Author: | | 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
| | 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 | | | | | Junior Member Registered: February, 2011 Location: Illinois Posts: 43 | Review Date: February 19, 2011 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Sharpness, build, contrast, quick focus, durability | Cons: | slow aperture, focus ring rotates in AF, CA at full zoom sometimes | | I got lucky when I bought a lightly used K10D. This is the lens the guy threw in with it. I got it + the lens for less than the K10D body alone cost at the time
This lens is excellent for daytime photography and edge to edge sharpness for high resolution prints. Indoor events would require something else or a flash. The power zoom works but I frankly I find it useless so I leave it turned off.
Having been spoiled by Canon L glass, this lens matches in IQ aside the CA and slight softness at the 105mm focal length.
| | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: San Jose, Costa Rica Posts: 260 | Review Date: September 26, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Built Quality, PowerZoom, Nice Range | Cons: | Slow, | | I got this zoom with my Pentaz MZ-5. It's been around for years and has taken a lot of abuse. Once it drop (with camera and tripod) because of the wind, lens firts into concrete. The lens just had a minor scratch, the plastic barrel broke and the filter ring was also damaged and broken (I cannot use filters anymore), but the lens kept working and I still use it today with my K20D.
Optical quality is good for this price, a grat walk-around lens with nice size and weight. It's a little dark when looking on the viewfinder but I still can get very good results when printing large sizes.
PowerZoom function still surprises my Canikon friends.
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Florida Posts: 514 | Review Date: June 20, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Good sharpness, nearly ideal for court action, cheap, rugged | Cons: | Heavy, | | This is my walk around lens and seems ideal for the task. Mid range it is nearly as sharp as some primes. From what I've been reading this is one of the best efforts from Pentax in this focal range. In some situations, the colors seem to be a bit washed, but that may be the tough lighting I get into...
I'm going to pick up a PZ film camera just so I can explore the potential of the features it offers. Great stuff!
| | | | | 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
| | 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!
| | | | 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
| | 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.
| | | | 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: March, 2014 Posts: 2 | Review Date: April 1, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 4 |
Pros: | sharp, range, colour | Cons: | slow | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 6
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-7
| | Its a slow lens but for 40$ 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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