| Author: | | New Member Registered: September, 2020 Location: Derbyshire Posts: 3 | | Review Date: August 21, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, nicely built, great focal range, wonderful colours, well controlled distortion, a go anywhere lens | | Cons: | I sold it too cheaply, I miss it, f4 is a bit slow even then. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 6
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: MZ5n
| |
I used this lens with film NOT digital.
This was my most favourite lens in my time with Pentax and the excellent MZ5n.
I used it at all focal lengths usually in the f8-f11 aperture range for people at 35mm and landscape and environmental at 28/24/20mm.
This was the best zoom I have ever used. I have a much vaunted Nikkor 25-50mm AIS which has a wonderful look and is manual focus. But this little Pentax was as good as and tiny in comparison. I got rich colours, very well controlled distortion and great detail plus little or no colour aberration. Like the 25-50, this little Pentax also laughed in the face of highlights and the sun. I still have the slides to prove it.
BTW, despite the wonderful 24-50mm A zoom that I once lent, the 20-35 FA was the best Pentax 24mm I've used.
If you were in a tight spot, you could get it all in. I became addicted to this lens and it never really left the MZ5n. I only let my Pentax stuff go from 2008 because of the financial crash hurt my income through no fault of my own and I had to make cuts to expenditure etc. (like I suspect many other people around the world) It was done so reluctantly. If I am honest I still miss this lens - an equal to anything produced by Nikon and definitely anything by Canon - I've seen published shots from the EOS 20-35mm 2.8 and the Canon is not as sharp or pleasing to look at as this little Pentax (the Canon looks degraded by diffraction).
I've no idea how it performs on digital but all I can say is give it a go if you get a decent copy. You might find that it is worth it.
We bang on in photography don't we about sharpness but there is a lot more going on with some lenses and this is one of them. There's the artistic side of pictorial rendition to consider too, and there is a depth to the pictures this lens produces that other wide angles zooms just don't have. You feel that you could step into the picture; the picture has gone beyond being a picture if you see what I mean. The 25-50 Nikkor does that and so does this little Pentax.
I 'd recommend this lens to you and hope that you find what I found.
| | | | | | | Forum Member Registered: August, 2018 Posts: 72 | | Review Date: August 28, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | lightweight, platic wonder but very good quality. | | Cons: | nothing ! | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-x
| |
My main lense, alway on my camera. Very goog, no probleme with digital camera... My favorite.
| | | | | New Member Registered: October, 2017 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: January 3, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $700.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharp, colors rending, light | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K3
| |
A terrific standard zoom lens for landscape photography!
I sold my very loved FA 20mm 2.8 to get this lens.
It was a good choice, for sure ! | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: November, 2006 Location: Jakarta Posts: 667
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 16, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | A full-frame lens that is compact, light, sharp, beautiful colors and superb microcontrast. | | Cons: | A bit of lateral chromatic aberration (easy to correct) | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-X, Sony A7, Pentax Z1-P
| |
I have never used this lens a lot on APS-C because of the unappealing focus range and also because I have crop format lenses that cover a broader range with good image quality (like the DA 16-45/4).
It’s on full-frame that this lens really shines: it offers a very useful range, from super-wide to normal-wide, in a compact package with superb image quality. There is no other compact full-frame wide-zoom with constant aperture that can rival the FA 20-35 when it comes to consistently delivering gorgeous pictures with great micro-contrast and fantastic colors.
The FA 20-35/4 AL is really a small lens that takes very little space in the bag and is quite light (245g), yet it is very useful by replacing both a 20mm super-wide and a 35mm normal-wide, as well as all the focal lengths in between. It is really usable throughout the zoom range at any aperture.
At the 20mm end, the corners are a bit soft wide open, but the whole frame sharpens up nicely at F/8-F/11 –of course, people usually don't shoot landscape wide open anyway. For interior scenes or night shots where the corners are not really important, the lens is perfectly usable at F/4. I have made some comparisons with my Pentax FA 20/2.8 on full-frame and I consistently prefer the results from the FA 20-35: pure resolution is equivalent (maybe a tad better on the 20/2.8 when stopped down) but micro-contrast and colors are so much better on the zoom. Surprisingly, the zoom is also much more resistant to flare. This might be caused by the zoom having the superior "ghostless" coatings.
At the 35mm end, image quality is already very good over the whole frame at F/4 and it rivals prime lenses at F/8.
Some people seem to regret this lens’ F/4 max aperture. To me, it’s not really a limitation given the high ISO capability of modern cameras and I would even say this is rather a big advantage because it allows the lens to be very compact. As a bonus, the lens extends only a tiny bit when zoomed in and focused close. With the lens shade on, you will not even notice the length variation.
Lateral chromatic aberration is a bit strong at 20mm, especially wide open, but it cleans up easily without leaving any residue. There is no visible LCA at 35mm.
Distortion at 20mm is noticeable on straight lines running next to the edges (though not bad at all for a wide-zoom) and vignetting is visible wide open, but both are quite easy to correct if necessary (distortion is the common spherical type). Distorsion and vignetting are negligible at 35mm.
I give this lens a rating of 10 not because it is perfect but because it has many unique qualities that largely overcome its few drawbacks. It has been my most used lens for the last year on a full-frame Sony A7, constantly delivering outstanding results. Together with a Voigtländer Nokton 58/1.4 and a C/Y Sonnar 100/3.5, it makes a very light and portable full-frame kit that I carry everywhere. I guess the FA 20-35 will also perform superbly on the forthcoming Pentax full-frame DSLR.
Cheers!
Abbazz
| | | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: July, 2008 Location: Baltimore, Maryland Posts: 11,590
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 25, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $450.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Compact, sharp, great rendering | | Cons: | ummmmm... not built like a tank? | |
I can't add much to the previous reviews--it's just a wonderful little lens. I was unaware of its existence until quite recently but quickly decided I had to get me one. I was right: it's going to get a lot of use--because it's so easy to carry and because it delivers the shots.
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2012 Location: Delaware Posts: 314
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 12, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, Color, versatile | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K5
| |
This lens is my first choice for landscape photography among 200 lenses I have used. I would rate this lens at 10 with no doubt and it is on par with FA* 85 and FA 31. These three lenses are the most trusted lenses whenever image quality is the concern. | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: February, 2010 Location: Northern Michigan Posts: 6,173
10 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 5, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $360.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Compact weight and size | | Cons: | Distortion at wide end of lens; loss of sharpness in far corners on FF | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-5iis. Pentax K-1
| |
This may be the best overall zoom lens I've ever used. At least on an APS-C digital camera, it has very good edge to edge resolution at all focal lengths. It also features very good microcontrast and excellent color rendition. In terms of overall image quality, it comes very close to the primes lenses I have in the 20 to 35 range (i.e., M 20/4, K 28/3.5 and K 35/3.5). The FA 20-35 features Pentax's "ghostless" coatings, introduced in the late 90s (and used in the FA limiteds and the FA* 200/4 macro). The coatings basically accentuate the typical FA color rendering, adding a bit more bite and intensity. This makes the FA 20-35 an excellent choice for landscape photography. You'd be hard pressed to find more aesthetically pleasing colors for landscape in a zoom lens covering this range.
Only real weakness in the lens, optically speaking, at least when compared to prime lenses, is that it does feature quite a bit of distortion at the wide end.
Build quality is good but not outstanding. It's metal mount lens with most everything else made of plastic. The advantage of the plastic is that the lens is very light. But the better sort of DA zooms, like the DA 10-17 and the DA 12-24, feature sturdier builds. One big advantage of the lens is that, unlike the DA 14-45 and the DA 17-70, the barrel of the lens does not extend when zooming. This keeps the lens compact and prevents the sort of barrel wobble afflicting those aforementioned DA standard zooms.
Some sample images:
@ 20mm--
@ 29mm--
@35mm--
Addendum for full-frame DSLRs:
I finally had the opportunity to use this lens on a full-frame camera. Initially, I was rather concerned about what I would find. After Pentax released the K-1, I attempted to track down every high-resolution image taken with that camera that had been posted on flickr, and I can't say I was very impressed with what I saw. Great resolution and contrast in the center of the image, but toward the edges, even when stopped down, there seemed to be major issues with resolution. I was therefore inclined to suspect that this lens, originally designed for 35mm film cameras, would not be up to the challenge of the K-1's 36 MP sensor, and when I finally bought a K-1 in summer of 2018, I was fully prepared to do the lion's share of my ultra-wide FOV work on my KP with the DA 12-24. Well, after taking several hundred images in demanding, detail enriched environments, I can say that, as a landscape lens, the FA 20-35 is, for the most part, more than adequate for use on the K-1. Stopped down to around F11 to F16, the lens is commendably sharp in the center and only a little less sharp toward the edges. Only in the very far corners does the sharpness drop off to any real extent, and even there, you have to pixel peep to notice. As I don't happen to believe that sharpness is the very far corners is all that important (if your image is well composed, your eye will not be drawn to the very far corner), I can easily live with this very minor flaw. But what really makes this lens stand out is its compact size and weight. This thing is four times lighter than the DFA 15-30. For some of us, that makes a huge difference in usability. Is the DFA 15-30 a better lens? Of course it is. But it's not better by all that much. Indeed, I like the FA 20-35 so much that even if Pentax were to release a less humongous DFA F4 wide angle zoom, I would not bother with it. The fact is, we're never going to see DFA lenses as small, light, and compact as this little FA piece of glass. Even an f4 DFA wide-angle zoom lens would weigh more than twice the 20-35 and cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000. Nor am I in the least bothered by the lack of WR with the FA 20-35. What good is WR in a wide angle lens? If it's raining, you're not keeping water off the front element in any case. So it's not usable in those conditions and all the WR in the world won't change that.
Highly recommended for landscape shooters willing to stop the lens down. Not recommended, however, for those who need, whether for good or bad reasons, fast aperture. The lens is not all that sharp away from the APS-C image circle at F4 or even at F5.6. Not a lens I'd recommend for astrophotography.
Some images with the K-1, all shot at f11:
@20mm:
@23mm
@35mm
 | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: November, 2010 Location: California Posts: 2,223
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 8, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $435.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp from f4, great color contrast, IQ, excellent, small | | Cons: | short range: 20-35mm, but if that is all you need, no problem | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: k-3
| |
Great lens, better than the 21/3.2 limited. Will post picture in a few days. I got this lens few months back, but have not used it. Now that I got my K3, I am using all my FA and F lenses because I discovered that their AF is super fast on the K3.
 VeleroAtDanaFA20-35mmf4-7-1 by Palenquero, on Flickr
 Dana-1 by Palenquero, on Flickr
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2009 Location: Langley, BC Posts: 550 | | Review Date: July 31, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Autofocus: 9
| |
I've had this lens for several years now, and it continues to impress me. Image quality is comparable with prime lenses. I own the F28/2.8 and M35/2 primes, which are no slouches, and the FA20-35 is on par with them. On a film body the 20mm length shines, and 20mm is wide enough for daily use on the K5. I'd part with the F28 before the FA20-35 (not that I'm about to let go of either). If Pentax ever makes a FF dSLR...
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: August, 2008 Location: Worcestershire, UK Posts: 677
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 12, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, light, compact, beautiful colours, great "walkabout" range. | | Cons: | build quality possibly - but that's what makes it light! | | Sharpness: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: K5
| |
Quite simply this is the best zoom lens in the wide-angle range that I have ever used. Admittedly it doesn't have the greatest range nor does it have the fastest aperture, but it is very light, fairly compact, is sharp from f4 (superb at 5.6-8), CA is pretty good and it produces beautiful colours. It is also quite handy for close-ups (not macro, but those "large flower in the foreground and hills in the background" shots that I love ) - I'd go as far as to say that this lens performs in the same league as most of my star and limited lenses. If the ratings were in percentages it would be above 95% - so I'll round it up to a 10 (it's far better than a 9)!
It is a lens that seems to have bypassed me completely over the years, I'm not sure why because back in my film days a 20mm and a 35mm (along with an 85mm) were the kit that I took out with me for most trips. A couple of years ago I bought a Tokina ATX Pro 20-35 and loved the range but the quality was too variable, so I've kept my eye out for a Pentax equivalent ever since. I eventually picked one up a few weeks ago in very good condition and it has impressed me so much that I have even ordered a second copy (apologies but my LBA is at an advanced stage).
My advice would be.... ....if you've find one at a reasonable price - Buy It !!!
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: August, 2011 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 328
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 30, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $325.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Compact size, sharp, color rendition, great build quality | | Cons: | zoom range a bit limited. Some might like more dampening on focus and zoom rings | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
| |
This is the second FA 20-35 I have owned. I made the mistake of selling the first one after getting a K20D with a DA 16-45. I thought I wouldn't need it anymore: big mistake. Took me three months to find another one for a bit less than I sold the first for (people just don't let go of them). I still use the 16-45 when I need the zoom range, but not that often. On top of it, I use the FA 20-35 on my KX and K2 film bodies as well. In that case I find myself using the 20-35 in the place of my 24 and 35 Pentax-A lenses. As long as I use Pentax cameras, I will always have the 20-35 in my bag.
continuation 5 Jan 2015...Just got a new K-3 for Christmas and the FA 20-35 is still in the bag...what can I say. The image quality coupled with the modest size and weight wins every time. The only lens I would think about replacing it with is the new DA 20-40, which has a better build and similar image quality (tested one at the Ricoh booth last month at Precision Camera here in Austin). However, it is heavier, still is not WR and has a big price.
I am not terribly amazed that this lens is still being produced for the Japanese market.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2008 Location: Madison, WI Posts: 2,165
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 8, 2008 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Wideness, sharpness, compactness | | Cons: | Not that fast | |
I got this as a side benefit with a body purchase, never having heard of it or desired it. Wow! Much, much higher image quality than the 18-55mm kit lens, far outweighs its more limited range. And, as others have said, on a film body the 20mm end is fantastic. I find even wide open image quality is great. And with the usable high ISO levels on a digital camera, the maximum aperture of 4.0 isn't that limiting. Certainly the viewfinder is plenty bright. I was initially going to sell it, but no, I like it too much.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2007 Location: in a house in Armidale, Australia Posts: 472
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 19, 2007 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | the colour and look!!! (its also small,light, cheapish) | | Cons: | ca | |
I spent a month deciding between this and 16-45, and after a week with this I am still amazed. It's small and light, gets a fair bit of ca and sometimes feel I still want a bit wider and bit longer...BUT the colour, look and sharpness of the images make this one a real keeper. Its great!
| | | | | New Member Registered: September, 2006 Location: Dallas, TX, USA Posts: 21
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 8, 2007 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Tack sharp, well-built | | Cons: | not as wide on a DSLR | |
On DSLR, this is an ideal scenic walk-around lens.
Even if it's not mounted, it's always in my kit - always sharp at all lengths.
I also like using it with film - where I can take more advantage of its ultra-wideangle range.
Larry in Dallas
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: February, 2017 Posts: 65
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 12, 2024 | Recommended | Price: $450.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Good zoom range, sharp, small/compact, good IQ | | Cons: | a little bit too light, soft corners wide open | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 5
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 6
Value: 9
Camera Used: K1, K1-II
| |
I wanted to extend my zoom range of my lenses for traveling - e.g. when using the D-FA28-105 I miss somehow some more angle of view.
I totally bought 4 versions of this lens all for a quite high price in 2018; I selected the best one and this one is really good.
The first problem was the reach of infinite - the end stop was at about 50m distance. I spend some money to get rid of this problem and now I also can use the lens wider open for landscape.
The second problem is the low weight. With both K1s I see shutter blur when using exposure times between 1/250s and 1/50s.
From my first session with the "new" selected lens:
20mm, F5.6, 1/40s, ISO 125
20mm, F5.6, 1/40s, ISO 160
20mm, F8, 1/250s, ISO 100
20mm, F4, 1/250s, ISO 100
20mm, F8, 1/125s, ISO 100
When I noticed the issue with the shutter blur, I tried to avoid the critical times
20mm, F5.6, 1/20s, ISO 640
26mm, F5.6, 1/20s, ISO 800
20mm, F5.6, 1/250s, ISO 100
20mm, F4.5, 1/15s, ISO 250 with CPL filter
32mm, F6.3, 1.3s, ISO 100
After the service with adjustment of infinite stop
23mm, F7.1, 1/200s, ISO 125
23mm, F5.6, 1/1250s, ISO 100
20mm, F4, 1/1250s, ISO 100
24mm, F16, 1/400s, ISO 100
Often heard complains about soft corners wide open may be a result of the curved sharpness range when using 20mm to 25mm and the limited maximum distance. Now after the service I can put the focus to a bit longer range and can get quite sharp corners even at F4.
| | |
;)
;)
