| Author: | | New Member Registered: February, 2012 Posts: 17
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 4, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Beautiful colour and very sharp | | Cons: | Rather bulky, and front element rotates; could wish it were faster | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: Samsung GX20, Pentax K-X
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This lens currently occupies the middle slot in my auto-focus range, between the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 Di II AF and the Sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6 DG AF. If I am going for a walk around town during the day, I would usually put this on the Pentax K-X, and the Tamron on the Samsung GX20, because the K-X high ISO is superior to the GX20, but it works well on either.
I own (LBA) the Pentax F 35-70mm f3.5-4.5, the F 28-80mm f3.5-4.5, the FA 28-70mm f4, the FA-J 28-80 f3.5-5.6 and the FA 28-90mm f3.5-5.6, and in terms of image quality I find this to be superior to all of them. Wide open it is as sharper, or sharper, than any of the others when they are wide open (though some of the others are a little faster) and in terms of colour only the FA 28-90mm f3.5-5.6 gets close.
The F 28-80mm f3.5-4.5, is nearly as sharp, but the FA 28-105mm PZ has better colour, less CA, is less affected by flare, and focuses closer.
The FA 28-90mm f3.5-5.6 almost matches FA 28-105mm f4-5.6 PZ's colour rendition, but the 28-90mm is slightly less sharp, and is less contrasty.
The F 35-70mm is as sharp, but the colours come out less saturated, and the zoom range is by comparison limited.
I have not found the bokeh to be a problem; in my pictures it is pleasantly blurred, and not busy at all. I imagine that the 9 bladed aperture is important, because in bright sunlight and Auto mode the lens is usually stopped down.
I have never mastered the Power Zoom (it works on the Samsung GX20). When I have tried to use it, I have hunted for the Zoom level I wanted; short, long; short, long ... So I leave it switched off.
On a sunny day, it is fast enough.
Indoors I get good results with a 'bounce' flash.
So what's not to like? Well, it is a bit large for my holster, and objectively it is large and heavy for its zoom range and slow speed. It would be nice if it went to 24mm at the short end. And the front element rotates, which might be a bit of a pain with a polarising filter and my screw-in petal hood. However, when I'm using the polarising filter I am likely focused far away, so once initially set up neither the hood nor the filter need much tweaking.
The final judgement; when I leave it at home, because I am chasing wild-life or having to use natural light in semi-darkness, or simply because I fancy a change, and then put the FA 28-105mm f4-5.6 AF Power Zoom back on the camera, and take a picture, I always look at the next image I take, and exclaim Wow! It's really that good.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2010 Location: Manila Posts: 2,185
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 18, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $147.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | FL, color rendition, sharpness, build, and long focus throw | | Cons: | rotating front element, slow and heavy! | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 6
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-x
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It's been for several months with me now and I've had great projects with it. Time for a cumbersome review!
Introduction:
The FA 28-105 f4-5.6 PowerZoom is an old lens. There are no new ones out there, the latest copy probably produced by the end of the 90's. Not as old as other lenses, but considering its plastic shell, it's one tough lens. It's a substantial chunk of plastic and metal which now most parts are unusable due to PZ functions somewhat being obsolete. Nevertheless, its nice focal length, unprecedented sharpness and color rendition make it an excellent outdoor portrait lens.
Per aspect
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Sharpness: (9.1/10)
Of all its features, this is probably most underrated. It's dang sharp stopped down by a half or one full from wide open (f/8~f/11). While it is true that such a peak aperture so small, still it's excellent for a budget lens and at this focal length. Wide open, the images are still usable but might be a tad soft for most photographers. Can't compare it to a prime of course, but the edges are sharp enough also at f/8 and beyond. Little vignetting too. Color is excellent, sometimes even giving a 3D effect with vibrance pumped up a bit.
It's also a bit soft at 105.
Sample:
Aberrations: (8.8/10)
CA is well controlled by this lens, I don't know why. Maybe it was the camera doing it for me, but for the CA to really come out you'd have to do a really bad exposure of a brightly-lit subject.
(photo to be inserted here)
Bokeh: (6.2/10)
Ugly from 28-50. Even with a 9-blade diaphragm, the bokeh produced by this lens is far from creamy, especially at shorter focal lengths. Round, sure, but looks very busy. Only from 70mm to 85 does it start to look smooth. It takes some practice learning how to use the FL to smoothen the bokeh.
this photo was softened through pp, only because I also wanted the bokeh to look a little less nervous. This was shot at 100mm, f6.3
Autofocus: (8.1/10)
As with all AF screwdrives, it's noisy and hunts at low light. Nothing remarkable, but given its wide range, it's pretty fast. It's great for manual focusing too, though it doesn't have an MF clutch or the Pentax Quick-Shift feature.
Handling: (8.4/10)
So-so. It's sturdy and strong and all, but because of the PZ motor it's too heavy for superlatives. For some reason the weight helps me balance the lens for manual focusing at 105mm though, so I'm not complaining a lot. The front element also rotates, so using petal hoods won't work.
Value: (8.8/10)
Bought a copy from a local Pentax user for Php6,300 ($147). It's pricier than I expected or hoped, but it's quite worth it. The copy was in very nice condition, showed little sign of wear. I guess aside from being taken care of a lot by the previous owner, its tough build shines through.
All in all, it's a performer. I replaced my 28-70 f4 lightweight lens with this, and I don't regret it. The former's bokeh might look better than this lens, but in color and sharpness the FA 28-105 PZ performs better. Setting aside weight issues and the rotating front element. If this was a constant f2.8, it's probably going to bomb other lenses. That would, in effect though, change the optical design altogether and compromises would have to be met.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2010 Location: Somewhere in the Southern US Posts: 12,285
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 20, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Fast AF, Nice Colors, good range, PZ works well | | Cons: | Corner sharpness | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 9
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The reviews here seem mixed. I thought it would be fun to try a PowerZoom and this one looked to be the best of the bunch optically. I found a copy that is in good working condition with clear optics. The PZ function is nice, and faster than I would have through given some of the comments I have seen over the years about these lenses. Focus was fast, faster than several other lenses roughly in this focal range. Colors are vivid with good contrast. Sharp stopped down, but it did not require too much stopping down to get sharp. Manual focus on this FA has better dampening than many and a longer throw than any other I can think of - which can be good or bad depending on your needs. It's longer than the IF version but slimmer (58mm vs 62mm). Overall, I like this version of the 28-105 much better for color, AF, sharpness, and manual focus than the IF version of the FA28-105.
| | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2012 Posts: 1
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 18, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $215.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, low price, constructive. | | Cons: | Hard, soft on the long end of the open aperture. | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 8
Camera Used: K-x
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Good and not expensive lens with a wide range.
Good replacement whale primarily because of the greater range of focal lengths, the field kit is superior, but not much, at least in comparison to my instance. Constructs in very good. Only one drawback - heavy.
Sample photos
https://picasaweb.google.com/113830004396908134834/SMCPentaxFA28105mmF456PZ?...eat=directlink | | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: May, 2009 Location: Finland Posts: 215
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 12, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $55.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Good overall performance, zoom range | | Cons: | Corner sharpness at wide end, bokeh can be messy sometimes | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-1
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In ideal conditions this zoom can produce very good results. Unfortunately in some lighting conditions images from this lens look strange. Corners at the wide end are sodt. Good thing is corners are not muddy, just some softness there.
Handling is good except power zoom. I prefer normal mechanical zooming.
Bokeh is what you expect from zoom like this. Not special and in most cases not bad.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: August, 2012 Posts: 678
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 6, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $23.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Power Zoom, solid construction, | | Cons: | Autofocus is useless close up, soft focus in low light | |
This is the second Power Zoom lens I've acquired (I also have a 100-300mm model) and my first impressions of this one are far more favorable. Part of that has to do with me having more realistic expectations but part of it also has to do with just being an overall better performer. The auto zoom function is very quick, almost too quick. It can be difficult to zoom with precision. Fortunately, it's literally a snap to disengage it and zoom manually. Autofocus is lightning quick on this lens, although the camera initially wanted to recognize it as a manual focus lens. Turning the camera off and back on solved that issue, although it seemed to take a couple of shots to get it synched in. Once that was accomplished, I was pretty pleased with the results. The lens is sharp at both extremes of its focal range but at extremely close focusing distance, where the green macro flower icon appears in the distance window, autofocus is just about useless. Since the manual focus ring is little more than a milled edge on the front of the lens, it can be tough to operate until you get the feel of it. That said, the manual focus is nicely dampened, where it's easy to focus on exactly what you want. The one sort of odd characteristic of this lens is its bokeh. While I wouldn't exactly characterize it as harsh, it's definitely not creamy, either. It sort of reminds me of the light and dark banding of Damascus steel. I could see where it could have some interesting creative applications. While it may not get the same level of use as some of my other lenses, I'm beginning to see this one as a keeper.
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: August, 2011 Location: Slovenia Posts: 73
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 21, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Sharp to 90mm, good colours, fast AF | | Cons: | Heavy, bulky, soft wide open, CA | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 6
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 6
Value: 7
Camera Used: K-7
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This lens offers a good walkaround range on APS-C with pretty good image quality in terms of colour saturation and sharpness (stopped down), but it has some drawbacks:
- it's big a heavy for such a slow lens
- soft above 90mm even stopped down
- cyan colour fringes visible in high contrast scenes
- rotating front element makes filter use difficult
All-in-all a very decent lens when used within it's limitations.
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: July, 2010 Location: NW Ohio Posts: 2,091
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 9, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, great color, focal length, 3D appearance | | Cons: | Not too much, perhaps physical size | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: PZ-1P and K30
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This is a very good lens, especially for the price you can pick one up for. It is sharp with good color. It's not the fastest or lightest lens available but it produces excellent results in the right circumstances. It's certainly not up to a prime but it's a nice walk around lens, especially given it's focal length.
 | | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: October, 2018 Location: Quebec City, Quebec Posts: 6,581
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 19, 2022 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Excellent at 65 mm FL at middle apertures, Power-zooming. | | Cons: | Very poor at 28 mm and 105 mm FL, bad color fringing at these FL. | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 5
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K10
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I never owned a copy of this lens myself but we had one where I worked. I tried it on my K10 digital camera. It was very poor at both ends on film cameras, at 28 mm and 105 mm, but it behaved brilliantly at 65 mm FL. On film cameras, I used it for portraits with flash in the middle of its focal range on a PZ-1. The picture of a box of fresh apples below was taken at 65 mm and f/8 with the K10 and it is colorful and very sharp.
I used it a little on my K10 with which I could pull a few decent pictures. It fared much better on a small APSc digital sensor, here @ 28 mm and 55 mm FL :
 | | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2017 Location: Ronneburg Posts: 1
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 17, 2022 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Good image quality over the zoomrange | | Cons: | heavy | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-3,K-m,Z-5,P 30 T
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This isn't a great nor a bad lens, the best is that it's still quiet sharp at 105mm. It's got a good zoomrange (for FF)
It produces sharp, high-contrast images while minimizing flare and ghost imaging stopped down F 5.6 to f 11. provided you use it with a lenshood.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: April, 2017 Posts: 327
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 3, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Acceptable sharpness | | Cons: | Small width of rubber band | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 6
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: KS 2
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My experiment shows a steal to what i have paid. Auto focus noise is acceptable but quick but not quick shift focus like the new lens made. Heavy weight camera plus lens is a good practice/handling to counter act the shake and create a body tripod like position. Photos are sharp in a lens default position ranging from 12 to 20 feet from camera. Indoor using flash gives a better auto white balance although I did not use a hood to block the stray light. Since i was new to this lens after installing the lens the screen says " F-- " is flashing in red and it took time for me to realized to set the aperture ring to " A " position and the camera works and the red F is gone. Good combination of steel/plastic lens body. This will not be chosen by women due to its weight.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: December, 2014 Location: Colorado Posts: 497
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 25, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Decent optical quality, tightly made | | Cons: | Heavy | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 8
Camera Used: K5IIs
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There does not seem to have any recent review of this lens. I think I may as well add my comments here, especially now when FF is in market and this lens can be had much cheaper than, say, a few years ago.
First, let me explain my "sharpness" grade: Optically perfect = 10; Professional zooms usually are not as good as the best primes and therefore they = 9; Zooms with good optics but not as good as professional zooms = 8. This lens in my opinion is 7.5, for it is quite good on APS-C, but not as good as my FA28-70/4 and SMC F28-80/3.5-4.5. The center sharpness is comparable, but corners are a bit weaker. My FA28-70/4 and SMC F28-80/3.5-4.5 are almost as good as my DA16-85/3.5-5.6 in their common zoom range so they are really quite good.
Aberration as an old lens is not as good as modern lenses, but acceptable. Build quality is very nice. The drawback is that it is quite heavy and slow (F4 to F5.6).
Powerzoom is a useful feature, if your DSLR model supports it!
| | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2008 Location: Italy Posts: 9
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 1, 2010 | Recommended
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Very sharp, good colour & contrast, inexpensive, very good range | | Cons: | a bit slow, some fringing, maybe a bit soft @ 105, big and heavy, front element rotates, comes with no hood | |
I bought this lens here on the marketplace. The lens is bigger and heavier than I'd like, and I don't like the fact that the front element rotates while focusing, but apart from that it's very very sharp and it's definitely a very worthy upgrade from the kit lens. It's slowly becoming my main walkaround lens when I just want to go around taking random photos. @105 it becomes a little soft and it's a bit prone to fringing, at shorter focal distances it's ok. Recommended if you want a good walkaround lens, don't want to spend much and don't mind the extra bulk and weight
EDIT (29/06/2010):
I'm revising the original review a few months after the first one since I now believe it was a little too enthusiastic (before it was a 9, now I think a 7 would be more appropriate). Don't get me wrong: the lens IS nice, but after a while I realized that the size and bulk outweigh its optical qualities, and I simply rarely choose it to mount on the camera when I go out to take some pictures (in fact I'm more and more leaning towards primes). It all boils down to personal shooting styles and preferences though: if'you're looking for a good do-it-all zoom, it's a very good choice.
| | | | | New Member Registered: September, 2006 Location: Dallas, TX, USA Posts: 21
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 8, 2007 | Recommended | Price: $125.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Ideal film SLR walkaround. Great value for money | | Cons: | loses wideness (28 becomes 42) on DSLR, | |
I bought this as the "kit lens" for my Z1 in Singapore when they both first came out. I was probably one of thefew users of the power-zoom aspects of this lens and I missed it when I switched to the *istD. (It's back with the K10D.)
This polycarbonate body lens has taken litterally thousands of pictures and only gave me one minor problem (one of the aspects of powerzoom that the K10D does not support) that Pentax fixed quickly under warrantee.
If you avoid both extremes of the zoom range, it has quite good optical qualities. Balances very nicely on the K10D and anti-shake makes it even better.
Larry in Dallas
| | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2014 Posts: 2 | | Review Date: April 1, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 4 |
| Pros: | sharp, range, colour | | Cons: | slow | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 6
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-7
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Its a slow lens but for 40$ its ok.
Good colours and sharp. Thats all good for a walkaround lens.
Its big but not problem to me. I like bigger lenses.
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;)
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