| Author: | | | | | Review Date: December 31, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $135.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, solid build, 3D like images. | | Cons: | None | |
First of all I have to say this is one soild
Lens, very sharp and easy to use especially with the large thowe focus.
Just like other reviews have stated
If you fine one of these, just buy it, you will not be disapointed at all.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2009 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 927
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 8, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | build, absolute sharpness, image rendering, bokeh | | Cons: | long MFD, CA/fringing | |
I got this lens for only £29 so on that basis alone it's a great lens!
I'll get the negatives out the way now:
1). It's very long minimum focus distance can be very frustrating. It really tempts you to take close up shots and play with it's bokeh but it then slaps you in the face with it's MFD!
2). In situtation where you have a combination of poor light and high contrast - i.e. that horrible grey/white featureless sky with flat lighting, the lens will produce A LOT of green and purple fringing. Often this can be reduced in PP but stopping down the lens helps - it's at it's worst wide open.
Other than these two things though the lens is an excellent piece of glass:
1) Images have an amazing 3D look
2) The lens has very even sharpness across the board and is sharp enough from wide open. Stopped down to f/5.6 it comes close to the 43mm Ltd in my opinion (certainly enough that you won't notice the difference unless pixel peeping)
3) The bokeh is great and reliable.
The lens' main advantage it's beautiful rendering of light though. It produces images that capture the essence of the scene. I often find that I take a photograph of something and the lens somehow misses the character of what I am seeing with my eyes. The K-135mm maintains the magic of a subtle light. And because it general does this all the time fairly standard shots can be given a special feel.
It's similar to the original FA limted "look" but a touch more ethereal. This isn't to say images can't be punchy but the lens will produce decent contrast rather than high contrast as it were. Contrast improves on stopping down and can be helped in PP but is generally fine.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2010 Posts: 753 | | Review Date: November 17, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $240.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharpness,Bokeh, Focusing, Build | | Cons: | Focusing, some CA | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
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This lens is truly great as long as you manage to focus it properly. It has longer focusing throw to allow spot-on focus, downside is that it takes longer to focus properly. Besides that i can only recommend it - great metal body, nice resolution - it is tested also on photozone, shalow depth of field, fast lens and just feels great in hand. It is quite sharp, even with Tamron 2xTC i was able to shoot Moon and it resolves craters nicely. I manage to shoot some nice images with it but since i purchased SMC A 100/2.8 i use it less and less.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: June, 2009 Location: Sydney Posts: 171 | | Review Date: October 19, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | good size (for 2.5), smooth action, fast, accurate colours | | Cons: | CA | |
This is a good, sharp lens. It has a nice, robust feel, smooth focus motion and a crisp aperture ring movement.
Shooting within 2 stops of wide open is simple even without the A setting, as the camera can be set for EV compensation.
In the centre, my copy is super sharp at all stops. At infinity, my copy is not quite sharp across the plane - probably the result of a tiny misalignment of a lens element during servicing by a previous owner. In real world applications, the plane and the subject are never parallel anyway, and the lens really shines.
This is my favorite middle distance portrait lens, giving good separation from the subject, great depth of field control and nice, rich colours.
The K135/2.5 has a smooth bokeh, with points of light rendered just a little out of round when wide open, then tending towards the octagonal of the aperture blades as it is stopped down.
In super contrast applications, the lens shows plenty of green and purple chromatic aberrations - non APO legacy glass is not suited to birding shots against bright skies. In low-light, low-contrast applications, CA is less evident. There, it can be well controlled by stopping down and in post processing.
| | | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: August, 2009 Location: North Carolina Posts: 3,027 | | Review Date: October 2, 2010 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Construction, focus throw, IQ, just feels great | | Cons: | Min focus range is just under 5' | |
This is my first review, but I've been using this lens now for a solid month in the Single in September challenge. I couldn't be happier with this lens, except that I wish it had the auto-aperture feature of the "A" series lenses. But I'm not going to knock it for that, as it was designed before that feature. I find it a joy to focus, even without a pentaprism or split focus screen. Even cropped tight, the IQ is great, and works great with extension tubes for macro.
Here's a link to my album for pics using this lens:
(Non working link removed)
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2010 Location: NV/CA Posts: 370 | | Review Date: August 4, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $260.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very sharp, superior glass, good even @ 2.5 | | Cons: | None. | |
I'm amazed on how nice this lens is. I don't think I'll ever sell it. If anything I think it deserves it's own dedicated body.
Low light photos with Kx and this lens are amazing.
Pentax made some awesome lenses, If you find one don't hesitate to buy. Worth every penny and then some.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2008 Location: Sweden Posts: 359 | | Review Date: August 3, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, bokeh, rendering, build quality | | Cons: | | |
This is a wonderful lens.
Sharpness is good wide open and truly magnificent when stopped down to F4.
More importantly, I just love its unique rendering. There's something about the colors, contrast and rendering between in-focus and out-of-focus (bokeh) areas that I really love.
Kind regards
.lars
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: October, 2008 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 8,090
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 22, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $190.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Versatile, sharp and well built. Reasonable price. | | Cons: | None | | Camera Used: K Series film bodies (K1000, KM, KX, K2, K2DMD)
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135mm is a popular and versatile focal length on film. It’s great for portrait work and makes a very good medium telephoto. I tend to choose this FL over any other when I’m traveling and only want to take one telephoto/portrait lens.
I also own the K135/3.5 and it’s a great lens, however the K135/2.5 is much better. It’s very sharp and quite fast; overall it's definitely the best K series lens in the 100mm-199mm range. The K135/2.5 is also exceptionally well built and has a large 58mm filter thread. The K135/2.5 shares the same clip-on lens hood with the K200/4 and the K85-210/4.5 zoom. The hood is a must and can easily be found on eBay.
I also have the Pentax T95 close-up lens attachment, which cuts down the K135/2.5 minimum focusing distance from 1.5 meters to 0.7 meters. This also gives you magnification from 1/7.1 ~ 1/3.7, so you can use this lens in a pinch for close-up work.
The K135/2.5 is fairly easy to find and you can get a good copy for under $200USD, so the K135/2.5 is well worth the investment. A Pentax classic!!
Sample shots taken with the K135/2.5. Photos are medium resolution scans from original negatives or slides.
Camera: KX Film: Ilford HP5 Plus ISO: 400
Camera: K2 Film: Fuji Sensia ISO: 100 (With Pentax T-95 close-up lens attachment)
 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: France Posts: 128 | | Review Date: November 21, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $220.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very well built, great sharpness, fine bokeh | | Cons: | Manual lens, so no f/stop control with the camera | |
Bought this lens by chance, from an "old stock" seller, so i got it "brand new" in its original box, with all the stuff inside (even the silica gel pouch and the - now useless - warranty card) ... Once unboxed, i was at first impressed by the size: bigger than my Steinheil Quinar 135/2.8, one of the biggest 135mm i own. Once on the camera, i understood why this lens is so much regarded: well balanced and really easy to focus. The sample shots confirmed the quality of this lens: even wide open, it is sharp and usable, and starting from f/4 it is razor sharp, maybe more than my Quinar (my reference 135mm). The colors are the "Pentax way", a bit warmer than the Quinar, and not too saturated as for the Zeiss lenses. And the contrast is really good. Too pity it doesn't have a "close focus" focusing distance, otherwise i could have already sold my Kiron 105 macro ...
Definitively, one of the best Pentax-K primes.
| | | | | | | | Review Date: November 5, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 10 |
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best K-Lens over 100mm
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2009 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 509 | | Review Date: September 8, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $210.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Extremely well built, excellent image quality, large aperture | | Cons: | Some purple fringing on digital cameras at f2.5 in high contrast scenes, | |
Image quality wise, it might not be as good as my K 85mm f1.8. It is excellent. Bright and good for manual focusing. It also shows that resolution is only half of the game in town. Contrast and color rendering while sometimes subjective are equally important. This lens provides good contrast and wonderful color rendering, even though it may not have the same high resolution as some modern counterparts.
I am not sure if this is true. I felt K series is slightly better built than M and better than the A series. Hand shake could be a problem on digital camera due to its focal length. 
When using f2.5, one should be careful. It gives a subtle glow and the it has a very narrow DOF.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/n8j9vvnvjgtAp2q3uLrHZQ?authkey=Gv1sRgCO...eat=directlink
Make sure to use high speed to avoid shake.
Another example 1:1 crop at f2.5 taken by K-x at ISO800
(Non working link removed)
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2008 Location: Albuquerque NM Posts: 9,830 | | Review Date: June 29, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Fast, sharp and built like a tank | | Cons: | A bit heavy; the usual metering issues with older lenses | |
Lens is sharp enough at f/2.5 and excellent down a stop or two. Nice rendering of color and contrast. The f/2.5 makes this focal length easy to focus, and the K20d ISO capabilities make it an excellent lens for interior shots. At this focal length, the very shallow depth of field at f/2.5 is more useful to me to aid in focus than for actual shooting.
On my K20d, this lens meters properly at two F stops-- f/4 and f/16. At f2.5, "green button" metering will yield about a 2/3 stop underexposure. At all apertures from 5.6 to 11, the metered exposure will be overexposed by one stop. All in all, this is not too hard to deal with.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: November, 2008 Location: South Florida, USA Posts: 39
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 2, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharp and sharper, great color, great build, great feel | | Cons: | none | |
This is a great lens. Same as the six element screwmount SMCT version which
taught me a lesson in image quality.
I did some research into historical selling prices of pentax lenses when new. This
lens was expensive when it came out in mid 70's but when pentax went "small"
with the M series bodies and lenses in the late 70's these were considered "old school" and were apparently unwanted and hard to sell. Dealers had to discount them heavily to move them, they sold as low as $90 brand new for a while near the end. Times have changed, a new in the box one would bring a lot more today, thats for sure. | | | | | Senior Member Registered: March, 2008 Posts: 282 | | Review Date: April 27, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Great value, sharpness, bokeh, small, build quality | | Cons: | none | |
This is a great lens I got for a very reasonable price. Performance is extraordinary, and so is the build quality.
It has that special kind of sharpness (micro contrast?) that only few lenses have. I would even say it's sharper than the DA* 50-135 which I tried once.
The lens gives wonderful soft backgrounds. I use it as my portrait lens for outsides and it works great for that purpose, allthough it's a bit long.
The only "negative" to mention is a tiny little bit of purple fringing wide open, which in effect is totally neglectable.
Great lens!
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2008 Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia Posts: 410 | | Review Date: April 27, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $190.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | fast, sharp, nice rendering | | Cons: | none | |
Recently got this lens.
Wide-open sharpness is amazing. Not at all big for 135\2.5 prime.
The rendering is classic Pentax and quite pleasant to my liking.
One possible downside of using this fine lens on APS-C camera is the effective FL of 205mm, since its bit too much for portraiture and clearly not enough for birding or wildlife photography, but that's purely subjective, so i did not put it in as "con"
The FL is great on film though!
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