| Author: | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Posts: 10,894
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 29, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Very solid build, great rendering, very sharp, wonderful in use | | Cons: | Big and heavy, slow | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: K200D, K-3
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I've used this manual lens for some years and while it's not the fastest 28mm around, it's one of the very best in terms of image quality. The build is typical K series - very solid indeed with focus beautifully smooth and nice clicks to the aperture ring. It's a very big, solid lens considering that it's relatively slow at f/3.5. Handling is really wonderful.
Image quality is fantastic - it's sharp wide open and the colour rendering and contrast are very good indeed. This lens is a lot better than the M version, which is much smaller and lighter (easier to find too) but, while sharp, has a very dull image rendering. It's also much better than all the other Pentax 28mm primes I've tried (A 28/2.8, M 28/2.8 (both versions)) bar it's faster sibling the K 28mm f/2. I'd certainly recommend this one over those A and M series ones - yes it's bigger, heavier and slower but the results and the pleasure in use make it a better lens to have.
The size and weight limit the use I give this lens for travelling but apart from that the only real limitation is it's f/3.5 maximum aperture. It's difficult, but not impossible, to get shallow depth of field and it's not the best choice for low light, though it can be used wide open and you'll get sharp results.
I really like using the lens and it produces great quality photos when used right, despite it's limitations. Some sample photos below.
Pots by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
Balloon panorama K 28mm f3.5 43MP by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
2020-03-28_05-04-18 by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
_IMG6475a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
IMG_7720a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
IMGP1875a by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
| | | | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: February, 2019 Location: Illinois Posts: 21
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 29, 2021 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, good contrast, excellent landscape lens, cheap, easy to use | | Cons: | some noticeable fringing | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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This lens deserves its reputation. I no longer own it, but it was a great landscape lens. It was so easy to use and so convenient in size and handling. Everything about it was great. I'm not going to ding it for its busy bokeh much, because I don't think bokeh is what the lens is about. It is for walking around and taking photos focused at infinity or hyperfocal or however you manage, f/8-f/11, that are sharp throughout the field. It always had blue fringing around tree branches in the sky when I shot on bright days, but they were fairly easy to fix. No other CA issues really. I don't think I ever adjusted the focus off its infinity or mark for the full year I used it almost exclusively.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: February, 2017 Posts: 2,032
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 20, 2020 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Build quality, overall optical performance | | Cons: | Rarity | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K3 and KP
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I had been after the perfect (for me) 28-30mm lens for my K3 for year, as it is my favourite focal length on APSc. I have tried various options. M and A 28mm f2.8, F 28mm f2.8, K30mm f2.8, Sigma Ex Dg 28mm f1.8 and 30mm Ex Dg f1.4, Vivitar 28mm f1.9. And all of them have failed me in some way or another. The M and A models a little soft at whatever aperture, The Sigma 28mm -great IQ but hideous bulk. The 30mm Sigma and Vivitar bulk again but not so bad but poor performance until you get to f2.8, when I have no complaints. F 28mm and K 30mm have come close but are not quite perfect, it is hard to put my finger on just why. Anyway towards the end of last year a K 28mm f3.5 became available and I just had to try it, especially as it cost just £125 ( my K 30 cost £250!). I love this lens and here is why:-
1. Build quality - just like every other K lens I own the quality is superb
2. Handling - again just like all my other K lenses superb feel, focusing and aperture ring. The slight extra weight of the K compared to my M,A and F models feels really nice on m K3.
3. IQ - it is great. Plenty of sharpness and good colour rendition. Easily the match and maybe a tad better than both the F 28mm and K 30mm
4. Small max aperture - this is actually a benefit as it makes it easier to focus on DSLrs which do not have split image or other optical focus aids. Also F3.5 or 4 is plenty fast enough for general use and I have the fast Sigma or Vivitar if I need f2.8, which I rarely do.
I have since acquired a KP and grip and the K 28mm behaves almost equally as well on that as on the K3, though I tend to use the K 30mm or F28mm on the KP due to their compact size.
The only con I can think of with this lens is its rarity. You can not just go out and buy one as they do not come up for sale that often. You just have to wait until one becomes available.
I would like to try it out on a K1, but I am not in a position to do that at present, but here's hoping that may change in a few months time.
Anyway on APSC I can say - wholly recommended.
| | | | | New Member Registered: April, 2019 Posts: 1
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 4, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness corner to corner; colors; handling & build quality | | Cons: | Some field curvature | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Sony A7III
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After all these enthusiastic reviews of this lens who say that it is an ultimate landscape lens I wanted to know what all the fuss is about and got one via Ebay for 100 Euros in very good condition.
First impression: Built like a tank, looks like it was produced yesterday (but in fact it is 42 years old!), looks like it can be used for another 50 years without any problems.
Second impression: Yes, it's very sharp from corner to corner, at least stopped down (but that's what a landscape photographer does anyway, you don't buy a wide angle like that for "bokeh" and stuff). MUCH better than any other 24 oder 28 mm vintage solution I tried up to now. Of course there are 50s or 85s who have significantly higher resolution - but for a wide angle resolution is really good.
But the real shocker were the COLORS.
While with all my other lenses I "pump up" the colors a bit (mostly via vibrance or "camera calibration" in Lightroom) to get a punchy, saturated look, this is actually unnecessary with this lens! Colors are from the start really "life-like" and "pop"! Wonderful, but at the same time natural looking, blues and greens especially. I'm not a "SOOC" guy, but this lens comes near to "capturing how I saw it when I was there".
Flare resistance is very good, shooting into the sun or with the sun just a bit outside the frame is no problem at all.
Also no problems with color fringing. Pentax's coatings seem to be really great.
Only thing is that the lens has some field curvature - if you have something in the corners which is at or near infinity, you can't get it in focus. But in typical image compositions, this is rarely the case anyway. You just have to be aware of it and choose your composition accordingly.
Highly recommended!
  | | | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2007 Location: Toronto/Victoria Posts: 460 | | Review Date: February 4, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $75.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Very good on FF and finely crafted | | Cons: | Larger than successors, no aperture link | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-1, K100D
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The K28/3.5 is probably my best 28mm lens. The others were all nearly perfect on APS-C but were less perfect on FF. This lens is nearly perfect on FF. Even wide open, the IQ is very good and at F5.6-8 it is outstanding if you need sharpness in the corners and almost no CA (a bit of red/blue is visible).
Of course, it's a slow lens; the A28/2.0 is smaller (49mm filter), faster by over 1.5 stops, and supports automatic exposure. However, the trade-offs are generally worth it for this lens.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: November, 2012 Posts: 151 | | Review Date: September 12, 2018 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness Weight | | Cons: | Focal Length | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K5 IIs, K1
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I bought it used when am using K5 iis. I have 12-24 so i sparingly used this lens. But, i can clearly distinguish pictures from this lens.. they have a unique touch to them. Pictures are sharp edge to edge. Upon, buying K1 i am left with no good wide lens. So, K28 became my only wide lens and it didnt disappoint. Below are two sample pictures from my recent trip.
This was shot wide open.. so it isnt sharp around corners.. also, its not a stacked image but a 30'sec long exposure shot.
 | | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2018 Location: Paris Posts: 8
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 27, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $180.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Colors and sharpness from edge to edge | | Cons: | Green buton mesuring | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K1
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Mine is mint copy
At F8 to F11 i have no 28mm Lens with such sharpness on borders and extrême corners. My kit zoom D-FA 28-105mm , wich i find no so bad at 28mm f8 , looks blurry when you make comparaison side by side on corners... this prime is razor Sharp on extrêmes.
Bokeh i dont care, this is not build as a fast Lens.
This is The Lens for landscape / infinity
Extrême corners and edges are such Sharp
Color rendering is really good and contrast
Build like all K
Manuel Focusing no problem with K1
I do recommended this Lens , it s quite cheap for the optical quality.
The Best Pentax 28mm prime choice for landscape at the moment
| | | | | 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.
  | | | | | 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/ | | | | | 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.
| | | | | 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: 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.
| | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2012 Posts: 4 | | Review Date: October 13, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp, even wide open, very nice color reproduction | | Cons: | bokeh, but this is not a portrait lens | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Oly ep1
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I love this lens...it really lives up to it's reputation. Very nice color rendition. I recommend a hood for it. I also have a zeiss 25mm 2.8 and am constantly comparing the too as the focal lengths are similar. The K 28mm 3.5 comes very close to the Zeiss concerning sharpness, and color reproduction but the zeiss is f 2.8 !! and still rocks at that aperture ...
ok, so here are some pics.. first one of the glass is wide open in the afternoon sun and the second is a stopped down to 8.
 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: January, 2010 Location: HCMC Posts: 271
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 12, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $115.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Superb and true color reproduction (the best I've seen from all the lenses I've ever used), Extremely sharp lens and easy to focus, awesome build... | | Cons: | None as of this writing | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 8
Camera Used: K5
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I never liked shooting with wide primes but this lens is slowly teaching me how to use one and am loving every single time with it.
This is one rare of a gem found (and it's in pristine, like-new condition)... I think one of the best lens made by pentax... feeling lucky to own one rare and awesome lens...
The best lens (in terms of sharpness/color reproduction/build) i've ever used so far...
NO Flare even though you're shooting right in front of the sun...
| | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2012 Location: Berlin Posts: 9 | | Review Date: May 27, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp. Really sharp. | | Cons: | f3.5 | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: Canon 5d mkIII
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Haven't had this long, but it only took a quick look at the first few shots to see that this is one sharp, sharp lens. I did a quick compare with my other 28s. It's much sharper than my Tak 28s (I have the 58mm filter thread Super Tak, and the last version S-M-C Tak) and easily outperforms my SMC-A 28 2.8 especially at the corners.
Colours are great too, build quality and handling fantastic. This is a serious lens.
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