| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2006 Location: former Arsenal football stadium Posts: 431 | | Review Date: April 8, 2024 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K5 and Olympus OMD5iii
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A lot better than I expected, given some of the lukewarm reviews. Centre sharpness good throughout, towards the corners pretty soft wide open, improves when stopped down, even if never spectacularly sharp at the edges. Very satisfactory lens particularly on crop sensors such as M4/3, where the corners are mostly lost anyway. Some fringing on contrasty edges wide open, easily dealt with in LR. As always with old Pentax primes, lovely build quality and a pleasure to handle. Easy manual focusing. I'm very happy with it. Great 48mm equivalent on M4/3.
| | | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: February, 2017 Posts: 2,032 | | Review Date: May 15, 2023 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: K1 ii, K3, KP
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I had had my eye on a Fuji X100 line camera for a while, but the 35mm FOV is not one I am particulary comfortable with. With that in mind I was looking for a 24mm to use on my K3 and KP to train my eye and hopefully get a proper wide (rather than reasonably wide 28mm) for my K1 ii. I soon found out there are very few options in K mount apart from some not very good third party ones.
In general this lens is optically unremarkable if one assesses it only on individual characteristics. Sharpness I would rate as an 8. At subjects close to the camera it is fairly sharp but infinity is a trifle soft. It has aberrations and as a wide angle bokeh is... well a bit meh. However this is an unfair way to judge such a lens. It is properly wide. Objects at infinity are shrunken into insignificance by the angle of view. The aberrations are there but go away when stopped down and by and large do not intrude on the image as a whole. Flair is well controlled. Then we come to colours and contrast. Superb! Like all my K lenses this is no different in this regard. Optically then this lens is greater than the sum of its parts.
Build and handling are typical of what to expect from a K series lens - wonderful, though like many wide angle lenses for film SLRs it is quite large.
Recommendations? Well if you want a cheap (I paid £150), good quality wide angle for your K1 there are very few alternatives. So for the K1 I heartily recommend it. On APSC despite there being no slightly wide angle lenses available for your KP, K70 or whatever other than legacy glass like this one, it is hard to recommend. It is too large and slow. I think you would be better off with a DA 21mm.
Some photos:-
On the K3
On the K1 ii
 | | | | | Junior Member Registered: February, 2014 Location: Nissedal (Goblin Valley) Posts: 38 | | Review Date: November 22, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $150.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very sharp, Handling, Light, Small | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-5 IIs
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Small, solid lens. Great feeling using it. Senter is very sharp, edges too once corrected for CA (very easy in PP). This lens is a bargain. Can't wait for K-1...
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2009 Location: Andenes Posts: 361
10 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 12, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Fantastic sharp stopped down 1-2 steps, Cheap, Solid, Great for manual focusing, Perfect for me | | Cons: | A little barrel distortion doesn`t bother you? (easily corrected in most post-processing tools today) | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K10d, Pentax K20d
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I just cannot believe that this lens only has 8-something value when I write this.
It`s darn sharp, stop it down untill f/16 without having diffraction!
It`s solid, it`s got a nice wide angle and I would LOVE to use it on FF!
Here are some shots I`ve taken with it:
 | | | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: October, 2008 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 8,090
6 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 11, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $399.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Image contrast, build and size. | | Cons: | Speed. | | Camera Used: K Series film bodies (K1000, KM, KX, K2, K2DMD)
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The K24/3.5 was a spur of the moment "buy it now" purchase for me on eBay. I already had the K24/2.8 and was happy with its performance. I mostly bought the K24/3.5 to add to my K series collection, as it was in close to mint condition.
On my first outing with the K24/3.5 I nailed one of those perfect shots that instantly became a candidate for enlargement and framing. I love this lens and it has surpassed the K24/2.8 as my favorite in the 24mm focal length. Both are sharp, the K24/2.8 maybe has a slight edge, but I prefer the images the K24/3.5 produces. I mostly shoot slides and they seem to have more of a “punch” to them, when viewed on my light table using my photo lupe.
The K24/3.5 has a 58mm filter thread and shares the same lens hood with the K18/3.5 and the K20/4. Be careful using a polarizer, as it might cause vignetting in the corners. A “slim” version may be ok.
The K24/3.5 is a beautifully built lens and I really like the size of the 58mm filter diameter. The maximum of f3.5 is fine for most shooting situations, but the K24/2.8 is obviously a better choice for indoors.
If you hunt around you will be able to get a K24/3.5 for a better price that what I paid and you will not be disappointed.
Sample shots taken with the K24/3.5. Photos are medium resolution scans from original slides and negatives.
Camera: K2 Film: Fuji Velvia 50 ISO: 50
Camera: P50 Film: Fuji Neopan Acros 100 ISO: 100
 | | | | | Moderator
Loyal Site Supporter Registered: March, 2007 Location: Surrey, UK Posts: 8,197
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 19, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Well built. Long focus throw. | | Cons: | | |
Lovely feel to this lens. Exudes quality, and the long focus throw makes it a joy to use. I found it's contrast to be fine, and the colour rendition excellent.
Reasonably sharp at 3.5 but once at 5.6 really sharp.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: September, 2007 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 31
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 29, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $125.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | ex. sharpness, low distortion, very solid build | | Cons: | difficult to find a hood that won't vignette | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 9
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I believe this lens is the same optical formula as the much-loved takumar 24/3.5. The distortion is very low all the way to the edges on both digital and film cameras.
f/3.5 minimum aperture does limit its range but If you're planning on always shooting at f/8-11, where it's quite sharp, there's no need to spend more money to get the small advantage of f/2.8. Performance at f/3.5 is ok, but f/5.6 is a big step up but slightly less so than I found with my K28/3.5 - which is so good it's usually an unfair comparison to any lens.
As others have noted, contrast is not something it's known for but that's not a big deal. I would actually say that it is pretty natural if you compare the picture to the scene itself.
Nice and compact, it's pretty hefty for it's size but that means its built really solidly.
| | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2007 Location: Oslo, Norway Posts: 10
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 2, 2007 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | very good build quality, good sharpnes | | Cons: | a bit large, 58mm thread mount, f3.5, not so good contrast | |
I was a bit disapionted with this lens. I have tried several 24mm searching for a good one, this was ok, but smc 24/2.8 was better
The only problem was the low contrast, giving a bit "flatter" picture than lenses I compared it with, the resolution was fine. All in all not what I expected from a pentax prime, so I sold it.
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