| Author: | | New Member Registered: September, 2014 Posts: 1
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 17, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $380.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | small size, bokeh, colour rendering, sharpness | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: K30, Super A
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Fantastic lens, little soft at f1,8, sharp at f2,8-4, razor sharp at f4-8.
Great bokeh, rendering..
 | | | | | | | Forum Member Registered: December, 2012 Location: Warsaw Posts: 83
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 23, 2015 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Compact, speed, bokeh, perfect portrait FL, color rendering,..... and the sharpness outresolving 16MP K5 sensor | | Cons: | Very rare. Not cheap, but worth the price. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K5, LX
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Top class lens.
Formidable portrait glass.
Produces breathtaking portraits. With "velvety clearness".....
One of the best classic 85's without modern high-tech glass inside.
It has a S-M-C Takumar 85mm f/1,8 optical construction so has much the same top performance.
According to BDimitrov produced for very short time: 1975-1977.
I found very interesting article about 85mm lenses race:
http://www.klassik-cameras.de/Pentax_Takumar_85mm.htm | | | | | Senior Member Registered: June, 2015 Posts: 235 | | Review Date: September 13, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, Nice focus ring, MF, fast, built like a tank | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-5
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Now this is byfar one of the sharpest lenses in the telephoto range if not the sharpest that I have used and is probably the cheapest (my paid price) one of my kit. Bought it for $10 from a guy selling a K2 and had no idea what it was. The bokeh is beautiful and I swear it out resolves my K-5's sensor at f5.6. The focus throw is nice and long allowing easier focus and its nice f1.8 aperture is quick for nice night stuff. Overall beauty of a lens and for the price I paid its probably the best bang for my buck. Just an amazing lens!
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: May, 2016 Posts: 33
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 31, 2016 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharpness, bokeh, colour differentiation | | Cons: | no A, no AF | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: anything between K2 and K-3
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K85 @1,8
Not much to add here... one of the greatest Pentax lenses ever.
Perfect sharpness, bokeh, colour differentiation and rendition.
Much, much better than the M 2/85 which I owned before and much easier and safer to use than that huge A 1,4/85 which I sold off after two weeks  Due to its AF the FA 1,4/85 might have a point though.
On the K-3 the 1,8/85 is one of my favourites for video shooting. AF is not needed, instead you are thrilled by the large, smooth, super-silent focus ring... Leave the aperture wide open and play with the minimal DOF. You get razor-sharp, movie-like pictures with a stunningly creamy background.
| | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: April, 2013 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 114
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 18, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharp, gorgeous, smooth, bokeh, handling, color, contrast | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-01 and Fuji X-E1
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I feel very lucky to have stumbled across this lens at a local camera shop in the used cabinet. It's just fantastic, everything people say it is. Beautifully sharp and in a warm, realistic way, not too clinical or edgy-sharp. The color and contrast factor is top-notch Pentax. The feel and focus throw is wonderful, they really tapered the focus range so that you can easily focus manually and fine tune with great precision. It's nice and compact, very fast. It's a real gem, one of the best. Wide open with high-contrast edges it can get a little purple fringing, but that's not a real issue. It resolves subtle shades of foliage wonderfully. It's very clean and coma-free across the image. What a beauty!
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: August, 2018 Posts: 72
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 28, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $500.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | incredible simplicity | | Cons: | ...very difficult to take a photo quickly with this manuel lense | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 4
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-x
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What a shame ! This lense is incredible, better thant the FA 85mm F/1.4 for me, because it's very short, and F/1.8 is sufficient for the bokeh.
But take a photo with a K lense take a long time, it's all manual for exposition, speed etc.
Impossible for sport action.
Zero chromatic aberation, that why it's better thant the FA 85mm F/1.4 for me.
All metal built.
If Pentax has to make a D-FA 85mm lense, they shoult take the optical formula of this lense.
For me, the new D-FA 50mm F/1.4 is too big, to heavy.
And I'm afraid Pentax is making the same mistake for the conception of the new D-FAZ 85mm.
.. I sold it to pay my new FA 85mm F/1.4...
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: October, 2007 Location: St.-Petersburg, Russia Posts: 40
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 9, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharpness, small size, all metal built | | Cons: | Longitudal CA | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K5 II
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Compared to FA 77mm lens, K85 produces slightly less crisp images wide open, it rather displays a soft effect w/o much losing resolution, which is good for portraits as it renders the skin tones more gently. Wide open it's nearly impossible to spot a focus at f/1.8 even with AF confirmation on, due to extreme shallow DOF (use AF-confirmation fine tuning feature "for all lenses" to achieve better results). Stopped down the resolution figures look similar on both lenses - super crisp and sharp images corner to corner. Lateral CAs are well controlled, on pair with FA77, K85 also produces less purple fringing at edges of overexposed areas compared to FA77. Still, K85 displays a fair amount of LoCA (bokeh fringing) on wide apertures, similarly to FA77, which affects color reproduction (some greens and purples in OOF zones). This reduces greatly stopping down, disappears by f/5.6. OOF zones rendering of K85 is slightly less smooth than FA77, which I personally find rather attractive, as it makes OOF rendering more characterful, more oil-painting-like.
 | | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2013 Posts: 7 | | Review Date: September 9, 2023 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | K-mount, very good wide open, great bokeh, superior build quality | | Cons: | 8 bladed aperture | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: Sony A7RII
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From all lenses within this focal length category that I’ve used, this Pentax probably ticks the most boxes. It really doesn’t have any real weaknesses.
First of all, its K-Mount makes it easier to adapt than the M42 Takumar version. The lens is very usable wide open; there is really no need to stop down for crisp portraits, unless you want more DOF of course. There’s plenty of ‘pop’ already at f/1.8; post processing is not necessary. Contrast and colors of the lens are great. Build quality and smoothness of operation is second to none.
Bokeh is great as well, in this range only my Summicron 90/2 from 1976 has slightly better bokeh stopped down because of it’s perfectly round aperture.
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