| Author: | | Forum Member Registered: April, 2014 Posts: 61 | | Review Date: May 1, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharpness, colours, contrast, build quality, size | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: sony a7r
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      This is a truly outstanding wide angle lens when used with the 36 MP sony a7r. The sharpness edge to edge is superb and the colours are deep and vibrant.
The build quality is excellent. This is the lens that I use most and which I would consider essential for landscape photography. As hyperfocal distance is important for control of depth of field, manual focus and the depth of field scale on the lens are, in my opinion, a benefit rather than a hindrance.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2014 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: August 3, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Better than my kit lens | | Cons: | heavy | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K-r
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[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Svend/Desktop/K-28mm%20left.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Svend/Desktop/K-28mm%20right.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Svend/Desktop/K-28mm-center.jpg[/IMG]
The SMC Pentax K-28mm 3,5 is better than my kit lens 18-55mm AL zoom.
in the center of the picture the is not a big difference, but at the edges the quality is visible.
I have hoped for a bigger difference.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2012 Posts: 963
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 6, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $66.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, vivid unique colors | | Cons: | A bit larger than your usual 28 | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: KX
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February 2018 update.
After all these time, I’ve fallen more in love with this lens. It is one of the sharpest I have, (and I do have a few of these acknowledged sharp lenses). Drawback, it may be too sharp to be used as a “portrait” lens, especially at 5.6/8/11. Too brutal with skin blemishes!
Between the K28/3.5 and the M28/3.5, the former's perceptibly much better. The colors are saturated akin to modern day DA limiteds, but more unique, and actually better. This is a sharp lens, especially stopped down to f/8-f/11. Beyond f/11, it loses some sharpness, but still way, way sharper than any kit lens.
I had the M28 first, until I found this. I think that this is a very underrated lens at 9.
| | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2010 Location: Brittany, France Posts: 4
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 16, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, great colours, beautifully made | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K30 and nex6
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My best manual lens!
A joy to use on my K30 or my NEX6 with a Kipon adapter.
The colors are beautifully vivid and it handles like a dream...I love it!
 | | | | | | | Forum Member Registered: January, 2015 Posts: 71
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 24, 2015 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp from corner to corner at f/9.5 and f/11, build quality, colors, no aberrations stopped down | | Cons: | Big and heavy for what it is, extreme corners not fully sharp until f/9.5 or f/11 | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-50
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This lens is probably my #1 recommendation for landscape photography on a budget. It is pretty slow, however, at f/3.5 and needs to be stopped down to f/9.5 or f/11 for the corners to sharpen up completely. Center sharpness peaks at f/8 and corner sharpness peaks at f/11 on my copy. This may sound like faint praise so far, but I've tried a dozen or so vintage 28mm lenses and none of them at any aperture have approached the corner sharpness I can get with this at f/11. Others are as good or slightly better in the center but most are quite terrible at the borders and corners, even on APS-C.
The build quality is superb as expected from an original SMC-K lens, but the size and weight exceed expectations somewhat even for an all metal lens from this era, at least given the focal length and speed. Nothing to be too concerned about, though.
I didn't enter a rating for the bokeh because it's irrelevant for my usage. I'm using this for sharp-across-the-frame landscape shots only.
My next best lens at this focal length is the SMC-F 28/2.8 and in comparing them side by side, the SMC-K 28/3.5 is noticeably sharper in the borders and corners at infinity and only slightly less so in the center. The numbers below are completely subjective but are a fair representation of the performance I have seen.
SMC-F
f/8 - center 9.7, corners 7
f/9.5 - center 9.3, corners 7.2
f/11 - center 8.9, corners 7.4
SMC-K
f/8 - center 9.6, corners 7.4
f/9.5 - center 9.2, corners 8.2
f/11 - center 8.8, corners 8.6
The SMC-F is lighter, faster, sharper at wide apertures, and of course has AF and the "A" setting. For overall utility it wins, but for landscapes it does not. For what it's worth the SMC-K is also slightly wider even though they are both nominally 28mm.
If you have the wisdom and patience to accept this lens for what it is and play to its strengths, you will be rewarded. This is the whole point of hunting down the best vintage glass, yes? It is for me at least. Use the money you saved to get a sturdy tripod and a remote shutter switch and you're good to go.
| | | | | New Member Registered: October, 2015 Posts: 2
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 22, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $85.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, Low Distortion | | Cons: | field curvature | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: Sony A7s, a5100
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I bought this lens after reading that someone had searched for two years to get one!
I already had the CZ Distagon 28mm 2.8 and Pentax-m 28mm f3.5 to compare it to, however I was unhappy with the corners in the Distagon and the distortion on the Pentax-M.
I found the 'look' from this lens to be very similar to the Carl Zeiss, though the Pentax K has less distortion, slightly less CA and better corners. It does suffer from some field curvature.
I only really use these lenses for landscapes from f8 - f11, so can't comment on sharpness wide open.
I didn't find it to be any sharper overall than the Pentax-M (maybe because of that field curvature), but there is less distortion on the pentax k than the pentax M. The pentax M has a lot less CA though, so I wouldn't really rate this lens as better than the Pentax M, just different.
I have some 28mm f8 and f11 comparison tests on my site:
http://www.ashleywootton.com/28mm-landscape-lens-comparison-test/ | | | | | Senior Member Registered: April, 2013 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 114
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 8, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | amazing colors, contrast, quality, flare control, sharpness | | Cons: | slow, f3.5 minimum | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-01
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This lens is plenty sharp. Even wide open shots have excellent sharpness especially in the center. It does get very, very sharp above f5.6. Looking at shots of a radio antenna in the far distance, focused at infinity, I'm finding f9.5 to be the sharpest. 8 is real good, 11 is real good, but above 11 it begins to lose sharpness. Below f6.7 it also begins to soften a bit. I'd give it a sharpness rating of 9.3, but since I have to pick I gave it a 9. It's just not razor sharp but absolutely plenty sharp for any needs. It's just that there are slightly sharper lenses out that that deserve the 10 rating.
What stands out for me is the colors and contrast. The contrast is just right for so many things, but really shines on foliage, vegetation, complex textures with micro shadows. Tremendous detail is enhanced in flattering ways and in a very balanced way. But these colors, wow. I find myself being very light-handed with my color and saturation adjustments. The raw images are almost there. There's a color tonality, a richness, something distinct with this lens, unusual. It has a signature. Reds are vibrant, blues are deep and saturated, greens are organic, yellows are natural and balanced. It's a VERY colorful lens.
Known as a landscape lens, this lens instantly tells you why. But I've absolutely enjoyed using it for close-ups and bokeh. The bokeh is unique, has an "underwater" quality to it, quite unique. I don't find it too busy or "nervous", but instead just artful and blurry in a way that really brings out the in-focus subject, has a strong 3D kind of pop. While I wouldn't liken this len's rendering or "look" to Leica or Zeiss, it does indeed compare in how the subject seems to leap out of the image with great realism, with stark 3-dimensionality. But that's only if you go for that kind of shot.
The build quality of this K28 is just astounding. It has the smoothest focus action, wonderful aperture ring action, perfect machining and build quality, hefty, robust, sexy. It's a true gem in every regard.
It controls flare amazingly well, but I do use a hood to help contrast and saturation. At apertures below 5.6 you can get tiny amount of purple fringing on specular highlights or extremely contrasty edges, but it's very small and NOT a problem whatsoever.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/attachments/122-lens-clubs/287699d1446871...-colors-13.jpg
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/attachments/122-lens-clubs/287700d1446871...t-colors-1.jpg
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/attachments/122-lens-clubs/287701d1446871...t-colors-2.jpg
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/attachments/122-lens-clubs/287702d1446871...t-colors-5.jpg
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/attachments/122-lens-clubs/287704d1446871...t-colors-8.jpg
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/attachments/122-lens-clubs/287750d1446919...urbridge-2.jpg
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/attachments/122-lens-clubs/287492d1446692...-k28-3.5-1.jpg
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/attachments/122-lens-clubs/287677d1446859...8samples-1.jpg
And here's a crop of the previous photo to show it's great sharpness and ability to grab such huge amounts of well resolved and rendered detail in the shadows. I don't think I really nailed the focus, but it's still quite resolved and sharp.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/attachments/122-lens-clubs/287678d1446859...8samples-2.jpg | | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2016 Location: between Toulouse and Pyrenees Mountains Posts: 2 | | Review Date: January 1, 2016 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharpness | | Cons: | not found | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-3
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My new favourite lens, a walkaround and landscape lens, light, so well-built and an incredible sharpness.
The kind of lens that produce pictures with the wow effect.
Got a lot of lenses but not a lot are better.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: November, 2011 Location: Chicago Posts: 126
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 9, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $140.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Amazing Resolution, Sharp Wide Open, Contrast | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K3
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This has become the most used lens I have ever owned. It rarely leaves my camera. Using a 28mm on the K3 gives me an effective focal length of about 42mm, which feels quite normal to me now.
The build/feel of the K series lenses is nearly perfect. There is nothing fragile here. But the real story for the lens is all about the image resolution... it's really quite amazing. Stunning.
Wide open (f/3.5) is perfect for when I'm after a certain "smoothness", vs the razor sharp photographs I get when stopping down just a bit more.
Blah, Blah, Blah... photographs below.
 | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,874
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 14, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $190.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Light, well built, smooth focusing | | Cons: | Horrible vignetting at 3.5 on K1 | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K1
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Today I tried out my new-to-me, $190 SMC PENTAX 28mm f/3.5 on my K1 camera.
My testing resulted in the following observations:
1. Lots of vignetting at f/3.5. Gone by f/4
2. Its' sweet spot is f/11 - f/13.
3. Good and sharp, however I have to admit that the much more expensive Sigma Art lenses and Zeiss ZK lenses are a tiny bit sharper (I know because I've previously owned them).
3. Beautiful Pentax colors.
4. Distortion is insignificant
I really like the 24mm and 28mm field of view. I'm quite pleased with this inexpensive little lens. It will easily get me by until Pentax/Sigma/Zeiss some day offer a new premium lens in this range.
  | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: October, 2009 Location: North Posts: 4,706
8 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 13, 2016 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Cheap; Very sharp for intended usage; good size; well made; good flare tolerance | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K1; A7k
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This is the best 28mm for infinity focus stopped down shooting on the FF K1 (and A7) for the price.
Don't let the f3.5 distract you away from this lens.
It was designed for a purpose.
Landscapes.
Sharp to the edges at f8-f11 that many faster 28mm can't match.
Flare tolerant as well.
At an incredible price too.
If you are looking for a do it all 28mm or a wide for isolation shallow DOF look (an oxymoron imo), look elsewhere and probably spend more.
If you are looking for a great landscape lens, this is the one.
20160708-IMGP2521 by jenkwang, on Flickr
full size :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/29329237@N07/28139111646/sizes/o/
The water keeper by jenkwang, on Flickr
20160710-IMGP2554 by jenkwang, on Flickr
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: April, 2013 Posts: 158
7 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 25, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $110.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Colour, Clarity, Sharpness | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-5IIs
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I got into Pentax without knowing exactly what was this brand about. I just wanted to use that old SMC M 50mm f2 that was at home, completely forgotten, inside a old paper-box.
After some time trying other Pentax and third-brand lenses I managed to get the K28/3.5 and I was extremely shocked with the results. It was not about the sharpness, which was quite respectable, but the colour and the contrast of the lens. It is particularly on the blues and greens where I think this lens excels. The way this lens renders light makes the images very pleasing. It is hard to find the words, but I would say that the K28/3.5 delivers some sort of "clarity" or "magic" which converted me instantaneously into the Pentax fan-club. After I used this lens I understood what was Pentax about and what some people meant about Pentax colours and that stuff. The way this lens renders colours I believe it is not easily obtained in edition.
I would have never thought that a ƒ3.5 wide angle would become my favourite lens in my collection, but it certainly did. It also behaves great on a Sony A7 and I hope some day to try it on a Pentax K-1.
 | | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2017 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: February 14, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Excellent color rendering and contrast even wide open. | | Cons: | Relative slow F3.5 | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Fujifilm X-E1
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The SMC Pentax-K 28mm F3.5 is not so well-known comparing to its cousins Pentax 28mm from the M and A series but the performance is really impressive. I have been using a handful of semi-wide angle Pentax-A (and M) 24mm - 28mm lenses over the years. The performances of these lenses are quite good (don't get me wrong) but never reach the level of this K 28mm F3.5.
Don't let the F3.5 fools you. Color rendering and contrast are spot on (strong) even wide open.
Bokeh is of course not its strongest but that is normal for a 28mm wide angle lens.
Photo is exported from LR as Adobe Standard (instead of Velvia/Vivid as shot by Fujifilm X-E1) to keep the colors as neutral as possible. No other changes made!
Photo taken with Fujifilm X-E1 with metal lens hood. ISO-200, F/3.5, 1/250s and handheld.
I got this lens as part of a Pentax KX 35mm film camera with Pentax K 55mm F1.8 and paid € 75 for the lot, hence the estimated price $30.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65545813@N07/32777422861/in/photostream/ | | | | | Forum Member Registered: February, 2015 Posts: 93 | | Review Date: April 7, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Everything | | Cons: | Nothing so far | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K3ii
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I won the lottery when I found this lens in prestine, unused condition at a local camera store.
Someone must have done a wholesale dump of their manual lenses, as I also found (in unused condition) a K 55 2.0 and an M 50 1.7.
The whole lot cost $120 CDN. including taxes. The part of me that's Scottish was very pleased
This is now my most treasured lens. Slap another name on it and it's a $400 piece of equipment.  | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2011 Location: Lost in translation ... Posts: 18,076
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 3, 2017 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Bokeh & close focus possible, sharp enough | | Cons: | None really for a 28mm | |
Bonjour,
After using this lens for the month of November 2017 as my Single Challenges lens, I can say that this is now my favorite go-to lens in 28mm ... a lot can be done with this lens if you experiment a bit outside of the usual "envelope" of use for a 28mm lens.
Below are a few images on K-1 and my flickr album for this lens is here : https://www.flickr.com/photos/139020494@N02/albums/72157690127443416
The last image was hastily taken with a n° 1 Pentax K-mount extension tube ... a macro 28 ... Cheers, J
 Watches and pens by Jean Poitiers, on Flickr
 Mercedes by Jean Poitiers, on Flickr
 Dandy swirl by Jean Poitiers, on Flickr
 Going to work - the train conductor by Jean Poitiers, on Flickr
 "Les Marvels" at the children's bookstore by Jean Poitiers, on Flickr
 Extension by Jean Poitiers, on Flickr
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