| Author: | | New Member Registered: January, 2020 Posts: 4 | | | | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2016 Location: lake constance Posts: 1 | | Review Date: March 18, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Light weighted, sharp, small | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Sony A7, Pentax MX, ME super
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In my opinion this is a very interesting lens for general use on trips. Not too heavy and long. Good handling on MX and ME super. Digital use is perfect.
The built-in hood is very helpful, also on rainy days. Perfect mechanics and optical quality like my former Nikon AIS 4 200mm. But this lens is a real pocket tele with a much better coating.
Generally the coating of the smc lenses is better than the NIC and the later Nikon coatings on manual lenses.
I can completely recommend this tiny and solid lens, because you can get it for a low price in good condition. Its a pity, that you can´t get those lenses new anymore. The good old times. With the Pentax smc M 4 200mm you can bring back a little bit of that to your photograph. Enjoy it!
 | | | | | Junior Member Registered: July, 2016 Posts: 49
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 8, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | In the right light it is perfect. | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: k3ii
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I cannot sing this lens' praises enough. I picked it up from a good lens dealer and it was in perfect shape. Everything worked wonderfully and it was light and compact enough that I could take it anywhere. Everything on the lens feels very well-made and premium.
Image-wise this is a perfect lens for its focal length. If you nail your focus correctly and stay within the lens' limits (don't try and shoot something half a mile away or some silliness) you will find no issues at all with your images. Being f4, it's faster than a lot of other old manual lenses and you will be surprised at just what you can shoot with the lens. I've done sports, birding, and landscapes with it - the key is nailing that focus.
For the money you won't find a better 200mm manual. I take it with me everywhere I go.
 
  | | | | | New Member Registered: December, 2012 Posts: 2 | | | | | | | Junior Member Registered: December, 2013 Location: Johannesburg, South Africa Posts: 40
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 23, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Light & oh so crisp! | | Cons: | For a 200 tele......none! | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K10D
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I recently attended a wedding & was too lazy to take a bunch of lenses.
The last wedding I attended I used my 135 mm.
This time I thought I need to practice more with the 200, but this meant having to force myself to work around the problem of not being able to get in real close.
Well let me tell you I was so impressed......firstly I could stay right back & still capture the ring exchanges, then when we went out onto the lawn, the 200mm allowed me to stay out of the official wedding photographers' way.
Did a shoot two days ago down at the beach of my kids Boggie board riding in the shore break......check this out!
My son has actually been complaining that all I ever want to buy is prime lenses & why? So I took along my 75-300 Soligor zoom, took some shots & then switched to the Pentax 200mm tele.
Admittedly it was drissling & very overcast, but compare the loss of colour in the Zoom photo to the tele, & also the loss is sharpness!...... Photos don't lie!!!
Soligor 85-300 f5 Zoom:
Pentax 200mm f4 Telephoto
 | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: November, 2010 Location: California Posts: 2,223 | | Review Date: February 18, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Srtong built, manual, perfect portrait lens, easy to work with dslr, great IQ, fast | | Cons: | None so far - My came with a little fungae but after exposing to direct sunlight has improved - no effect on IQ | |
I will post some pics, in the meantime, this is the lens I was missing in my collection. I only shoot manually, even with the AF or DAF lenses, I want to be in control of my photos, and this one is a great lens. I can take beautiful portraits at a relatively long distance and they come perfect.
      | | | | | 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+
| | | | | | | | 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 !
 | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: May, 2016 Posts: 3,726
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 17, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | lightweight, image quality | | Cons: | CA, moderate sharpness | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-1II, K-3II
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I've had this lens on the k3ii a few years ago and sold it, on apsc a 55-300 made more sense with all the modern conveniences. Got a second one for the K1ii and I'm finding it much more useful, I'm using it for landscapes and abstracts.
The main advantages over other vintage lenses in this range (had fa 80-320, have vivitar s1 70-210 for example) are the combination of nice image quality, build quality, and compact size; with the others it's often pick two of these features. It's not bitingly sharp, but the images are pleasing with nice color and moderate contrast, quite unlike modern rendering. Chromatic aberrations aren't bad, but it's one area that could be a little better.
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: June, 2013 Location: Utrecht Posts: 255 | | Review Date: October 15, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Compact, sharp and contrasty stopped down, hood | | Cons: | red/greenish fringing wide open | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K1ii, K-01 and film
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This lens is a real surprise. Not in the same league as the K2.5/135 but decent sharp stopped down. At F4 there is a lot of green/red fringing in contrasty areas, almost gone at F5.6.
F8-F11 is the sweet spot for this lens for clean sharp pictures, even on full frame in the corners. As with most tele's, you have to correct the levels a bit in post because the lower contrast (stretch the diagram).
Low price, true build quality, portability and build in hood makes this lens a no-brainer. In good light situations I often grab this with me because it is so compact and sharp enough.
Pictures on Full Frame:
 | | | | | Junior Member Registered: September, 2008 Location: Québec Posts: 40 | | Review Date: April 29, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Small, Lightweight, Excellent Handling | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K5 - II s
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Really surprised, sharp enough at f 11 .
 | | | | | Forum Member Registered: October, 2017 Location: Lindsborg, Kansas Posts: 91
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 9, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $70.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Small, Lightweight, Excellent Handling | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-70
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A few months ago I purchased a used Pentax M 200mm f/4 lens. I had a gap in my lens line-up between 135mm and 300mm, so I figured this would be a cheap solution (it was only $70).
When the lens arrived it was in like-new condition, and a few test shots around town confirmed that the image quality was decent… but it really wasn't a lens that I expected to use a lot.
However, I recently had a soccer match to shoot that started at 1:00 PM on a blazing hot day with the sun almost directly overhead: miserable conditions for trying to get good pictures. Because I didn't have high expectations for the match I decided to shoot the first half with the 200mm, just to see what it could do. When I reviewed the shots later, I was astonished at the spectacular images that I got with it!
The lenses I usually use for field sports are the Pentax F* 300mm f/4.5 and the Rokinon 85mm f/1.4. Compared to these lenses, the 200mm is much smaller and lighter, and the improvement in handling is definitely noticeable. This ease of handling is one reason why the lens is working so well for me. And 200mm on a crop sensor (equivalent to 300mm on a full-frame sensor) is a really good focal length for field sports.
The 200mm is also surprisingly easy to focus; much easier than the 85mm despite that len's bright f/1.4 aperture. It's so easy to focus that, at times, it feels like I'm using an autofocus lens! It should be noted, however, that using manual-focus lenses for fast action is a skill that has to be learned. I spent 20 years honing that skill back in the film era, so what is easy for me probably won't be easy for someone who has only used autofocus lenses. But, if you are willing to put in the effort to learn to use it, this lens will certainly deliver great results.
This is rapidly becoming my favorite lens for field sports. Not too bad for a 40-year-old manual focus lens!
 | | | | | New Member Registered: September, 2016 Posts: 3
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 28, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Great performer, even at F4 | | Cons: | None at this price | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Olympus OM-D EM-1
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When I switched from Pentax to micro4/3 this together with the pentax m 50mm F1.7 were the only two lenses I kept. I had 10+ legacy lenses, most of them m-series. Though beautifully crafted, they were all made redundant by modern glass; the so very impressive olympus 12-40 mm F2.8 pro zoom together with Sigmas 60mm F2.8 prime.
This and the 50/1.7 couldn't be replaced, though.
I use it on the em-1 with a pixco focal reducer ("speed booster"). It's an optic adapter that concentrates the full frame image circle rendered by the lens into a smaller area, effectively reducing the focal length by a factor of 0,72 = 144mm. A positive side effect is that you also gain a full stop of light (google "focal reducer" for the theory behind all of this) turning the lens into an F2.8. In practice with micro4/3's x2 crop factor due to the smaller sensor, this lens then becomes a 144 x 2 = 288mm F2.8 full frame equivalent!
The whole package with camera+battery grip+lens weighs in at 1,200 grams. Compare that to a full frame Canon or Nikon 300mm f2.8, where the lens just by itself weighs twice as much!
As a last positive note, it looks pretty awesome mounted on the camera.
Image quality? Holds up very well compared to modern lenses, magnifications posted are 100% crops.
All of this at a price of $120 (lens+focal reducer). Sure I don't have AF, but a Canon L 300mm F2.8 costs $6,000. I'm very happy.
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: August, 2011 Location: Austin, Texas Posts: 328 | | Review Date: March 11, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $75.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Image Quality, Build Quality, Size | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-3 and MX
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What a nice handling lens. Smooth focusing, balances very well on camera and SHARP. On the K-3 it is equivalent to a 300 f/4 without the size, you can put it in your bag and carry it all the time so you can reach out and grab those distant subjects when needed. Best at f/5.6 to f/11, not that it isn't just fine wide open. I still use my MX for black and white and now I wonder why I did not have this lens before. I recommend it highly, especially with the new FF K-1 coming out (you might look for an A version for shutter priority). Great addition to either my SMC-A set 24/35/50/135 or the DA set 15/35/70/18-135
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: February, 2016 Location: Moab, Utah Posts: 90
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 18, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, color rendering, contrast | | Cons: | bokeh | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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Typical perfect build quality and usage from the old Pentax primes. The military wishes they could build tanks this tough. Smooth and snappy like you expect and desire.
Very sharp. I don't keep lenses with soft corners and this is a definite keeper. Usable for most things at f4 (but you better be dead on critically focused) and tack razor crisp at 6.3 and smaller. I don't need the 2.8 at 200. There's never enough depth of field for anything I want to shoot, and any 2.8 lens I have ever used isn't actually usable at 2.8 anyway, so why bother carrying the extra 4x the weight? I suppose you look cooler with a 70-200 2.8, but aside from that, what are you actually gaining in usable images? At least that's how I feel. Sports shooters will likely disagree for focusing reasons, but then they aren't using manual focus lenses as first choice are they. With live view and super sensors of modern cameras, there's no need for f2.8 for almost anybody. This lens is a serious bargain for under a hundred bucks and will help you get higher quality images than you ever could with a modern, haphazardly constructed zoom.
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