| Author: | | Inactive Account Registered: October, 2010 Location: Baltimore Posts: 2,542 | | Review Date: December 21, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $70.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Compact, Light, Good to Very Good IQ | | Cons: | Maybe a Wee Bit Overrated | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 9
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Just acquired this lens through Craigslist for $70 with original cap and leather case, and right there, for value I could rate this over a 9!
First thing that strikes you, how compact and lightweight the lens is, I had difficulty holding this steady and I think it's due to how really really light it is along with the long FL, I could've used a little more heft as ballast.
I can rate this lens easily a 9 for closeup subjects, even wide open. On the other hand, on long tele shots, it's between an 8 and 9 and probably closer to an 8.
The shot of the dome below is probably more than a 1/4 mile away at f8 hand held, it's pretty nice, I'm just not 100% sure it's that much better than my Pentax-F 70-210 at the same settings.
It's all simply how we see and what we're looking for... if you enjoy a manual lenses you'll love the challenge this one... I give it a strong 8 and a keeper!!!
Nutritional Factoids by theunartist, on Flickr
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: August, 2009 Posts: 417 | | Review Date: August 9, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $75.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, good control of CA, bonkers portrait lens | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 8
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Update: just did a bunch of lens testing at the weekend. This (200/4) is sharper than a Vivitar S1 70-210mm (Tokina v2) at 210mm.
If effective diameter (focal length/max aperture) is used as a measure of the ability of a lens to produce a nice background, this is the best in the M series line up, hitting a measurement for the effective diameter of 50mm , vs 42.5mm for the 85/2, or 36mm for the 50/1.4. Something to ponder. Its also very sharp wide open, although, no doubt, the 85/2 is sharper and going to provide more pleasing bokeh with its under-corrected spherical aberration.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2006 Location: former Arsenal football stadium Posts: 431 | | Review Date: July 16, 2010 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | reliable performance edge to edge, ruggedness, built-in hood | | Cons: | not as light as I would like for travelling | |
Perfectly useable at f4, it gets really really sharp half-way (one click) between f/5.6 and f/8. Centre sharpness may not be that much better than consumer zooms, but edge sharpness certainly is (compared to 50-200 and two copies of the 55-300). I guess it just depends what kind of photography you are doing. For landscapes or architectural details the M200 is great, with total uniformity across the frame and no zoom-type centering issues; for people where the edges are going to be out of focus anyway the zooms would be just as good and more convenient, although the M200 is obviously faster and does do nice bokeh.
I dropped mine from chest height (it rolled out of a drybox). The edge (filter thread) of the hood took the impact and was dented. The floor was also dented. The lens was fine. A consumer zoom wouldn't take that treatment.
As someone else has said, you could knock out a mugger with it.
Real quality at a bargain price if you think you are going to use it.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2006 Location: Denver, CO Posts: 10,685 | | Review Date: July 1, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $65.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | great price for fast-ish tele with hood & great MF feel | | Cons: | much larger/heavier than DA50-200, IQ not much better | |
This is not a bad lens at all, but one that I find hard to justify using very often. It's just not that often that the extra stop over the DA50-200 or any other telezoom is that necessary - and when you really want speed, f/4 often isn't enough. And it's considerably larger and heavier than the 50-200, although no bigger than the 300mm zooms. If IQ were heads and shoulders above the consumer telezooms, that would be one thing, but I'd say it's just on a par with them.
But it is usable at f/4, and with the built in hood and great MF feel, it definitely can get the job done in certain situations where one of the zooms would be less ideal. It is also one of the only lenses I own that can give better results with a cheap (Kenko 1.5X) TC than by simply cropping, although only when stopped down a bit, and not by a large margin.
Some samples to give an idea of the utility of the lens:
With Kenko 1.5 TC:
Wide open in a setting where the extra stop over a consumer telezoom helped:
 | | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2007 Location: Newcastle Australia Posts: 5,284 | | Review Date: May 7, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $110.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Light weight; sharp; good construction. | | Cons: | Manual lens, | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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For the low price, this lens is highly recommendable. It produces sharp, pictures with good colour.
If you can get your hands on one of these lens, you will find it is a good lens to have some fun shooting with.
As it is an older lens, be sure you get a good copy before committing to purchase.
I have found, it is prone to slight PF, in bright conditions.
Nevertheless, for it's age, as a MF lens, it does produce rather acceptable quality shots.
(Non working link removed)
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: February, 2007 Location: Prevost, Quebec, Canada Posts: 508 | | Review Date: February 10, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $89.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Very sharp, nice bokeh light and not expensive | | Cons: | small focussing plane | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
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I just bought this lens from KEH and I'm very happy with the quality of this lens. The feel is great, great construction as always with Pentax lens. It is sharp at 5.6 and 8 and easy to work with. I would recommend this lens to anybody. I use it mostly for birding (not heavy) around the house. Looking forward to test it on landscape...
By ramiot at 2010-06-03
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: January, 2009 Location: Champagne Ardennes, France Posts: 20 | | Review Date: January 17, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $90.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Quality of built, lightweight, IQ, price | | Cons: | PF in extreme conditions | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 8
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This lens is small for a 200mm, and produces good pictures for a low price. Very pleasant to use.
The only negative aspect is some purple fringing that can appear in high contrast borders. (However, you can see it only with cropped image).
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2008 Location: Albuquerque NM Posts: 9,830 | | Review Date: January 8, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Inexpensive, light, good performer | | Cons: | No automatic aperture, MF | |
I've been impressed with this compact (for 200mm) tele for years. Its performance is better than most of the ubiquitous zooms that cover this range, and it is much, much lighter than the 80-200s. The only drawback is the "green button" metering on digital bodies. Manual focus could be a drawback for some, but it works smoothly on this lens.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: October, 2008 Location: Sweden Posts: 359 | | Review Date: October 22, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $150.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Compact, all metal, nice bokeh, sharp, inexpensive, | | Cons: | | |
I find this lens to be a great performer. It's very small for a 200mm lens and the build quality is excellent. The sharpness is very good and the same goes for colors and rendering.
I like the bokeh of this lens. Unlike many of my other lenses the SMC-m 200mm has nice bokeh at all apertures (that I have tried, F4-F8).
At first I thought F4 would be too slow, but so far it has been fast enough for my use.
Highly recommended!
Kind regards
.lars
| | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2009 Location: Bodø Posts: 5 | | Review Date: August 8, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $70.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharp small compact build quality metal built in hood | | Cons: | None | |
U must have this lens, buy it. Easy to use, high quality lense.
Build quality+
Sharp+
Hood+
Bokeh+
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: January, 2008 Location: Missouri, USA Posts: 25 | | Review Date: April 6, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Great IQ Compact Size Smooth Focus | | Cons: | EXIF Data Missing Soft Wide Open | |
Although this lens is a little soft at f/4, it sharpens up quickly thereafter.
The focus is slow and steady. On my K10D, the focus points always end up being spot-on. The IQ from this lens is fantastic. At the middle apertures, the 100% crops are crystal clear.
It has a very noticeable depth to the shots--almost a 3d lind of look.
I bought mine on EBay for $60. It's built like a tank and isn't heavy. The built in shade is cool too.
If you don't mind MF and not being able to record the aperture, this lens--in good shape--is worth $200-$300. That you can get it for well under $100 makes this lens an absolute steal.
One of my favorite lenses.
| | | | | | | | Review Date: March 14, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $99.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | open sharp, metal, compact | | Cons: | manual | |
This lens is like my 100 f 2,8. If you know what do do with a manual lens it delivers perfect pictures. The first shots with this cam were great !
 | | | | | | | | Review Date: February 4, 2009 | Not Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 3 |
| Pros: | Extremely compact as described, built like a tank | | Cons: | really bad optical performance in my copy with out any visible reason for that | |
While an extremely compact lens my copy has not given good results even stopped down and at medium focusing distances and low light conditions (tripod and K100D used). I compared it with a cheap Tamron 70-300 (f4.5 at 200mm so not really slower) and in all cases at medium focusing distances the already cheap tamron was substantially better.
I dont know if i have a bad copy (lens is in mint condition externally however) but I was little surprised by the performance of the lens, both due to the good reviews it had and to the excellent performance I already have from other manual pentax lenses (m 40mm f2.8 and the SMC A 50mm f1.7) I own.
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: September, 2008 Location: hawaii Posts: 62 | | Review Date: December 30, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $77.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | good focus ring travel, crisp image, contrasty | | Cons: | a bit heavy, if you're not used to tele's | |
maybe 9 is a bit high, but it really beats all my other long lenses both for IQ and weight, and when it's bright enough, it can catch animals in action with surprising clarity. I can use this as a walk-around, hand held lens, and only pop it off for dealing with close-ups.
it's a fun lens, and unlike some manual ones, this is a pleasure to use.
 | | | | | Otis Memorial Pentaxian Registered: March, 2007 Location: Vancouver (USA) Posts: 42,007 | | Review Date: July 19, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $65.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Compact, optical performance, build quality | | Cons: | Metering issues on Pentax dSLRs | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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I bought this lens used after seeing some truly impressive images referenced on this site. I am pretty impressed with this lens. Build quality is typical for the time of manufacture (all metal with the exception of the focus grip), meaning superior by today's standards. Operation of the focus and aperture controls is smooth and precise. This lens is very compact for its focal length and not overly heavy. The built-in lens hood is also a plus feature in my mind. The lens is well-balanced and handles well on the K10D.
Sharpness and contrast are very good to excellent with nice bokeh and neutral color rendition. In my opinion the optical performance make this lens a standout within its price class for used Pentax brand lenses. Some reviewers have noted softness at f/4, but my experience is that this is not a significant issue.
Note that this lens, along with all other M-series and K-series Pentax lenses suffers from exposure metering issues in stop-down manual mode on the K10D and K20D bodies.
Example photo, f/4
(some sharpening was applied in post processing)
Another example
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