| Author: | | Senior Member Registered: November, 2011 Location: Chicago Posts: 126
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 28, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $160.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | resolution, contrast, color rendering, build | | Cons: | na | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K3
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After reading such rave reviews for this lens... and being a sucker for legendary K series glass, I finally tracked one down on ebay. It is a pretty amazing thing, grossly undervalued, and it weighs nothing. If this lens carried a Zeiss label, you could sell it for $500 easily.
Yes. It's that good.
What could be better? Well, the Bokeh isn't the best I've seen, and far from the worst. But on balance, there are a few Leica lenses out there which are priced well into the thousands, and they get the same comment from their owners.
The K 35 f/3.5 is all about the resolution, and it kills. Perfectly sharp wide open, with lush contrast. I shoot Black and White most of the time, and I'm a bit of a contrast whore. It had to be said.
 | | | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2015 Posts: 1
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 12, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $135.00
| Rating: N/A |
| Pros: | sharp, light, flare resistance | | Cons: | NA | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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I agree, this is really a great lens.
I bought it in very good condition and I'm very, very happy with it.
Other good photographers already described how good it is.
I just wanted to add one example of how good his lens is wide open.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/133606804@N04/26869703522/in/dateposted-public/
Cheers!
Long live Pentax!  | | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2014 Posts: 13
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 21, 2016 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp, solid, color pallette | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-30
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Woo-eee. I can see this lens starting a long, unhealthy obsession with the K series for me.
It's a great lens for a great price.
-- The color rendition of the lens is unique to the point of weird, but great. It loves blue. Overall WB might render slightly cool, but blue in particular is very saturated. Individual colors seem drawn out while retaining the distinction between slightly different shades.
-- Really sharp. The fastest aperture is slow-ish but that's the charm. It manages the "pop" you hear about... not so much with DOF but by transitions in sharpness in the scene.
-- does not like shooting too directly toward the sun. hazes out with too sharp a light. but it DOES generally handle backlit subjects well. I notice that it keeps very different values within a good contrast balance. in comparison, my DA 16-45 turns anything remotely backlit BLACK. but you can shoot that one right at the sun and get something nice, and preserve the scene.
 | | | | | Forum Member Registered: April, 2014 Posts: 61
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 21, 2014 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Build quality. Sharpness. Colour rendition. | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Sony a7r
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This is an outstanding lens. On a par with the wonderful k28 f3.5.
Matches the Sony Zeiss fe 35 f2.8 in resolution and produces deeper and more vibrant colours.
There are no issues with flare, CA, or purple fringing.
I would highly recommend it to owners of the Sony a7r
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2014 Posts: 7
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 18, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $75.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Razor sharp, easy and fast to focus, great colour saturation, perfect for street photography | | Cons: | none in its category | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax ME Super
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An incredibly sharp lens, with great micro contrast, wonderful colour rendition and deep saturation. The 35mm focal lenght makes it perfect for street photo.
 | | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2012 Posts: 14
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 17, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, nice color rendition | | Cons: | bokeh | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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This is a gem! Razor sharp with amazing color rendition and contrast, this lens is a steal for landscape photography. Less expensive than a K 30mm, if you find one do not hesitate. It gives the best of itself by 5.6
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: January, 2010 Location: The Black Hills Posts: 1,109
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 15, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $105.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, excellent contrast and detail | | Cons: | Purple fringing, CA | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 8
Camera Used: K-5
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I did think that much of this lens at first, but the more I use it the more I like it.
Not much I can add to the rest of the reviews, I use it for landscapes @F5.6-11 and don't get much bokeh, so I my not be the best judge of that aspect of the lens.
UPDATE June 2014
Sold the lens after getting a hold of an excellent copy of a 35 3.5 Super Takumar. I like the color of the ST much more, with the same amount of sharpness and detail, without as much CA and purple fringing. Maybe it was me or just my copy of the SMC 35.
A couple of samples:
 | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: April, 2012 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: June 10, 2012 | Not Recommended | Price: $75.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | robusto, maneggevole, messa a fuoco molto fluida, preciso | | Cons: | nessuno | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K20D
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L'ho trovato per caso in una vetrina di un negozio di Roma, quasi nascosto dietro altri obiettivi usati Pentax. Ho chiesto di osservarlo meglio. Gli scatti dei diaframmi erano buoni come pure la fluiditą della messa a fuoco. Le lenti erano pulite. Pochissimi i segni d'uso. L'ho comperato e portato a casa. Montato sulla mia K20D, ho eseguito alcuni scatti a f5.6 e f8.0, ho ingrandito sul monitor della fotocamera e sono rimasto molto piacevolmente sorpreso. Riesce ad essere molto nitido anche a forti ingrandimenti ed a tutti i diaframmi. Con esso credo di aver comperato la migliore delle lenti della mia collezione di obiettivi Pentax.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2010 Posts: 753 | | Review Date: January 2, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | sharp, compact, inexpensive | | Cons: | bokeh | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 4
Handling: 10
Value: 8
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A nice little lens, very sharp with vivid colour rendering. Worthy altrenative to K30/2.8 if bokeh is not important, definitely great lens for landscapes. Fairly cheaper than K30, great value. Seems to be rare on secondhand market.
| | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2010 Location: British Columbia Posts: 13 | | Review Date: November 21, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $149.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very Sharp, Contrasty, well built | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 10
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I'm not sure i can add much more to what has already been said
but i can confirm that this is in fact one seriously sharp and contrasty lens, optically and mechanically its an excellent lens, its one of my favorite manual lenses along with the k28 and k55
check out the link to for example of sharpness
http://70.38.38.9/e/2/571576df-029a-4599-89ac-d6dd2d7d6ac1.jpg
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: February, 2010 Location: Northern Michigan Posts: 6,175
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 9, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $90.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very sharp, outstanding color rendition, superb contrast | | Cons: | None worth mentioning | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-5
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When a copy of this lens showed up at keh.com, I couldn't resist adding it to fill my collection of wide-angle primes. It makes a nice companion lens, for landscape work, to the K 28/3.5. Although it doesn't have quite the unique character of the 28, it produces beautiful, rich colors, plenty of contrast, and is even sharper than the 28. Indeed, in terms of sharpness, it rivals my 50mm lenses. It would appear that Pentax did not produce a sharper 35mm lens until the FA 35/2, released in 1999. Build quality, as with all the K lenses, is off the charts. The K 35/3.5 is, along with the K 55/1.8, is the smallest of the original K-mount lenses. It's a little wider but otherwise not much bigger than the more ubiquitous M 50/1.7.
 | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: April, 2010 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 813 | | Review Date: May 18, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $95.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Outrageous sharpness, micro-contrast and colour rendition. Easy manual focus | | Cons: | Bokeh | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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Rated by some as the sharpest lens from Pentax in years gone by.
The IQ and sharpness IS very good, but the bokeh leaves a lot to be desired. (The 5 blade aperture doesn't help much either).
CA correction is near perfect, and the lens is sharp in the center from 3.5, edge sharpness develops from F5.6 onwards.
I really prefer this lens for film photography, and use the FA35/2 for digital.
Edit June 2011
I now rate it a 10 because it is very close to being the equal of the FA35/2
Cheers from Jack
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: February, 2011 Location: Athens, GA Posts: 68 | | Review Date: April 6, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, Resilience, Smooth Focus | | Cons: | Speed | |
I picked this thing up on ebay 'as-is' due to a large crack in the front element. I figured I'd look into repairing it or at the very least reselling it, but much to my surprise the crack does not affect IQ in the slightest that I can tell, other than perhaps shooting directly into the sun (have not tried that yet).
I got this in the mail today and I am absolutely blown away at the performance of this lens. It is ridiculously from 5.6 down. 3.5 is still very sharp as well. Color replication is also very good. The focus ring is also buttery smooth and has a very nice feel to it.
I cannot find any serious faults with this lens that I did not know about prior to purchasing it, most of which are specific to this lens only anyway. I am giving this a 10 as (even damaged) it is a superb piece of glass. Sure, it could be faster but I knew how fast it was when I bought it so I cannot count that as a shortcoming.
If you get the opportunity to pick one of these up, don't hesitate, it's a fantastic little lens!
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2009 Location: Michigan Posts: 294
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 15, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, excellent build quality | | Cons: | Slow | |
This lens is not speedy, but if you accept that it is an excellent performer. I say this after raising the head on an Omega 670 enlarger to the top of the track and printing from a negative that was either wide open or f/5.6. Still sharp.
I believe this is the same general formula as the Pentax 6x7 75mm f/4.5. Same 35mm FOV, same spherical front element, both 5/4 configuration, and they're both slow. I have the 75mm as well and it is also excellent.
Unless I was actually going to shoot a fast lens wide open I'd rather have this. It is pretty much always on my camera.
| | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2009 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 12 | | Review Date: June 4, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | small, light, nice standard lens, sharpness, build | | Cons: | not allways a nice bokeh | |
I read a lot about this lens before I was able to buy one, because I love the 35mm on a cropping sensor, it's just between 50 and 55 on a FF camera.
A year ago I bought the smc-m 35/2.8, and though it's a very charming lens it simply is not very sharp.
Besides this lens I also own the 40mm/2.8, and that also is not very sharp, so I bought the 40mm/2.8 DA, which is excellent in both sharpness and colours, but I still like the 35mm angle more.
I have the 35mm/3.5 for a few months now, and the last weeks it hasn't left my K20.
In sharpness it's even better then the 40mm DA, and the lens seems to lack CA completely, most likely due to the relatively simple confguration.
Colours are what you expect, the lens does not add, something that the 55/1.8 seems to do, and I like that addition.
Nevertheless: this is the absolute perfect standard lens, and don't let 3.5 fool you: it's sharp right from there, and very sharp at 5.6!
The price I paid is obviously a joke, I paid 35 euro including shipping 
I'm sorry that this puts the average price down, but I have to be fair, and ofcourse the lens is worht much more: a price between 150 and 200 USD is very reasonable, and if you're really looking for the best 35mm available from Pentax I guess this lens has no comparison, so the sky is the limit, and 300USD is not unfair!
There is one reason why I doubted to give it a 10: the bokeh is not allways what you would expect from a top-lens; sometimes it's quite harsh, looks like it's fallen to bits and pieces, instead of the warm soft bubbles that a 55/1.8 gives.............
But 9 is simply too low for this magnificent lens, which leaves one really wanting a FF DSLR!
The build is K-standard, what can I add, it's small and light, and looks cute on a DSLR, makes it very unsophisticated, which is what I like.
I got the nice black box with red velvet with it, btw, we makes it even more a gem.
Why do people sell beautifull lenses like that for prices like this?????
I think I was very lucky, bought it in a Pentax-forum btw.
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