| Author: | | 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.
| | | | | | | 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.
 | | | | | 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...
| | | | | 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!
| | | | | | | 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: 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!
| | | | | 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 | | | | | 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..
 | | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2013 Location: Jakarta Posts: 2 | | Review Date: May 11, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: N/A |
| Pros: | super sharp, low CA, built quality, 3D rendering | | Cons: | heavy, rare, price | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 7
Camera Used: K5, ME Super, A7, A6000
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fantastic portrait lens! this is my first 85mm lens, really like this lens, has beautiful 3D rendering especially in FF
i'm the lucky one to have this rare lens
| | | | | New Member Registered: October, 2013 Location: NW Indiana Posts: 19 | | Review Date: October 21, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | All around great lens. | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-x K-30
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This is a great lens, I love the colors it produces.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: July, 2012 Posts: 928
10 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 11, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $428.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, great color rendering, smooth bokeh | | Cons: | Not the easiest lens to produce the best results | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K20D
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The K85mm f1.8 is a beautifully engineered film-era portrait lens. It was very highly rated in the film and early digital days. It produces sharp images, excellent color rendition and smooth bokeh, and doesn’t suffer from the kind of purple fringing produced by the FA77mm.
Today, however, it’s not so universally admired/valued, perhaps because of the quality of new competitors. And from f5.6 onwards, of course, it can be hard to tell the difference on aps-c cameras between this lens and a new budget zoom at 85mm. So if you want one of these rare and relatively expensive MF lenses, be sure to have a good reason for taking photos at or around f1.8, and be prepared to work hard on metering, focusing, composition etc. for the best results, which are stunning – it’s not the most forgiving lens.
The lens is not unreasonably soft wide open; instead it produces slightly creamy skin tones. As others have written, this effect can be extremely attractive for portraits, and adds to that artistic 3D effect.
If you’re on a tight budget and looking for a great value MF Pentax lens for portraits on cropped sensors, you may want to look at the K 55mm f1.8. If money is no object, the Pentax starred 85mm 1.4s are probably a better option.
Nevertheless, the K85mm is an exceptional lens and a 10/10 for its type; I’d rate the M85mm, which I’ve also used, a 9/10. It’s a worthy, lower cost MF alternative to the FA77mm and it is much more portable than newer 85mm 1.4s. It would probably have a more legendary status (like its Takumar M42 predecessor) with more top reviews, if it wasn’t so rare, or used on a FF camera to show off the advantages of its focal length, extremely narrow/artistic DOF possibilities and optical qualities, especially where other lenses' purple fringing problems can become more pronounced.
Edit: I couldn't find a lot of photos to judge this lens's capabilities when I was thinking about buying one, so for others here are two @f1.8 and a few others:
 | | | | | Forum Member Registered: August, 2012 Posts: 90 | | Review Date: April 7, 2013 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Great rendering, excellent for portraits | | Cons: | Manual focus, manual aperture | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-01, LX, *ist DL
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This is without a doubt one of the best lenses Pentax has ever made. Hard to beat as a portrait lens, either on film or digital cameras. Sharp, beautiful colors and bokeh. Well built, like the K and M series usually were.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2010 Posts: 753 | | Review Date: March 22, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $395.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Bokeh, Colours, Sharpness, Focusing Ring, Build | | Cons: | Marginal Green CA, Expensive | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 8
Camera Used: k-5
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....it's like FA77 without purple fringing. In fact I prefer this lens to FA77. It's a pretty compact lens, although not a match for FA77 nor DA70. Build-wise it is superb, solid with wide focusing ring which turns approx 270 degrees from closest focus to infinity. Wide open it is bit soft, but sharp stopped down to f2.8. In comparison it outperformed DA70 by a small margin, even in the corners.
K85 show bit of bokeh chromatic aberation, but it is subtle and not a problem stopped down. So far I couldn't make this lens to exhibit any purple fringing. Bokeh is very smooth, to my eyes identical or better than with FA77. On K-5 body the exposure via green button is spot on, lens fits the camera very well ergonomically too. A pity this design didn't evolve into AF lens.
Edit: I did some comparison landscape photos with K85 and FA77 and here are my findings:
1. Aparently K85 is better tuned for infinity photography
2. K85 has overall more neutral colour tone and renders deeper, more saturated blue than FA77, FA77 has more warmer colour tone
3. FA77 is sharper at f1.8, but from f2 there's not really a noticeable difference in sharpness between the two
4. to me K85 has a superior and smoother bokeh
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: January, 2008 Location: Sørumsand, Norway Posts: 59 | | Review Date: June 2, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $250.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Bokeh, sharp wide open, just beautiful to hold :) | | Cons: | Manual focusing | |
Bought a mint lens a year ago, I think it was hardly used at all. I like the image quality, especially full open with the small dof and the out of focus rendering.
But, it is manual focusing, and full open I find it hard to achieve perfect focus when objects are moving a bit. So I had to buy the 77mm F1.8 to not miss the moments. I still like to use this lens now and then, because it's such a gem.
It is good, but with the lack of autofocus I find it hard to give more than 8.
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| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2006 Location: Singapore Posts: 3,202 | | Review Date: August 18, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $560.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Small and compact, a great performer | | Cons: | A bit hard to find, not cheap | |
I don't know how come most guys here got the lens ssooo cheap? Whenever I saw it, it's expensive! But comparing w/ A*85/1.4, it's still cheaper. Between these two, actually I like to carry the K85 more 'cause it's a lot smaller and lighter.
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