Forum Member Registered: July, 2019 Location: Kamloops B.C Posts: 83 | | Review Date: December 31, 2019 | Recommended
| Rating: 5 |
| Pros: | Auto-focus is decently quick, light weight | | Cons: | Build, Image quality | | Sharpness: 4
Aberrations: 4
Bokeh: 4
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 3
Value: 5
Camera Used: K-7, K-5
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This may be the weakest Pentax lens I've ever used. Shoddy plastic build and soft images with tons of flare and CA. It's not good enough to be a viable daily walk-around zoom, and its not bad enough to be a fun lomography style lens. Don't spend your hard earned money here. There are just so many better options out there for cheap that I suggest staying away from this lens. This lens just showed up unexpectedly with a camera I bought from ebay - the seller couldn't give it away for free so he unloaded on me as a lens cap for the camera. I unloaded it the same way.
Are there any good qualities? Yes! well it's light due to all that cheap plastic and the auto-focus seemed quick and accurate enough on my copy - forget it it low light though. Stopped down it sharpens up enough for snapshots otherwise its pretty soft. This might be a good lens to leave on an old DSLR to stash in your car for those unexpected moments. If it gets stolen no big loss.
Use it if you get it for free and have no other options, or save an extra 30 bucks and get something better.
5/10 - Fast focus in good light and light weight, but cheap build and soft photos.
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New Member Registered: March, 2016 Posts: 11
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 20, 2016 | Not Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 4 |
| Pros: | Cheap, autofocus, a little more reach than typical 18-55 kit lens | | Cons: | Bad IQ, flare, not sharp, Af tends to hunt on K-x | | Sharpness: 4
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 5
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 7
Value: 3
Camera Used: Pentax K-x
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I have to say that I rather do not like this lens. I bought it from ebay about 3 or 4 years back when looking for something with a little extra reach over the 18-55 kit lens and to be frank, one is better off using the kit lens at 55 mm and cropping down to the desired size than to use this lens in my opinion. Took about 100 images with it when I got it and it has been sitting in the box since then.
Out of these about 100 shots under different lighting conditions and ranges I would say that about 3 to 5 were as good as the default kit lens offers. Colors under most light conditions tend to be washed out, as soon as little light hits the front lens at angle there is some flare. In the similar range I have Tamron 28-200 mm zoom which is a lot better between 35 and 90mm than this one as far as I can tell.
I would suggest avoiding this lens if possible and going on with the 18-55mm kit lens (which is not very good either in my opinion) if this one is the alternative. It has nothing to offer over the 18-55mm kit lens.
Edit: Adding some sample images from the test directory from the time when I last used this lens. I do not remember the details anymore, however, the focal legth and aperture should be still in the metadata fields of the images as reported by the Pentax K-x when using these lens.
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Forum Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Vancouver, WA, 98682 Posts: 93 | | Review Date: December 10, 2014 | Not Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 4 |
| Pros: | inexpensive | | Cons: | not the sharpest lens in my bag | | Sharpness: 4
Aberrations: 5
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 7
Value: 6
Camera Used: Pentax K10D
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Just a quick data-point... Picked this up for $10 at Goodwill.
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;)
;)
