| Author: | | Pentaxian Registered: February, 2010 Location: Northern Michigan Posts: 6,176 | | Review Date: April 15, 2023 | Recommended | Price: $600.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Superb ambience, color, and rendering of detail | | Cons: | No longer technically on par with the very "best" lenses | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 8
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: Pentax K-1
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Although the FA limited lenses were designed without numerical scores in mind, this doesn't mean they weren't technically superb lenses when they were first released over twenty years ago. They have been surpassed since on when it comes to such things as CA control and wide open sharpness by some of these high-end (and rather large and cumbersome) super primes. But in terms of aesthetics, of the image as it seen in a large print by the naked eye, nothing quite matches the FA 31 outside of high-end German glass. At its very best, the FA 31 produces images that had a beauty of tone, of tonal graduation, of rendering of detail that you'll find only in a handful of Japanese lenses. And while technically it may fall short of the very "best" lenses, it still holds up remarkably well even in terms of numerical specs. Yes, there is a bit of CA (which invariably cleans up in LR) and it's not as sharp wide-open as the latest and greatest. But those latest and greatest don't render detail like the FA 31; they lack the subtlety of coloration, the rich at times almost glossy ambiance, and the sheer subtle beauty of how this lens can project a scene. Those who are uptight about the FA 31's minor technical flaws would do well to avoid this lens. Get one of the DFA f1.4 primes instead. But for the aesthetically inclined photographer, this lens is self-recommending.
Some images, all shot with the K-1:
At f1.8:
At f5.6:
At f7.1:
At f11:
 | | | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2022 Posts: 2
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 17, 2023 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Solid, small, beautyfull, less PP, bokeh, speed what snot to like about this lens? | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: Pentax KII
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I have many excellent lenses, and all have their traits, but this one is up there with the best in my eyes.
Its a magical lens designet and made by magic people. The quality, the feeling, the optics, the size, the handling.... it must be one of the best lenses ever made..
I grab this lens more often then any other lens to be honest.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: December, 2020 Location: Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago Posts: 40 | | Review Date: December 9, 2022 | Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, size, weight, appearance, Bokeh, color, contrast, etc | | Cons: | Really the only issue with this lens is the CA. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 6
Handling: 10
Value: 8
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-1
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I coveted this lens for many many years before Pentax released a digital FF camera. I finally purchased the K-1 brand new after having gone through several flagship APC-C models once they were affordable used. This lens has been, and will continue to be my go to for general photography that I really want the best out of. This is my go to for most of my paid work, and never disappoints!
Check out my album for this lens on Flickr. I really need to categorize more of my photos from this lens, but cars are sort of boring, and that's mostly what I shoot with this lens.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lordawesome/albums/72157716106511843 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: August, 2016 Location: Cape Town Posts: 244
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 27, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $1,000.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Solid build, sharpness, colour | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 8
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K1
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This lens is everything I would have expected from its legendary reputation. For me, 31 mm is the perfect focal length for general wide angle landscapes.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2018 Location: Denver CO Posts: 1
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 14, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $792.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, color rendition, handling, construction | | Cons: | cost | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: k70
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Sharp corner to corner with the crop sensor. Really lovely color rendition and sharpness. Did require a focus adjust to get the most out of it.
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2017 Location: Medellín Posts: 1,322 | | Review Date: January 10, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $550.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Wide and nine-bladed aperture, rendering. | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-5, Film bodies
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Got it through the forum as a normal for my K-5 and stays on most of the time. Really amazing optic. Size comes with the large aperture. It just makes me want to get the other two!
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: December, 2009 Location: Christchurch, New Zealand Posts: 2,437
6 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 26, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $530.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Relatively small, lovely OOF rendering, great colours, great sharpness, wonderful build | | Cons: | Nothing significant | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 8
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-1
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Overall I love this lens. It has some very nice qualities to it that make it a real pleasure to use. I was lucky to get a used one that is in near mint condition and pretty reasonably priced.
Prior to getting this lens my go to wide was the FA 35 f2, which is a great compact lens. Compared to the FA31:- FA31 has a much nicer build than the FA35
- My FA31 copy is slightly sharper than my FA35 (especially across the frame)
- FA31 bokeh is significantly improved over the FA35 in the focus transition zones
- Obviously the FA31 is little bit faster than the FA35 but still totally usable wide open
- FA31 is quite noticeably wider the FA35 (no surprise there and may be a plus or minus for you)
- Both have quite attractive flare stars when stopped down a bit (although FA31 is busier with more points to the star)
- FA35 is smaller and lighter
- FA35 is lot cheaper than the FA31
I also have a FA28 but I find the FA31 is near enough to that focal length for my use and so I have not had much need for 28mm. In fact for my use I find 31mm a nice compromise between 28mm and 35mm and so carry one less lens (your use may differ).
In summary if you have the budget for the FA31 (or lucky to get a deal on one), then go for it, otherwise the FA35 is fantastic value (and I'm having trouble letting mine go!).
Samples:
Wide Open:
At f8:
Stars at f13:
 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: January, 2013 Location: San Luis Obispo Posts: 146
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 5, 2018 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-1
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Best Lens of All Time (That you can easily afford).
This is my main walk around lens, 31mm is excellent for travel photography. This lens is also small and light to handle.
Snappy AF on K-1, Below F2.2 it is ultra sharp. Unmatched color and unmatched bokeh. Sigma 35mm/1.4 fails on the latter 2 points, it is only sharp, but in today's world, sharp is cheap.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2013 Posts: 796
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 16, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $900.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Small, light, fast, sharp | | Cons: | Not 49mm filter thread like the 43 and 77, not WR, inbuilt hood | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 7
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: KP, K-30, PZ-1p
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The image quality of this lens is perfect. A little prone to flare and makes a little PF, but easy to ceoorect these by a little recompose or in post production. This is my third most used lens after the DA*16-50 and DA*55. In the pentax system only the Sigma 35 F1.4 Art is near in focel lengt and image quality, but that lens is much bigger.
The lens has an inbuilt hood which prevents using step up rings or simple filter systems. The other two FA limiteds has 49mm filter thread so I can share filters among that, but the FA31 needs bigger filters.
Here are some examples:
 IMG180422_0022 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG180428_0352 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG180428_0349 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG180505_0058 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
This one is a cross eye 3D image:
 IMG180505_0061 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
| | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2017 Posts: 2
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 4, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $750.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: KP
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As a long-time Pentax user I got little annoyed by the acclaimed "legendary" status of this lens, and felt no urge to fill the gap between my two most used leses, DA21 and FA43. Both lenses show their quality even better with the brilliant new KP sensor. But curiosity prevailed when I saw a mint silver made-in-Japan FA31 for sale. For a Limited lens it is bigger and heavier than what I was used to. But after the first day of shooting in the streets of Amsterdam, I was "sold" completely. It has exactly the same thing that makes Leica lenses (I used an M9 for some time) so special ! Numerous people have tried to explain what that is. It's price may be an issue, but look at the "mirrorless" world today, where top grade primes are mostly priced well over 1K, and have sizes that dwarf the camera body. This piece of heavy metal balances very nicely on the little KP (also aesthetically)
| | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2015 Posts: 17
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 16, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $600.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Size, build, design, sharpness, bokeh. | | Cons: | A bit soft wide open, but so what. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-5iis
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I love this lens! It is a masterpiece of design and one of the lenses that drew me to the Pentax system in the first place. I thought besides Leica, no one makes lenses that cool. It is quite small and built so solidly that it inspires a sense of confidence while using it, as well as a feeling of durability, and like all great products, just feels good to hold.
It performs amazingly, but from f2.8 to f5.6 on APSC it is really special. Razor sharp with stunning bokeh, and a smoothness to the render that is very appealing. I cannot recommend it enough  .   | | | | | Senior Member Registered: April, 2015 Location: Boston,MA Posts: 258
6 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 30, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $720.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | IQ，rendering, bokeh | | Cons: | size, a bit soft at 1.8, price | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 8
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K1
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First of all, I like the focal length a lot, 28mm is a bit wide and 35mm sometimes is not wide enough for me. 31mm is perfect on the FF for me.
Not razor sharp below f2, but still pretty good, perfect for portrait. Once you step down to 2.8 the sharpness jumps to a different level.
Rendering of this lens is just special,not as contrasty as the ZK 35 but the overall feeling is slightly better than the ZK .Another great thing about this lens is that it's sharp at all distant,so you can use it for landscape, street shooting and portrait, not like my M28mm f2 , which is great at close distant but not so good at infinity.
Last but not least, the bokeh. IMHO the 31mm produces the best bokeh I've seen from a wide angle lens, the transition from in focus area to OOF area is so smooth.
Cons:it's not cheap and I wish it can be a little smaller just like the 43&77, it would be great to add WR in the future.
Overall, this is probably my favorite Pentax lens.
 | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,875
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 13, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $475.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Great color and bokeh, built like a tank | | Cons: | Not super sharp wide open | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K3ii
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I recently purchased a used 31mm lens. Boy was it beat up, it was really "ugly". I've shot it extensively for about one month now and found that it works like a new lens, and it still makes wonderful images. Auto-focus is dead on although of course not the fastest. This lens is built like a tank, and will just keep on working - period! Now that's quality!
The colors it produces are exceptional as is the bokeh.
Could be better at f/1.8 and f/2, but hey, no lens is perfect - though this one is very close.
I spent a day comparing this lens to my Zeiss ZK 35mm f/2 lens. Overall, I just liked the IQ of this Pentax 31mm lens a bit better, so I've put my Zeiss 35mm lens up for sale.
I also compared this lens to my Sigma Art 18 - 35mm f/1.8 lens. At 31mm, the Sigma is a bit sharper at all apertures than is the Pentax 31mm lens. Also, at f/1.8 and f/2, the Sigma Art images are overall better than the Pentax 31mm. However, the Pentax 31mm lens has this terrific rendering that's just hard to describe. So, I'm keeping both lenses. Will use the Sigma where precision is needed, and will use the Pentax where I am going for an "artistic" rendering.
| | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2015 Location: Setúbal (near Lisbon) Posts: 5
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 23, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $796.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | all | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: Pentax K20D
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My best lens and maybe one of the best lenses ever made. Pentax should make a full frame camera for this lens.
 | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: May, 2014 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,051
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 4, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $800.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, Well built, Colors, Magical Bokeh, 3D-pop, Pixie Dust | | Cons: | Some CA wide open, Can be prone to flair, Noisy | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-5 IIs
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This is my favorite lens out of my collection of Pentax Limited and non-limited lenses. One of the reasons has to do with the focal length which is perfect for my style of shooting. The thing I noticed about this lens, unlike other lenses I own, is that it does not matter where you focus, or place the focusing-point, everything else in the image sort of falls into place in perfect harmony with the main subject that was singled out for focusing.
It's hard to explain, but this lens acts like a more expensive Cinema lens than a DSLR lens . The colors are extremely accurate. I rarely have to tweak an image in PP with this lens. The images are great right out of the camera.
Another great thing about this lens, is the magical way some of the pictures are rendered. Talk about thrills, you are left excitedly wondering how an image is going to come out, or you can't wait to get home to download an image because you know you nailed it. Even the most ordinary "snap shot" takes on this magical quality.
I'm not sure if it has to do with the DOF, but the little added depth gives an image this realistic 3D quality instead of the 'Blahze' 2 dimensional images most of us are accustomed to. This 3D quality is also mentioned in regards to the much more expensive Leica and Carl Zeiss lenses, so the 31mm is in good company.
I'm glad that Pentax could achieve this type of quality at a lower price, which by the way is still not cheap by any means. At first I balked about purchasing this lens since I already own the 16-45mm f4 , the 35mm f2.8 Macro and the 20-40mm f2.8-4 which all cover that range, but this lens is so unique, that it stands unchallenged on it's own.
Now instead of choosing which lens I will use on a certain day, I choose which additional lens am I going to take with me to complement the 31mm which has been stuck on my camera ever since I got it.
FYI- I gave this lens a Value of 9 because I purchased it Used, at a little under $800 in Mint condition. However, I think this lens is definitely worth more than that.
***UPDATE***
I down graded this lens a little bit after comparing it with my 43mm F1.9, which I purchased later. The 43mm DA Limited acually bumbed my 31mm from it most favored status. To me, the colors on the 43mm were more contrasty, more saturaded and less prone to flare It seems that I have to bump up the contrast in-camera when using the 31mm, or some of my picures start looking a little washed out.
Otherwise, it still is a great lens and looks good on my camera, a little noisy but still great. It's about the right size and weight that I want my Primes to be(not too big not too small). It is an extremely vesatile lens, that I don't think I put through all its stages yet.
At night my 43mm simply outperforms it because it handles the flare from the lights much better. With that said, my next lens will probably be the pancake DA70mm due the reviews I read about it handling flare, plus the focal lenght is a little more manegeable than my 77mm. Unfortunately, night my 77mm FA 1.8 lens, suffers from the same problems with flare as my 31mm. Sorry, but sometimes i like shooting at night.
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