| Author: | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: October, 2018 Location: Quebec City, Quebec Posts: 6,582
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 5, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $240.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp and brilliant WA lens on the K1, short normal on the K3 | | Cons: | None. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: Pentax K3, K1
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Optimum aperture range : f/5.6 to f/11.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: September, 2014 Posts: 1
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 1, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $210.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, small, easy to use | | Cons: | ? | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K30
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Very good lens.
| | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2012 Posts: 6
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 17, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Great color, contrast and sharpness. Light and compact. | | Cons: | Plastic body. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-01
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Performance-wise this is a great lens. Produces very contrasty image and typical Pentax color. For its size and weight and equivalent focal length, it serves perfectly as the walk-around lens for my K-01.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: April, 2010 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 813 | | Review Date: May 28, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $350.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, great colour and contrast, small, fast accurate focus, super IQ | | Cons: | None at all | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
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Better than my A28/2.8.
Centre field sharpness at 2.8, sharp from corner to corner at 3.5 and above.
Gorgeous colour, image rendition.
Review have stated that it is closer to 30mm FL than the stated 28mm, if this is the case, I don't need a FA31 limited.
You won't be unhappy with this lens.
I'm giving it a 10, because I can't fault my copy, and I feel the rating needs to be lifted!
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: November, 2009 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 2 | | Review Date: January 4, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $180.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | tack sharp, light weight, beautiful color rendition | | Cons: | hard to find | |
got it off Ebay for less than $200 and used it heavily on my portrait and landscape photography, light weight and compact, it deserves a rating of 10 for the price vs performance I got
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1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 18, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $195.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharp, light, fast focus, great picture quality | | Cons: | | |
I agree with the two above reviews - how can you rate a lens you love, with no "cons", a 7? This lens is a perfect match for any DSLR. People are clamoring all over the 50mm primes and not noticing this lens much. For me, the 50mm lens on a DSLR produces too narrow a FOV. This lens is perfect. Great picture quality and sharpness to boot.
I do wish it was a little faster just for those rare situation where it may come in handy. As it is, it's sufficient for 99% of my needs. Come to think of it, had it been faster, I wouldn't have been able to afford it.  | | | | | Senior Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Miami, Florida Posts: 205 | | Review Date: October 17, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $210.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Same great construction as other FA lenses, sharp wide open | | Cons: | none | |
I agree with the above review, this lens is perfect for DSLR. Great for indoor and outdoor use. Still very affordable, and a must have in my collection.
| | | | | New Member Registered: December, 2007 Location: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Posts: 18 | | Review Date: March 4, 2008 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp at 2.8, small, colors | | Cons: | no hood with the lens | |
How anybody would give this lens a 7? It is perfect! I used it for landscapes with my slides and it produced fantastic results. I compared it to my 28-70 Canon L lens, and the Pentax is sooo much better. I sold it lately, but miss it.
| | | | | New Member Registered: September, 2020 Location: Derbyshire Posts: 3
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 21, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $150.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Size, colour rendition, flexibility, sharpness | | Cons: | Not really a true 28mm, slight barrel distortion, poor focussing scale | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: Pentax MZ5n/MX
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Note that all my reviews refer to lens use with film, NOT digital.
I was a bit sceptical about this 28mm from Pentax as I'd had a poor experience with the A28mm 2.8 (a lens that is so pedestrian it was beyond belief - and I'd had two copies) plus also the M28 2.8 whose corners were absolutely awful.
I was pleasantly surprised by this unassuming FA lens. It - like the FA50 1.4 that I had - seemed to be well made for an modern AF lens with quality tactile plastic.
But the real surprise was in the beautifully rendered colours I got from the perfectly well exposing matrix meter of the MZ5n I had. I even got the same results from an MX I had as well (using Velvia 50 and Kodak VS100 slide film).
Putting aside the obvious slight barrel distortion, the lens was also very sharp too, my favourite apertures being f8 to f11. But even at f2.8 to f5.6, the centre was well rendered and this, and its relative close focussing capability meant I could use the lens for shots of children, groups and also very useable with the onboard flash of the MZ5n etc.
Off axis composition would show up the barrel distortion - but as said, the colours and sharpness more than made up for this.
It had the popular 49mm filter thread too. The focussing scale though on the FA range was not very good and hyperfocal focussing was hard if like me you tended to do landscapes.
I sold the lens well before Pentax started to get into digital - but I still feel that it was perfectly good and with the post processing capability of digital, its distortion could become non-existent. I sold it because I got 20-35mm zoom. What a lens that was!
Highly recommended although I hear that the previous 28mm 2.8 F is a formidable lens too.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: March, 2016 Location: British Columbia Posts: 41
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 18, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $62.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Quieter AF than expected | | Cons: | Discontinued | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-30
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I bought this as a normal lens for an APS-C body that could still find use with my K-1000 film body (or a K-1 should I ever pull that trigger). I already had the current DA 35mm plastic fantastic lens, but the AF in the 35 is atrociously loud. This old FA 28 is quieter in the sense that the ‘thud’ of the focus reaching its limits is less pronounced and the rotating mechanism itself sounds a little bit more subdued. I can’t say between the two if I like the IQ of one over the other, but the quieter operation and slightly wider field of view are two pluses. I suspect if this lens were still in production it would outsell the DA 35mm as a best choice for a normal perspective on a crop sensor even at a higher price point. Only thing I would change is the narrow focus ring.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: March, 2015 Posts: 6,381 | | Review Date: June 18, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | More than adequately sharp; fast; good AF response; (see review) | | Cons: | Discontinued! | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-5
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I bought this lens because I wanted a wide-field-of view AF lens in this focal length to be able to take pictures of dogs and small children in a hurry - my eyes aren't good enough to do it without a split-prism screen.
The demands I place on the lens aren't harsh or exacting and I'm not a pixel-peeper, so if you are, perhaps look to another review. I'm more than happy with this lens.
Image quality: I see no specific flaws on full-screen monitor viewing, which is good enough for me.
Focus: AF is fast, with a minimum focusing distance of just under 1 foot/30cm, although it feels a few cm closer. Not a macro by any means, but you can certainly get close. Manual focus is reasonable; I could focus well enough on a particular close object that a narrow aperture would get me acceptable results. Beyond a couple of metres, you are very quickly into hyperfocal distance at any aperture.
Bokeh: At close distances and wide apertures, out-of-plane images are smeared into diffuse zones of colour. Good enough for me.
General notes: It's a film-era lens with an aperture ring, so it's full-frame ready and unlike the D-FA 100mm macro it's completely backwards compatible. It's also relatively inexpensive. My copy seems "bright" in low light, as if it occasionally needs -0.5 EV to bring it in line with what my eyes are seeing, but I consider this an advantage.
I had been considering buying the 21mm or 15mm DA limited, but after a short period owning a 28mm manual lens I realised that this was as wide as I needed to go for my purposes. IMO Ricoh should seriously consider re-establishing the production line for this lens.
I can recommend it to anyone looking for a second-hand wide angle prime for casual hobby or family photography. Undoubtedly the current crop of DA Limiteds are better, but I don't think the extra cost can be justified unless you're doing professional/commercial work or take your amateur photography much more seriously than I do (entering competitions, etc).
| | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2014 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: May 17, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp at 2.8, compact size, light weight | | Cons: | little plastic | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K5IIS, MZ-S, SuperA
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Sharp at 2.8, easy to use in low light condition, no auto focus error in low light condition, compact size and light weight
| | | | | New Member Registered: April, 2014 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: April 22, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $125.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp at 2.8, compact size, light weight | | Cons: | problems with lenshood, problematic manual focusing for people with big hand | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 7
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-500
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Very good lens, very sharp in wide aperture, its is also light and compact.
| | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2012 Posts: 15 | | Review Date: September 22, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp at 2.8, compact size, light weight | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: New
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Sharp at 2.8, easy to use in low light condition, auto focus error in low light condition, compact size and light weight
| | | | | New Member Registered: October, 2011 Posts: 5 | | Review Date: February 21, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp at F/2.8, Great focal length for APS-C, looks good on DSLR bodies | | Cons: | Build quaity average, plastic casing, AF could be quieter, manual focus ring is tiny. | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: Pentax K-r
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A downright beast of a lens. Sharp at 2.8, sharper still at F/4, scary pin sharp at F/5.6. Focal length on APS-C is perfect (42mm), colour rendition is spot on.
Manual focusing is an afterthought here, and the build does feel cheap. But these are quibbles on a lens that really does the job. Highly recommended!
N.B. Worth considering for K-r users shooting under low tungsten light, as even wide open this lens finds focus well.
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