| Author: | | New Member Registered: March, 2022 Posts: 1
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 2, 2023 | Recommended | Price: $502.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Everything | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-1 II, K-3, K-20, K-10, PZ-1p
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Look I'll cut straight to the chase, this is a "desert island lens".
I have shot with a lot of lens, but this one....truly is one of a kind.
With out a doubt one of the most magical lens that Pentax has EVER produced!
The sharpness, color and clarity that you can achieve with this lens is out of this world.
Does it get a LITTLE softer around 2.8-2.0, yup, but that's when the pixie dust comes into play...
To get the most out of this lens you need to own it for 5+ years and USE it.
It has a personality, that you need to learn to truly understand, to get the most from this lens.
Also I see a lot of images that are not "sharp", and/or the complaint that this isn't a sharp lens. Dead wrong.
Due to this lens wide 2.0 aperture people will use it in low lighting conditions with out using a proper shutter speed(Above 1/125), ISO or compensating with a tripod.
So you get camera shake, and blurry images that aren't the lens fault.
I must be honest here, I love shooting with it, it is so choice, if you have the means I highly recommend picking one up.  | | | | | | | Junior Member Registered: January, 2013 Location: Texas Posts: 32
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 13, 2022 | Not Recommended | Price: $325.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Well built | | Cons: | Chromatic aberration | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 6
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 8
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: Pentax KP
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What's Good: Convenient MF/AF shift; Well built
Okay: Weight, Sharpness
What's Bad: Chromatic aberration at f/2
The C.A. is so bad that I will never use this lens at f/2.0. Then, why pay more and carry something heavier than a good 24/2.8?
The sharpness is poor at f/2.0, becomes slowly better going to f/5.6.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: July, 2020 Posts: 131
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 8, 2020 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | relatively small, light, sharp, fast, aperture ring, FF lens | | Cons: | silver outside coating prone to scratches; aperture ring | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 7
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: PZ-1, LX, K10D, K-3 II, K-1 II
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Really good wide-angle lens. I bought this lens many years ago for my PZ-1 and LX cameras, and I've used it a lot with my K10D and now my K-3 II (no idea what the price I paid new was, but probably bought it from B&H, so standard going price then). My ratings are based on wide-angle lenses, not on portrait or telephotos lenses, and I rate it very sharp and as having relatively few aberration problems for such a lens. I've gotten good star and comet photos with this lens, and it's one of my travel lenses for scenery pics that has stayed on one of my cameras much of the time. This is also a very good lens for wide-angle close-up flower photos with nice bokeh; very good color rendition and sharpness. Architectural photos show very little aberration/distortion for a lens of this wideness -- superb.
I like that it has an aperture ring, but it's tight against the camera body and not the easiest to access -- even despite the fact that it's a 360-degree ring -- because the lens gets bulky immediately after the aperture ring, meaning that the ring is "pinched" between the bulk of the lens and the camera body; of course, one can just put it on the "A" setting and use aperture priority. The focus ring is good, but you have to shift it forward for autofocus and back for manual focus; it slips less frequently by accident than on some other lenses I have. (It's not obvious from looking at the lens that you are supposed to shift the focusing ring forward and backward, and sometimes I've forgotten to do one or the other; when forward, it says AUTOFOCUS on the barrel -- hidden when in manual-focus mode.) The focusing is internal, so the filter does not rotate when focusing. The focusing ring rotates about 110 degrees to the left (counter-clockwise, as seen from behind the camera) when going from infinity to closest focus. The plastic "flower" hood is ok and does well in photography, but not the easiest to store due to its bulk (you line it up, twist it, and it snaps into place, but it often takes two or three "goes" at it to get it properly aligned to snap on). It is hard/awkward to turn a polarizing filter with this hood, so I don't bother using polarizers with this lens most of the time. This requires a very thin filter (if any) due to its wide-angle view, and you cannot put the lens cap on top of a filter -- so must store it with a filter only (and then also with the lens hood on for added protection of the filter) or the lens cap only.
I find that the autofocusing is really superb with this lens for stationary objects. For such a fast wide-angle lens, it's quite light and handles very well. The price you pay for lightness is that the non-glass parts are not as well built as some other Pentax lenses, and there is a feel more of plastics than metals with this lens. I wish that I could have gotten this in black instead of the silver; most Pentax owners don't seem to like the silver-colored lenses, and I'm not sure why Pentax made these silver when most Pentax cameras of the last few decades have been black. But this lens is a keeper, for sure, and one of my most-used lenses. So the value to me is very high, but I can't rate the lens overall as a perfect "10" because of all the little nagging design issues.
A couple photos below show this lens on one of my cameras.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/gallery/photo-file-lens-camera-photos-my-reviews-59284/ | | | | | Forum Member Registered: August, 2018 Posts: 72 | | Review Date: August 28, 2018 | Not Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | ...calid at the time of Kodak Film. | | Cons: | ... the digital camera kill it. | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 8
New or Used: New
Camera Used: Super A / K-x
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Good with my Super A, I could use Kodak films with low ASA.
But with my K-x, and the incredible FA 20-35 F/4, it became obsolete, and I sold it.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2013 Posts: 796
9 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 15, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $720.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Relative small, push-pull af switch | | Cons: | Not sharp enough wide open, flare, not WR | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 7
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: KP, K-30
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I bought this lens as a fast normal prime for my APS-C camera. One of the main points was the compactness. I like the FoV of this lens and I like it's rendering. The lens is very sharp stopped down, but from F2 to F2.2 I'am not satisfied with it. It's not that terrible, just not as good as I expected. In general I stop down the lens so I loose the speed which I bought the lens for.
I like the starbursts it does, but I don't like how it's flaring. It's prone to produce purple flare with a grid artifact on the KP.
I love the mechanism of the, when I attach it reversed for storage, I have to spin it in the reverse direction. It's comfortable for my wrist. I also like the AF/MF swith which is operated by pulling back the focus ring.
Here are some examples:
 IMG170825_0003 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170826_0034 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170814_0001 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170820_0022 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170923_0396 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170923_0325 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170923_0321 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170923_0287 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
 IMG170828_0028 by Benjámin Czétényi, on Flickr
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: July, 2008 Location: Luxembourg Posts: 8,646
6 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 6, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $360.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Not too big and heavy | | Cons: | some aberration | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-1
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A nice "little" lens compared to the Sigma 18-35 
The bokeh can be as fantastic as the famous Soligor C/D 20mm F2.8
Nice for macros (with short extension tube), landscapes and night shots.
Click on photos for details...
View all my FA* 24 photos | | | | | Moderator
Site Supporter Registered: February, 2012 Location: Adelaide Hills, South Australia Posts: 11,275
15 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 28, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $400.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Pixie dust | | Cons: | Measurebators will hate it | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 8
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-1
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This lens was reputedly designed by Jun Hirakawa, and built as one of a series of no-compromise pro lenses of the late film era. It has some pretty impressive stablemates in the 28-70, 80-200 and 250-600 zooms, and joins a set of other primes of almost mythical status like the 85/1.4, 200/4 macro, 300/2.8 and 600/4 as well as the more standard 200/2.8, 300/4.5 and 400/5.6. It remains (I think) the fastest sub-30mm lens Pentax has ever produced.
I am no position to compare it to the other FA* lenses, as I only briefly had the FA*85 (I still can't believe I returned it before I had the chance to use it on the K-1), and have never even seen the others in the flesh, but many consider it to be the weakest of the series. I can sort of see why.
Optically, it is a bit soft, or at least slightly glowy wide open, especially if the light is contrasty, and the corners don't match the centre until about f/5.6. It can produce some pretty nasty purple fringing towards the edges, but it has always been easily cleaned up with a click or two in Lightroom. It doesn't focus as close as I'd like. My two modern DFA zooms both out resolve it and have better corner sharpness at f/2.8, and it lies between the zooms with regard to barrel distortion - the DFA15-30 @ 24 being the best and the DFA24-70 @ 24 being the worst (but still not terrible). Flare resistance was better than I expected given the expanse of flat glass at the front.
Physically, it is a solid lump of glass and metal, and takes 67mm filters, so it's not just a lens to leave in the bag for the hell of it. Like all the FA8 lenses, the hood is a bit funky; the bayonet works completely differently from the newer DA and DFA lens hoods, and the plastic finish scratches very easily - good luck finding one in mint condition. The manual focus clutch is cool, but a little clunky. AF is quick and accurate on my K-1.
I went into using it daily in a Single In challenge, fully expecting to decide on selling it at the end of the month. But I won't.
Although I can get empirically better images with the zooms, this is a really enjoyable lens to use, and there is something about many of the images that I warm to. Maybe it's the Hirakawa pixie dust, I don't know.
Look HERE for a bunch of shots on the K-1, and HERE for a set shot a while back on crop.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: June, 2016 Location: Paris Posts: 124
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 30, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $800.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | IF, size, IQ, aperture, built, | | Cons: | hood | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-1
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Bought this lens in mint condition from a pentax fan & collector after testing it.
It had a lot of bad reviews and when i could finally start using it, i didn't understand why.
I once had a big old sigma ex dg 24mm 1.8, on APS-C, and it was a cool OK lens before it dissapeared with my bag in a train.
The Pentax FA* 24mm 2 is in another league. On full frame it is completely superior to the sigma on aps-c in terms of sharpness.
This lens is one of the reasons i didn't buy the pricy ltd 31mm 1.8. Because this wide angle is as sharp.
And AF is tremendously fast. And i'm in love with it's bokeh, it empasizes the subject in a lovely particular way.
Yes, there's fringing , CA, wide open. So? what other lens doesn't wide open ?
Yes, you can't shoot a perfect landscape with super sharp borders wide open. And it's great central sharpness will always look sharper than the borders at f4.
But well focused, subjects in corners at f2 are not blurry, nor unsharp. They have an OK sharpness even considering a 36MP sensor.
Shooting with this kind of wide angle requires of course much more skill and time to aprehend than a 50mm .
Not only there's much more pixel data for pixel peepers, but the compositions are larger, and more difficult to acknowledge.
A 35mm takes time to tame well. For this one, double the time. Once you've tamed it you'll appreciate it. Don't always trust testers like photozone.de that have the lens for a little while. Better trust the guys that designed and constructed the lens +20 years ago, and the number of pro shooters that used it.
| | | | | New Member Registered: April, 2016 Posts: 18
6 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 15, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp enough, extremely fast AF, bokeh, build quality | | Cons: | Soft wide open, CA, focus clutch, 8-blade aperture, kind of ugly | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 6
Value: 8
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: Pentax K-3
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I had always wondered about this lens, but having read mostly negative comments about it, I didn't think it was worth the $450-500 price tag I see it go for. When I saw it for $300, though, I thought I'd snatch it up, play with it a bit, and resell it after a few days.
Nope — I'm keeping this one. Especially now that I have my K-1. I own a similarly-spec'd (yet much more widely praised) FA 31 that sits right next to the FA★ 24 in my camera bag, but for some reason, I keep reaching for this lens instead.
First, build quality. For some reason, FA★ lenses always looked really cheap and plasticy in photos to me. They are not. This thing is built like a tank. I wouldn't be concerned at all if I drove over this lens with my car. It's heavy, but more in a heavy-duty kind of way. It's not at all awkward to handle, and weighs half as much as some of my Sigma primes. Everyone knows the silver paint on these FA★ lenses scratches off really bad — luckily, as a result, no one expects them to hold up, so even really scratched up lenses tend to hold their value on eBay. Scratch away!
I think this lens is quite ugly, but in a really great way. It's very loud, visually. People notice and ask. It has a freakin' picture of the optical design on the side of the lens. How cool is that?
This lens is definitely a product of the 90s, though. No weather-sealing, no SDM autofocus, and no quick-shift autofocus. Instead, you get a clunky push-pull clutch that switches between AF and MF (better than the FA lenses, whose focus rings spin around when autofocusing), and when in manual-focus mode, it doesn't tell the body not to drive the AF motor, so if you want AF-confirm, you'll have to turn your body to MF, and disengage the AF clutch on this lens.
Then again, the autofocus on this thing is *fast* — maybe the fastest of any lens I've ever used. There's no hunting — when you press the AF button on your body, the lens just slams into position immediately. Why aren't all lenses like this? (*cough cough* Sigma 85/1.4, are you listening?)
OK, image quality: this lens is widely admonished for its softness and CA, but I found that it's quite sharp in the center — maybe only slightly softer than the FA 31. It does have some CA, but that's what gives the lens its rendering quality, too, so it's a bit of a double-edged sword.
My 24-megapixel K-3 stresses the lens out a bit, resolution-wise, but on my much lower-pixel-density K-1, this lens is a champ.
If you think f/2 is suddenly going to get you amazingly-shallow DoF on every picture you take, guess again. DoF differences between this lens and a f/2.8 zoom are minuscule under normal wide-angle shooting conditions. While aperture contributes to DoF, isolating your subject from the background is best done by moving your subject very close to the lens. This guy has an MFD of 30 cm, which is noticeably shorter than the Sigma 30's 40 cm MFD. I have some pictures to illustrate this below.
I really use the lens in two different modes, f/2 and f/8. At f/2, fill the frame with your subject to get some lovely bokeh in the background. Or, stop down to f/8, and get razor sharp images, corner-to-corner. There's really no other useful apertures on this lens — stopping down to f/2.8 or f/4.0 doesn't really improve sharpness anywhere in the frame, so you're just throwing away light. Stopping down more than f/8 is going to start softening up your photos through diffraction. Seriously, f/2, and f/8 — done.
I own a Sigma 30/1.4 and the FA 31, and I can tell you that the 24mm FOV is noticeably wider than either of these two lenses, and is quite useful.
Full-Frame:
Both of these were shot wide-open to demonstrate the DoF you get in different scenarios:
APS-C:
This was shot at f/8 to demonstrate overall sharpness:
These two were shot at f/2.0 to demonstrate DoF on APS-C:
 | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: October, 2008 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 8,092
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 7, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $462.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, fast and great handling. | | Cons: | Looks a bit cheap and scratches easily. | | New or Used: Used
Camera Used: Pentax film bodies
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The FA*24/2 was released in 1991 and remained in production until 2004. It was the last 24mm prime that Pentax has produced and the only one with Auto-Focus.
Optics:
Excellent optics! The FA*24/2 is the sharpest from f/5.6 to f/11 and it’s decent in the corners as well. The aspherical lens “AL” element helps control aberrations and the lens also uses internal “IF” focusing.
Focal Length:
I only shoot film and this ultra wide angle focal length is perfect for landscape/city street shooting. I find that I’m taking a 20-24mm lens more often now when I travel, than the old “traditional” wide angle 28mm FL. The 28mm focal length is just not wide enough for shooting in close quarter city streets and the 24mm FL is much more flexible in tight spaces.
Build:
The build of the FA*24/2 is not bad, but it’s not as good as any K/M Series lens I own. The biggest problem with the FA*24/2 is the silver paint used on the lens and hood. It’s prone to scratching and makes the lens look cheap. This and taking in account the general overall design, makes the FA*24/2 a somewhat “ugly” looking lens.
Usage/Handling:
The FA*24/2 is a nicely sized well balanced lens that is easy to handle. I have no issues manually focusing the FA*24/2 or using the aperture ring. The distance scale on the FA*24/2 is in a plastic window, it’s acceptable but not great. The focus ring on the FA*24/2 pushes up for auto focus (the words “AUTO FOCUS” will appear below the focus ring) and down for manual focusing. (“AUTO FOCUS” will disappear). Note it is possible when manually focusing to focus past the infinity mark, this is normal for the FA*24/2 and not an issue. I don't do Auto Focusing, so I can't comment on that.
The FA*24/2 has a very wide 67mm filter ring and uses an outside mounting bayonet hood, so using a polarizing filter is not an issue on film. However the PH-RBB67 hood does not have a cutout window to move the polarizer, so it’s a bit tricky to turn. The FA*24/2 uses the S90-100 soft lens case, which will fit the lens and reversed hood.
Speed:
F/2.0 is very fast for an ultra wide angle lens and it makes the FA*24/2 the fastest ultra-wide angle lens (24mm or less) ever made by Pentax.
The FA*24/2 vs my other 24mm ultra wide primes:
I also own the K24/3.5 and the K24/2.8 and all three lenses have great optics, with a slight edge in center sharpness to the K24/2.8 & FA*24/2. The FA*24/2 is a bit better in the corners with less distortion than the two K Series lenses and is also faster. However I have a soft spot for the older Takumar designed K24/3.5 and love the images it produces, so it would be my favorite. Out of the three the FA*24/2 has the worst build/finish and is the least attractive looking.
Here is a picture of the Pentax 24mm primes with their OEM hoods for size comparison. (FA*24/2, K24/3.5 & K24/2.8)
Note the missing A24/2.8 is the exact same size as the K24/2.8 and uses the same lens hood.
Overall you can’t go wrong with any one of these three 24mm lenses. I rated the two K Series 24mm lenses a 9 and will give the FA*24/2 a 9.5, rounded down to a 9. I would have given the FA*24/2 a perfect 10 if it was better built/finished and was not so cheap looking.
Summary:
I really like the FA*24/2 for an ultra wide angel lens when I travel, it’s a nice size and fast for all lighting conditions. Overall a great wide lens on film!
Price:
I bought my FA*24/2 from an online camera store and paid $462.00. It was in excellent + condition and came with the PH-RBB67 hood and S90-100 soft lens case.
Sample shots taken with the FA*24/2. Photos are medium resolution scans from original negatives. Both shots were taken in Vancouver.
Camera: Super Program Film: CineStill 50 ISO: 50
Camera: LX Film: Fuji Acros 100 ISO: 100
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2013 Posts: 4,854 | | Review Date: September 2, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $413.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | 3D pop, sharp closed down | | Cons: | soft a f/2 and f/2.8 | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K3
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Preliminary review (on a K3)
I got this lense a few day ago, and as for all lenses I buy, I check it extensively. I'll update later to give a long term feelling.
Sharpness
If you look at the pictures full screen (my case full HD, 22"), f/2 is a bit soft on center, visibly soft on borders. f/2.8 make the center ok and starting with f/4 the picture look good. At f/8 the picture is really, really sharp, corners to corners.
If you zoom in, f/2 will look even softer but the conclusion are the same. f/4 quite good already, but that f/8 that give you the best performance; it look sharp a 100% on corners at that setting.
Is it an really an issue? I don't know, in practice you use f/2 or f/2.8 for bokeh or for low light. For the first case, border performance isn't key and for the second one, you are not going to expect ultimate sharpness at 1600-3200 isos anyway and you gain 1.3 stop compared to DA21 and 1 stop compared to an f/2.8 zoom.
Rendering
The lense is able to make an uninterresting subject to pop and that quite an interresting feature to me. That one of the reason to buy it.
Handling
In term of handling and finish the look is sure dated. The build quality is excelent. The lense is small, arround the size of a kit lense, so not big at all. It look quite bigger of course with the hood. I don't like this hood.
The lense overall is smaller in reality than the pictures might make you think. It feel quite heavy, more dense than heavy in reality so that's not an issue at all in the field.
Temporary conclusion
Overall is a quite decent lense, a bit big compared to ltds and the finish is dated. I would have liked a hood in the spirit of ltds in particular. The rendering looks interresting and the sharpness is truly great at f/8 and that what we ask from a wide angle. I'll want to check more what f/2 bring to me in low light conditions or in term of bokeh.
| | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2012 Posts: 12
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 5, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $650.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness/contrast, Color rendition, construction | | Cons: | hood is hard to use | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: k5
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I had a great opportunity to buy this lens NOS and after reading some ambiguous reviews I almost didn't do it. I bought it after all, and it was a great decision, this is by far my best lens.
AF is very very fast and accurate with my k5, manual/af ring is also very useful.
The lens is sharp and with great contrast at all appertures, corners are great from 2.4 and best at 6.7. At f2 its very also very sharp, even in full format on my LX.
I use it for architecture photos and now it is my most used lens. I would recommend it to anyone. Maybe there are some bad copies around, photozone might had a bad one also.
Construction is FA*, like FA*85. All metal, solid, professional, tight construction.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: August, 2010 Location: zurich Posts: 409
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 17, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $560.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Nice Lens, sharp, good rendering | | Cons: | CA but easy to control | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 8
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-7, K-5, K-3
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read more at: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/297744-fa-2...a-20-35-a.html
i love that lens.
yep the hood is a bit flimsy especially compared to the FA20-35...
and yes its silver finish, but its silver...:-) looks just great on a silver body...:-)
taken with A* 200 mm F4 Macro
 | | | | | New Member Registered: September, 2013 Posts: 2
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 25, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $390.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | colours, contrast, sharpness | | Cons: | handling the hood, silver colour easy to scrach | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-5, ME Super
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(updated after more than one year of use)
I dare to say that my copy of FA*24 is a really good one and it is my most often used lens so far now. I am giving overall 10 for quality of images and full-frame look I can achieve with it. I love the angle of view at APS DSLR especially for street photo and also for landscapes. Thanks to low aperture it is great for indoor shots too. Together with 55-300 is the essential part of my travel photo kit. It focuses fast and preciously even with somewhat infamous focusing system of K-5. Sharpness is fine especially in the centre and improves when stepped down. Aberration might be strongly pronounced at the edges sometime but the edges need post process anyway because of distortion so no big deal for me.
My biggest complain is the hood - I always struggle to fit the hood to the right position. That is why the handling is only 7. The silver paint can be scratched quite easily if not handled with utmost care. Also, I would prefer the lens weights less but I cannot have everything (then I take DA15/4 instead).
If you could get the lens for decent price than do not hesitate and go for it because nobody knows if either Pentax or third-party manufacturer produce better 24 mm lens anytime soon.
| | | | | New Member Registered: September, 2014 Posts: 2
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 15, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $450.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp at 2.8 to 22 Color Pentax | | Cons: | Soft at f2 | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: Samsung NX30
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Super Sharp at f2.8 to f22, Soft at f2 color Pentax. Tested vs Canon FD 24mm f2. Canon win at f2 lost in the rest . Photo exemple never use PP
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