| Author: | | Site Supporter Registered: April, 2009 Location: Athens, Greece Posts: 187
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 25, 2019 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharpness | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 1
Value: 6
Camera Used: K20D
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This is always my forgotten lens that I remember when one of my other lenses breaks. I've had it since 1995 when I got it as a kit lens with the PZ20. It's old and grumpy with a stiff zoom ring that jams but it takes some incredibly sharp photos.
I remembered it again while looking through the lens reviews and seeing all the complaints about sharpness. So I'll post a few that I took when I was using it on my K20.
Uneditied except for exposure
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This was shot at ISO 1250 53mm f4.5
While some people have had bad experiences with the lens, as it is dirt cheap, it may well surprise you.
| | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: May, 2021 Posts: 185
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 2, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $29.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Lightweight, inexpensive, good zoom range with APS-C camera | | Cons: | Slightly soft image at 35mm end and has some aberrations (easily correctable) | | Sharpness: 6
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: K10D
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This is a nice lens to be used as a general walk-around lens. I bought it to replace an SMC-DA 18-55 AL II kit lens that had become increasingly de-centred.
The lens is lightweight and has fairly good image quality for its weight and price. Its colour rendition is good, giving images with vivid colours. With an APS-C camera the lens loses its wide-angle view, but its focal range is still very useful. On the other hand, when mounted to a crop-sensor camera, the lens' effective focal length is increased into a medium telephoto lens at the 80mm end.
At the 35mm end the images tend to end up a bit soft. The sharpness increases towards the 80mm end. The wide end also has a little bit of barrel distortion, which may be visible at certain images of buildings or other scenes that have long, straight lines across the frame. There's also some chromatic aberration in high-contrast areas, as well. However, I've found these flaws are fairly easy to correct during post-processing. One disadvantage of this lens is that the front of the lens rotates as the lens is focusing. If the lens is used with a polarizing filter, the user must remember to always focus the lens first and then adjust the polarizing filter.
Edit 04/2022: Added a couple of pictures taken with this lens. I like it a lot and I've found it to be a nice walk-around lens.
 Buildings in evening light by Arttu Räsänen, on Flickr
 Reflection by Arttu Räsänen, on Flickr
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: April, 2012 Location: Endeavour Hills, Victoria, Australia Posts: 210
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 17, 2019 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, great contrast, great colour | | Cons: | Not quite wide enough for full frame | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-1
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The lens that nobody loves! Try it on a K-1 and I think you may be very pleased. This was shot in Hosier's Lane, Melbourne Australia. K-1 coupled with the 35-80. I have nick-named this the "Canon lens" as the images remind me of what I perceive a Canon DSLR can produce. Hmm, maybe that will not endear me to this group!
 | | | | | Junior Member Registered: May, 2016 Location: South Florida Posts: 36
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 23, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Great value, decently sharp stopped down, good color rendition, light weight. | | Cons: | Front element rotates with focus, soft in corners, build quality plasticky. | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-1
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For $20 this is a fantastic bargain. When I ordered my first digital Pentax, the K-1, I was not sure if it would be a keeper and I wanted an inexpensive lens to learn on. The K-1 proved to be much to my liking and the 35-80 a pleasant surprise! I've subsequently bought several other lenses but still find my $20 lens on the camera more often than not. Sure I'd probably prefer a 24-90, but until I can find a decent one, I'm happy to use the F 35-80
   | | | | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2013 Posts: 6
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 4, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Cheap, Light, good colors, SMC coating | | Cons: | Plastic feels flimsy | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 7
Value: 10
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The Pentac SMC f 35-80 lens seems to get a bum rap from many reviewers on this forum and around the web. Generally, I find most reviews on this site to be pretty spot on, but some people throw out strange ratings without putting a lens through some good testing. Now I'm not saying this lens is a 10 compared to my m, k, and takumar primes, but it's a damn usable zoom lens. At least my copy is. I actually prefer it over the 18-55 SMC lens that came with my camera. Yes it has a rotating front element, so it's a pain in the ass to use with a polarizer, but it's a lightweight and fast auto-focusing lens with good sharpness for a zoom and nice color rendering. It's plastic body is cheaply made, but the images are quality and that's what really matters. You can get faster and more high tech zooms, but this little guy does the job. It won't replace my primes but I would certainly recommend it.
A solid 8 Score.
Cheers.
Here are a few shots from the lens all shot wide open.
No PP, just resized. You make the call.
 | | | | | Junior Member Registered: June, 2021 Location: United States Posts: 48
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 28, 2021 | Recommended
| Rating: N/A |
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I bought this lens to take to the beach and other harsh environments when I did not want to take more expensive lenses.
I am very satisfied with the sharpness and colors of the photos it produces. The lens focuses quickly and accurately and is capable of producing nice clear nice photos. I am not a professional photographer, but I have used many lenses over the decades and I am very satisfied with this lens. I have read some negative reviews of this lens and I may have purchased a better than average example, but for whatever the reason, I am pleased with the lens and the photos it produces.
attachd are a few test photos I shot today with the lens.    | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2010 Location: Southern England Posts: 623
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 11, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | Sharp at the long end, lightweight, cheap | | Cons: | Soft at the wide end | | Sharpness: 6
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 8
Camera Used: K-50
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Just to sum up:
Goes from pretty soft at the 35mm end, getting sharper as you move up to the 80mm end, at which it's quite sharp.
Colours and contrast are OK.
A little flimsy feeling, but light and fast-focusing.
I've tried a couple of the optically identical (?) FA35-80 too, and all are very similar (though one is slightly decentred).
Would recommend on the proviso that it's cheap, and that you don't mind that it's distinctly soft at the wide end.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: May, 2009 Location: Delaware Posts: 177
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 20, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness throughout range, great color rendition | | Cons: | Plastic build, although does have a metal lens mount. | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K200D, K50
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I picked this lens up from a $15 flea market SF1 and initially tried it out on a K200D with good but not spectacular results. More recently, I have used it on a K50 with really good results and conclude that the autofocus on the K50 is more accurate.
This lens delivers surprisingly sharp, contrasty images on the K50 with excellent color rendition and smooth, pleasing bokeh. Autofocus is fast and accurate, although it does hunt in very dim light. On a crop sensor it is the equivalent to a 50-120 lens. It has a plastic build and is not the best lens for manual focus. On the other hand, it is quite light. It's a good lens for people and portraits, one of the hidden gems in the Pentax legacy lens lineup.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2014 Posts: 1,020
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 19, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $29.99
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Excellent color rendition and sharpness. | | Cons: | Overpowered by bright light, so stop it down and use a hood. | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-3II
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An incredible sleeper lens. At a cost of less than $30, it's extremely sharp and has great color rendering. It is remarkably lightweight, and accepts 49mm screwthreaded accessories such as hoods or filters. This lens is easily on par with an 18-55 AL in terms of rendering/color/af speed. The fine focus ring is a little light, but that makes it really quick to adjust. The lens also handles flare rather well. Works great with pixel shift as well.
The biggest detractor to this lens is that harsh light will wash out the rendering, so it needs to be stopped down a good bit. In high contrast images (bird on branch against cloudy sky is an example) you do get some purple/magenta fringe, but that's easily managed.
Overall the low rating this lens has been saddled with should be considered a bit inaccurate. If I were to assign a hard, personal score to the lens, I'd give it a 7.85/10. It is most certainly worth the money if you get a decent copy.
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: October, 2012 Location: Medina, OH Posts: 7,224
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 1, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $5.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Bargain price, reasonable sharpness | | Cons: | Subject to flare, noisy, flimsy construction | |
I was pleasantly surprised in using this lens that I thought I was supposed to hate. Perhaps my expectations were so low that anything good about it would have impressed me. I find that the lens is capable of making very good images, plenty good enough for everyday, non-professional use--kid photos, party gatherings, documentation of events, that sort of thing. I am not comparing it to my 31, 43, and 77 limited lenses, of course, or even to better quality zoom lenses. Value is excellent as I only paid a computed $5.00 when I received the lens mounted on a Pentax P-3 film camera for which I paid only $15.00--so $5 for the lens and $10 for the camera. Value is excellent and it makes a good camera cover even if you do not use it to take photos!
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: September, 2013 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 1,070
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 27, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Reasaonably sharp wide open, lightweight, price | | Cons: | Lower contrast in bright light, plasticky build | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K30
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My ratings are based upon the price I paid. I already owned the Pentax f 80-200 so I had the urge to get its shorter buddy. I feel the f 80-200 may be slightly better optically, but they are really close. The f 35-80 is really handy at 35mm and still 1/3 stop faster than the 18-55 dal kit lens at this focal length. When comparing it to the 18-55 dal kit lens, the 35-80 can be hair popping sharp when the aperture is stopped down a little. I do not see much improvement when the 18-55 gets stopped down. I think I prefer the rendering of the 35-80 so far despite that it can't give an 18mm field of view like the 18-55 dal can. I can always stitch multiple landscape photos together with the f 35-80 and still get an 18mm field of view if needed, though. Overall I would say this lens can be sharp at wide open apertures at both ends of the focal range, but sometimes appears less sharp in bright light because there is a lack of contrast. This is because this lens coatings really weren't designed for modern digital SLRs, but the raw images can still be tweaked nicely in photoshop for superb results. The sharpness and control of aberrations improve as you stop down the lens' aperture too. I felt that in sunny light a hood helped a little, but still can use a contrast boost in photoshop afterwards. The lens focuses incredibly quick and accurately on my K30, so I feel no need to ever use manual focus, but the autofocus is a little clunky sounding. Since it has already lasted more than 2 decades I will not fault its lightweight, plasticky build quality. Don't forget it does have a metal bayonet, distance scale, aperture ring, and 35mm coverage (few new lenses these days actually have these things anymore). Aberrations can be present at times but are not atrocious and can be easily fixed in Photoshop or Lightroom. At night, out of focus light sources in the background are suprisingly round at most apertures which surprised me since I wasn't expecting much from its bokeh, but it's not bad at all! I like buying super low cost equipment that can be capable in the right hands, and in this regard this lens doesn't disappoint despite the negative reviews on the internet. I bought it based on viewing some nice sample images from other users.
Here are some samples showing what I am able to accomplish with this lens:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adudenamedjosh/14336383858/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adudenamedjosh/14336310200/in/photostream/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adudenamedjosh/14617944821/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adudenamedjosh/14562571302/in/pool-pentax-f_35-80mm/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adudenamedjosh/16535561267/in/pool-pentax-f_35-80mm
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adudenamedjosh/15383961657/ | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2011 Location: Eastern Kentucky Posts: 416
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 4, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | fast ,accurate focus even in low light | | Cons: | no true wide angle | |
From reading some of the reviews here I must have a very good copy of this lens.Have the 18-55 ,55-200 plus several 'a' and 'm' primes but keep the 35-80 on the camera most of the time as it seems to fit the shots I make more times then the others.
Jake
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: June, 2010 Posts: 47
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 13, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | No CA, sharp at the right aperture, lightweight | | Cons: | You need to know the right aperture/focal length combo to get the sharpest picture | |
First of all, I think it would be helpful to add a field in the lens review for what camera you are using the lens with, this can make a big difference.
I am using this with the k10d for my review, maybe this lens sucks with a 35mm, but I find it to be surprisingly good. I also mainly shoot landscape and from a tripod, I think this makes a difference too.
I took this thing out and did some testing on it. I have found that each focal length has the right aperture for the sharpest image (not overall, just what you are focusing on). Also, there is virtually no CA on this lens with the k10d even wide open which is extremely uncommon, especially for a lens made for full frame. I have CA issues with just about every other full frame lens I own, because the smaller sensor in essence magnifies any CA issues. Again, this may just be an optimal compatibility thing with the k10d.
I found at 35mm (about 50mm equiv. on a 35mm camera) it is reasonably sharp at f/4 and produces really nice blurring towards the edges. Some list this as a downfall, but this is what you typically want wide open, and would be great for portraits. We dont want everything in the photo to be sharp in a lot of cases, that is the beauty of aperture. This being said, a wide open aperture and just about any other focal length does in fact produce an unsharp image, even in the center. But since I rarely use a wide open aperture, this is not an issue for me, personally.
Here is what I found as far as best aperture/focal length combos for getting the sharpest image on what you are focusing on. Of course since these are stopped down and it is not a very fast lens, you will need a tripod in many situations.
35mm = f9
50mm = f11
70mm = f18-20
Another pro, the weight... yes, it is not as strong of build as something heavier, but if you are careful with your lenses, this shouldnt be a huge issue.
If having a fast lens and sharp lens to the corners on wide open apertures is what you want, this lens is not for you. If you use a tripod and shoot landscape, this may very well be the lens for you. Keep in mind, my rating also corresponds with the value for the price. If this lens cost me 300.00, you better believe it would not get a 7. Since I typically use the sharpest f/stops (listed above) it is not very important to me to use the whole gamut of f/stops. I also gave it an 8 to boost up the average rating which in my opinion is too low. Also, I own the Pentax-f 35-70mm. That one is a better lens, so if you can find one of those for cheap, pick up that one vs this one. That one also has macro capability.
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: February, 2020 Posts: 92
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 3, 2022 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | lightweight, nice colours and reasonably sharp | | Cons: | Nothing worth mentioning really | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K30, K70
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I really like this lens. Its small, light and covers the range for most walkabout uses.
Whats more the colours are lovely (I tend to slightly underexpose anyway to sqeeze the most colour from a camera) and the autofocus is very fast and nearly always accurate.
I have its 80-200mm and 28-80mm siblings and this is the best in my humble opinion.
At the moment these can be found for less then £20 on ebay and if you got a copy that was as good as mine you should be delighted.
I can never remember which picture was taken with which lens or camera so today I popped out and took the attached pictures with this lens and a K30.
   | | | | | New Member Registered: October, 2020 Location: Regno delle Due Sicilie Posts: 4
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 15, 2021 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: k-70
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