm a big fan of the F series lenses, despite their divisive looks. Some of the zooms can be hit and miss, but the primes I've found to be beautifully sharp, and all photos taken with them have a gorgeous colour rendition that screams Pentax.
The perfect standard focal length for APS-C, the 28mm f/2.8 makes for an excellent walkaround lens, for street, landscape or woodland photography. Sharp wide open, with only slight purple fringing, the sharpness gets even better of course when stopping down. The small size and weight is also appealing.
The only downsides really are true of all of the F series lenses. The focusing ring is tiny, and doesn't have a very nice feel to it. Its quite clackity, and not at all damped like older manual focus film era lenses. The grey body may also be off-putting to those that care about the aesthetics of a lens.
Those are however very small issues, that people seem to mention a lot here and then forget about when realising what great lenses these are. The price can be high on some copies, due to the relative scarcity of this version. The 50mm variants of the F series seem to be far more common, and therefore cheaper. Luckily, I managed to win my copy on an eBay auction for around £80 ($100), whereas most I'd seen for sale before seemed to be around the £120 mark.
Overall, super happy with this lens, and it rarely comes off my camera unless a telephoto option is needed for wildlife.
  | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: February, 2017 Posts: 2,032
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 23, 2018 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | focal length on APSc, Overall general performance | | Cons: | rarity | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K3
| |
I snagged this lens whilst looking for something else in a local camera shop. I had always wanted one but given up looking due to its rarity, which I think is the biggest con with this lens - trying to find one for sale! So that is the only real downside of this lens I will mention in of this review.
I love the focal length 28-30mm on APSc. It is a much more natural perspective than the more common 35mm. I have tried the following on my K3:-
Pentax M 28mm f2.8, Pentax A 28mm f2.8, Sigma EX DG 28mm f1.8 Macro and Sigma Ex DG 30mm f1.4.
Despite supposedly being the same optical formula as the 2 Pentax MF models, the F lens is considerably sharper wide open. Compared to the Sigma models the 28 f1.8 is the sharpest wide open (but not by much), the 30mm is at least as sharp by f2.8. When stopped down the F beats the M and A lenses but the Sigmas are slightly sharper. So why choose the F over either of the 2 Sigmas? Well, the EX DG 28mm f1.8 is a huge beast of a lens which I personally do not want to carry around all day and the 30mm is still quite hefty and is pretty useless in low light as it does not focus very accurately in those conditions, whereas the F is small, compact and even wide open the sharpness is more than acceptable and it still nails focus. Other reviews here say how wonderfully sharp this lens is. I do not believe this to be the case when compared to my Ltd optics, but it is still more than sharp enough.
When compared to some other lenses (the Ltd ones, again and my K 55 f1.8) it does require a little more processing to get optimal results in terms of colour and contrast, but not much.
Wide open you can get a degree of CA's but these can be adjusted in post.
For me the biggest virtues of this lens are:-
Consistency of output across the aperture range
Light and compact
Very useful focal length
I paid £160 for my copy and I am very happy with it. If you can track one down or one just happens to cross your path I would snap one up. Highly recommended.
UPDATE APRIL 2021
A few more Pentax 28 ish mm lenses have come my way - K 28mm f3.5, M 28mm f3.5 and K 30 f2.8. I have spent some time testing and assessing all of them alongside the F and revisited the A f2.8. The K f3.5 is the most sublime, but lacks AF and autoexposure convenience, to say nothing of the additional size and weight. The optical difference between all of them on APSC is marginal, though the M f3.5 does exhibit more CA's even when stopped down, but not enough really notice unless looking for them, and makes up for this with more interesting B&W images. Apparent softness I mentioned in my original review of the A f2.8, I am now convinced is due to greater susceptibility to flare and manual focusing errors by me. A hood and microprism collar focusing screen has sorted that problem out and I recommend one acquires a MF screen if you are into MF lenses of f3.5 or faster. With this in mind I would still recommend the F as the most practical and most rounded package of all the 28ish lenses I own, but there is something special about the K f3.5, and as I am a masochist and enjoy MF, I think personally I would choose the A model if I had to select just one.
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: January, 2015 Posts: 71
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 17, 2015 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, size, weight | | Cons: | Autofocus hunts at infinity sometimes | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-50
| |
Small, lightweight and gives sharp images with good colors. Somewhat soft wide open but sharp from f/4 onward and really good from f/5.6 to f/11. It might just be my copy but the autofocus sometimes hunts for no apparent reason when I am pointed at infinity, but it does eventually lock in.
100% crop from the extreme left edge of the above image. Note the excellent sharpness of the post but a dropoff in sharpness at infinity. There is also a tiny bit of CA at high contrast areas.
 | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: May, 2012 Posts: 2,962
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 25, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Focal Length | | Cons: | not as fast as a 31mm? | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K5
| |
I have gone through a complete evolution as a photographer. Before I started I only wanted the long glass. But when I first started out I shot only with zooms... then I switched over to primes and now I shoot only primes.
With this lens...after a couple of months using it...it is by FAR my most used lens. It is a perfect lens for 'walking around'...'street shots' etc etc. If I had to leave the house with only one lens, this would be it. (I own the complete line of DA Limited lenses and this one is not 'as sharp' as those in relative terms, but the difference is negligible. Sharpness wise it would be somewhere in between the regular DA lenses and your average limited lens. I would be first in line if they released a modern version of this focal length in limited format.
I have found the more I shoot, the more I like this lens. It fills an important gap (while still being affordable) in the Pentax lens line up. The lens leaves little to complain about as far as I am concerned. After owning this lens for a while it's making want a 31mm because the focal length is close and I would like the increased speed. All that said, in absence of a 31mm, this is a must have lens as far as I am concerned.
Suggestions would be to use a good standard lens hood with this lens. I use a standard screw in metal hood because if you shoot with sunlight directly hitting the glass you will see reflections.
Overall the pros are the focal length is by far the most useful in my bag, the lens is sharper than most of the modern Pentax lenses (not necessarily the limited lenses though), also the AF works quite well with this lens.
| | |
