| Author: | | Pentaxian Registered: May, 2009 Location: North Carolina Posts: 836
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 1, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Inexpensive, Lightweight, Sharp, Smooth focus ring | | Cons: | Long MFD | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: LX
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I love this lens! When I switched to an LX over the K-5, I needed a long lens for portraits. On the K-5 I had the 100mm WR Macro, but it doesn't have an aperture ring (and it was a bit long on APS-C anyway). I got this lens instead, since I wanted something a little shorter for full-frame. I also looked at the 135, but I felt since 150 (effective) on APS-C was a little long, maybe 135 on full-frame would be too. I am so happy I decided to get this lens. Not only is it cheaper than a comparable 135mm, it's just as sharp as the 100 Macro.
The focus and aperture rings are smooth, very easy to operate, and the lens is also very lightweight. Without having scales, I'd say it weighs about as much as the SMC-M 50mm f/1.7. This lens is sharper than the 50mm, and makes a fantastic portrait lens.
I use this lens with my LX and Portra 160 for studio and scenery portraits, it works beautifully. The only gripe I have with it is a long Minimum Focus distance of about 3.3 feet. This lens won't replace the 100mm WR Macro for close-ups, but I may end up getting some extension tubes instead of buying a dedicated Macro. I need a good portrait lens much more frequently than I need a good macro lens.
In short, this lens is all I hoped it would be. Sharp, light, fast, and a luxury to use on the LX. I highly recommend it!
| | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: April, 2011 Location: LODINGEN, Northern Norway Posts: 275 | | Review Date: June 20, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $42.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Shrap, nice bokéh, cheap | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-5 and K20D
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 This is my only 100mm. It has served me well for many years. I just love the chrisp and sharp pictures it deliveres.
Norwegian Crow, no cropping
Green Finch
 | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: April, 2012 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: June 10, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $85.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, contrast, focus accuracy, ruggedness and compactness | | Cons: | Nothing to report | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K20D
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Purchased with its original hood in a package with other Pentax lenses, mounted on my K20D has shown a very strong purpose and opposed, not wide open, but still very evident. For the best sleep (5.6 or 8.0) is clearer than his brother M 100 f4.0 and the image it produces is also suitable for cropping.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2009 Location: Strand Posts: 1,366 | | Review Date: May 24, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $210.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Small, light weight, sharp | | Cons: | no build in hood | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: k5, k20, nex
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A perfect lens for concert. Small, light, sharp wide open, far sharper than tokina, soligor.
Very good for manual focus.
I have used this lens in many events. Delivers superb results, both daylight, indoor, and concert in relatively lowlight.
I also have several 90mm, 100mm and 105mm, both AF and MF, but this lens is just perfect. MF when AF is giving up, small and light for walking tour. Currently the sharpest 100mm at f2.8
Highly recommend.
 | | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2011 Location: Minahasa, North Celebes (Sulawesi) Posts: 586
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 7, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $150.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, very sharp. Compact, almost like a 50mm. Color/Contrast is very good. | | Cons: | Hood is badly needed. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K20D, Super Program, KX
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The best lens I ever purchase so far -price & IQ wise. Sold several of my off-brands 135s to get shorter portrait lens. I was thinking of getting a 85mm at first, any brand is fine, since none from the Pentax house I can afford. I was also eyeing Adaptall 90/2.5 since I thought it could do portrait and macro altogether, yet again I must swallow hard looking at the skyrocketed price. A friend of mine was trying to sell this lens from December, but probably people are a lot more interested in 135s and 85s, so this lens was still on the shelf when I saw and grab it fast about two weeks ago. This lens has never been out of my camera bag ever since it arrived a week ago. For macro work, I couples it with a convenient screw-in Vivitar Macro Adapter. I don't think that Adaptall 90/2.5 can beat this now.
I'm willing to bet that this lens @f2.8 is just about as sharp as the M 50/1.7 @f1.7 and almost as compact in size. Images are very good, I was even startled at the first shot. What it needs is a hood, a fairly long one, then it really sings.
 | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: September, 2010 Location: Lyon area, France Posts: 718 | | Review Date: January 19, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Size and weight | | Cons: | Contrast a bit low | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 8
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This lens is SMALL and it gives great results! However the output is at times a bit flat (probably should try with a hood) and on my copy, the focus ring is a bit "too much dampened" making it a physical effort to turn it. Maybe it wasn't used enough on this mint copy? I will remedy to that.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: November, 2011 Posts: 4,310
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 19, 2011 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Compact, light, sharp, well-made | | Cons: | Manual focus | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
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This was a favorite lens for years on film with the LX, and now sees occasional use in digital on my K-x. There, I use stop-down metering with the green button, in M mode. For good meter readings on landscape, I've found a 50% sky/50% land mix to give the best results under most conditions (where the M50/1.4 works better with a 33% sky/67% land mix).
The lens has all the usual M-series characteristics: compact, light, sharp, solidly made. It is not as directly contrasty as many Pentax lenses, but the contrast is easily boosted in PP.
Here is a pair of MTF charts, at f/2.8 and f/5.6. I usually shoot this lens at f/5.6, where both the 40 lp/mm curves stay above the 50% level right out to the edge of the APS-C frame just shy of the 15mm radius.
A sample from the street:
Center crop:
Edge crop:
 | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: October, 2009 Location: Denver, Colorado Posts: 2,030
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 10, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $110.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Size, Focusing, Sharpness, Bokeh, Everything! | | Cons: | None, for a MF non-auto lens | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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This little lens is a gem and one of my all-time favorites. The focus action is slightly "heavy" and dead accurate, like all the good copies of M lenses. It is the gold standard for any focus ring feel, no drift or slop, you just nail the subject and click the shutter, no muss, no fuss.
I find the 100mm (or 150mm in digital) perfect for street candids, casual shooting and short tele work. It is small and unobtrusive, not a big honker that shouts "I'm taking YOUR picture!" with the resultant nervous and self-conscious look from the subject.
F2.8 is great for indoor or dim lighting, concerts and social events. It can be slightly soft wide-open, especially at the edges, but this is easily corrected or cropped.
It is prone to flare, with the resulting loss of contrast unless you use a quality lens hood. I tried an after-market 49mm hood that extends 18mm from the filter ring and it still showed slight flare/glare in extreme side-lighting conditions. Next I went to a hood that extendes a whopping 32mm (so much for "unobtrusive"!) and all the flare was gone. No sign of vignetting or fall-off so far, even though this hood is marketed as for the 150mm or 200mm teles.
And the bokeh! Oh, my, it is simply spectacular. Very painterly and smooth in the wider apertures with wonderful highlight rings reminiscent of a mirror lens but less obtrusive and much smaller. With this lens at f2.8 to 4.0, you can truly "Paint with light" if you are so inclined.
A very nearly perfect short tele.
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: February, 2011 Location: San Francisco Posts: 128
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 22, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $41.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharp, small, lightweight, low cost, great length, fast | | Cons: | | |
I've had this lens for about a month now. It is about as perfect as a manual lens can be. I've had great success with taking portraits (though it's a bit long - just stand back further!), birds in flight (you can focus it that fast), and candids (since you can be a distance away). It's sharp from f2.8, but of course tack sharp at f4 and above. I'm shocked at how light and small it is.
For the cost, even for 2x or 3x what I paid, it's well worth it. This is one lens I can't imagine ever parting with.
See a set of photos taken with it here.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: June, 2010 Location: North Zealand, Denmark Posts: 1,516
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 8, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, fast, well built, compact and light | | Cons: | none whatsoever | |
I bought this lens together with an SMC 35/3.5 ("K" version) and some more inferior stuff at a lump sum of USD 110 - so the 50 dollars are my assed "partial value" of that deal.
Perhaps a bit mad to give any lens maximum rating and 9.5 would rather be more appropriate - if only permitted. Of course, this lens has neither A-functionality, nor autofocus - but when you buy a purely manual lens, you do know what you are NOT buying and paying for and thus, it would be unfair to let that influence one's rating. (Or, that is a least how I feel about it).
Anyway, this lens has taken me with surprise: Not only sharp but very sharp even wide open, excellent colur rendition, very easy to focus, light and compact, yet with a reassuring feel of good solid workmanship.
I have read about potential purple fringing issues in high contrast situations, but I have yet to discover those myself. I feel lucky with this deal.
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: August, 2009 Posts: 417 | | Review Date: March 18, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Compact tele, combination of weight, length and speed | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 8
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Updated review: I tested this alongside the Tamron SP 90/2.5, which is simply a brilliant lens for macro usage, with a stop of advantage over the Pentax macro offering in the M range. However, I dont have space in my bag for all these lenses at once and am whittling my collection back. Hence I did a bunch of testing at the weekend. The Tamron is very slightly sharper at f5.6, scoring 60lp/mm vs the Pentax M getting 54lp/mm. However from f8-f16 there is nothing to distinguish them at a distance of 6m.
I find this is a nice light tele to use, and confidently grab it for taking photos of my toddler. Its just a shame its not a macro too!
Its subtantially sharper than the M 135/3.5, which was struggling to get over 45lp/mm in my results.
Best used in conjunction with the old Takumar 135mm metal hood.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: January, 2011 Location: Skĺne, Sweden Posts: 482 | | Review Date: January 11, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | compact, light, well built, precise focus, sharp wide open | | Cons: | lack of auto-focus (can't really blame the lens for that) | |
For the price I got this lens is not much room for objections.
Compact, solid feeling compared to new lenses, yet very light (about the same weight and slightly smaller size then the DA-L 18-55 kit-lens). Makes a very good companion on the K-x. The focus has a nice long throw, making it pretty easy to focus properly (I'm not used to manual focusing). It seems very durable as well, since my copy is looking like it has been used a lot (some dents on the body as well as some markings on the lens itself), but it still produces lovely pictures!
The images are sharp (even wide open), has a nice bokeh. Colors seems like a modern lens, not like some other older lenses I've used. I will have to use it more outdoors to give a proper evaluation of flare resistance etc.
All-in-all a lens that is fun to use, produces good images and you don't think twice to bring it because of size or weight. A bonus is that it looks very good on the K-x with it's polished metal details, black basis and white text (goes for both lens and camera).
 | | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: Milwaukee Posts: 129
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 6, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $90.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Size, Sharpness, Bokeh | | Cons: | Flare, Softness and PF Wide-Open, | |
I snagged this lens off of ebay, and I've been in love ever since. It's a wonderful specimen, fantastic for a long portrait lens or even shortish sport lens. I've used to to shoot portraits, basketball games, concerts, and animals.
Handles as an M-series lens should: smooth as silk. I don't know why more modern lenses don't have such amazing focus rings. Literally every M-series lens I've used has a perfectly damped focus ring. The aperture ring is also incredibly smooth, stopping precisely at its detent locations. It is firm, but not so firm that it's hard to change the aperture. Perfect, in my opinion.
On a similar note, the build quality is outstanding, which is no surprise. This all metal and glass construction will probably outlive me. It continues to surprise me whenever I pick up one of these vs. a modern plastic lens. This guy just oozes quality.
Unfortunately, it is quite soft and prone to PF when shooting wide-open, but in some instances (portraits) the softness is a boon and PF can be eliminated by planning ahead and avoiding shots with lots of high contrast. The problems can also be handled via post-processing without too much difficulty.
Some folks would count the lack of automation to be a negative, and thus rate the lens accordingly. However, I argue that the ratings should reflect the lens' intended purpose, that is, a fully manual lens. As a result, I won't be taking any points off for not having auto-aperture or autofocusing. While these things would be very nice, they should not factor into the scoring of a fully manual lens.
Despite minor flaws in wide-open performance, its compact size, overall sharpness, bokeh quality, and overall handling characteristics garner it an easy 9/10. I highly recommend this lens to anyone looking for a manual telephoto prime.
| | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2010 Location: Ames, IA Posts: 18
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 5, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $165.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Great feel, fast, good portrait length, but not unusable for other shots. | | Cons: | none really | |
This is a fantastic lens. It's got that great feel of the M series lenses, and it's pretty fast. Gives a nice shallow dof for portraits, and the bokeh looks good- not distracting at all. Also, it's got that legendary SMC sharpness and contrast, especially when stopped down a little bit.
Many say that the 100/4 is better for portraits, and that might be true from a technical standpoint. However, the usefulness of this lens makes it worth it to me. In addition to taking great portraits, it's fast enough that I can take it into a bar at night and take decent shots of the band playing. I've also used this lens for urban cityscapes, and landscape photography.
I think the 100mm length is about perfect for portraits anyway. It's short enough to give you an intimate portrait (and a more intimate portrait making session), yet it's long enough to give a good head and shoulders portrait without being right in someone's face. Like someone else said in their review- 135mm now feels "too far away."
The only con this lens has, IMO, is that the "wow factor" of sharpness and contrast is a bit less wide open. This should be expected with just about any lens, and I don't feel that it detracts from the quality or the value of the lens.
If anyone is thinking, "Man, I really need a decent portrait lens, but would like to use it for other things," Give the M100/2.8 a shot.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2009 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Posts: 509
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 11, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | light, compact, well built, good IMQ-corner to corner | | Cons: | slightly low contrast and resolution at f2.8 | |
In contrast to my other 100mm or so lenses, this is the lightest and smallest one. It is similarly well built as other M lenses. I would say that they are not as robust as the K lenses but much better than latter plastic lenses.
As similar to a couple of M lenses that I own, it has lower contrast and resolution at the largest aperture than its K counterpart. Minimization allows most M series lenses to have 49mm filters and shorter length than the K series . But it has taken its toll on image quality in some cases.
Is it worth it? Perhaps if you do not shoot too much at the largest aperture. Slow down a bit, IMQ increases steadily. One great advantage of a fixed focal lens is its corner to corner IMQ. This is no exception.
Overall, a good choice.
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