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SMC Pentax-M 35mm F2 Review RSS Feed

SMC Pentax-M 35mm F2

Sharpness 
 8.6
Aberrations 
 8.6
Bokeh 
 8.5
Handling 
 9.5
Value 
 8.9
Reviews Views Date of last review
21 169,132 Wed February 1, 2023
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Recommended By Average Price Average User Rating
86% of reviewers $135.00 8.68
SMC Pentax-M 35mm F2

SMC Pentax-M 35mm F2
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SMC Pentax-M 35mm F2
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Description:
This fast wide-angle lens succeeded its K version and is more compact.



SMC Pentax-M 35mm F2
© www.pentaxforums.com, sharable with attribution
Image Format
Full-frame / 35mm film
Lens Mount
Pentax K
Aperture Ring
Yes (no A setting)
Diaphragm
Automatic, 6 blades
Optics
7 elements, 7 groups
Mount Variant
K
Check camera compatibility
Max. Aperture
F2
Min. Aperture
F22
Focusing
Manual
Min. Focus
30 cm
Max. Magnification
0.16x
Filter Size
49 mm
Internal Focus
No
Field of View (Diag. / Horiz.)

APS-C: 45 ° / 38 °
Full frame: 63 ° / 54 °
Hood
PH-S49 (28/35mm)
Case
Dedicated hard case
Lens Cap
Plastic clip-on
Coating
SMC
Weather Sealing
No
Other Features
Diam x Length
63 x 42 mm
Weight
205 g
Production Years
1977 to 1984
Engraved Name
smc PENTAX-M 1:2 35mm
Product Code
22760
Reviews
User reviews
Features:
Manual FocusAperture RingFull-Frame SupportDiscontinued
Price History:



Add Review of SMC Pentax-M 35mm F2
Author:
Sort Reviews by: Date | Author | Rating | Recommendation | Likes (Descending) Showing Reviews 16-21 of 21
Senior Member

Registered: January, 2010
Location: British Columbia
Posts: 120
Review Date: July 17, 2010 Recommended | Price: $150.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Build/Handling, Value
Cons: Some wide open issues

A solid 9.0 lens. When I purchased, didn't expect to use it as much as I actually have.

Sharpness
Wide open it is slightly soft. Stopping down to 2.8 resolves the softness. Images are definitely usable wide open and with some post processing the images look great.

Contrast
Wide open, contrast is lower and stopping down to 2.8 increases the contrast. Post processing again helps. Overall contrast is very pleasing

Flare
It is an old lens so if the sun is just outside the field of view it will flare up. After saying that, 99% of my shots have not shown any flare or veiling problems and I do not feel that I have missed any opportunities because of this.

Bokeh
Wide open, bokeh tends to have the double edge rather than a smooth blur. This behaviour depends on the lighting and subject matter, but stopping down also helps somewhat.

Build/Handling
Nice small size - makes even the Pentax Kx Kit zoom lens look bulky. Probably the best manual focus feel of all my MF lenses (second best would probably go to the K55 1.8). And the focus ring travel is just right -- not to short like most AF lenses, and not too long like some MF lenses.

Overall Comments
My go-to indoor available light lens. It is an M lens so not as convenient as the newer lenses on digital and some of the issues wide open, although eminently still usable, prevents the rating from being a 10. This normal (in digital) lens brings the best characteristics of a manual focus lens (cost/build/handling) along with very good optics. Highly recommended.
   
Forum Member

Registered: March, 2010
Location: Norfolk
Posts: 85

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: March 17, 2010 Recommended | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: quick handling, sharp
Cons: none

You'd be hard pressed to find a lens as quick handling and smooth as this. A better choice as a 'standard' than the 50mm especially with its f2 speed. Results for me have been faultless. A well deserved 10.
   
Veteran Member

Registered: March, 2009
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Posts: 509

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: June 2, 2009 Recommended | Price: $140.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Intoxicatingly smooth focusing; portable; 49mm filter
Cons: A bit sensitive to ambient lighting
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 8    Bokeh: 9    Handling: 10    Value: 9   

Focusing is very smooth. But for some reasons it is not as easy to focus as my K 85mm f1.8 and my M 50mm f1.4.

Well build. But not as well building as some of my K lenses (ever so slightly). Should be very careful with focusing when aperture is larger than f2.8. Sensitive to ambient light even with a lens hood. Generally pleased with the lens.

The mechanical component is quite unique. It is hard to describe. I think it was made that way to make it more compact. Bottomline is that please be very careful when to open the lens.

_______

Changed my rating to 9. The problem of focusing was largely due to my K10D. The focusing screen is a bit misaligned. Mis-focusing seems a wide-spread problem with K10D.

However, one does need to be more careful with focusing. Enjoy the lens more and more over time. It is great to use. Less flare than my Vivitar or Kiron lenses.

Compared with my K35/2 which is legendary on its own right. The M35/2 contrast at f2 is lower and the border IMQ is slightly lower than K35. But M35 is lighter and smaller.
   
Review Date: May 21, 2009 Recommended | Price: $100.00 | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: easy to focus, compact, very sharp
Cons:

For me this lens is a real 10! After some experience with the hard to focus M50/1.4, the M35/2 was so joyful to use. Focus snapīs in so easy and even portraits in dimmed envirenment are almost all perfect sharp.

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After having bought the FA50/1.4 and the FA*24/2 I thought to sell my M35/2, but if I want to go out with just one small "HighEnd" system, I put this old M35/2 onto my camera body. It gives me the best compromise in focal length (=standard lense with the 1,5x crop of my sensor) combined with enough speed for available light situations.
Iīll never sell this lense because I love it!

Btw, I (really) always use a sunhood!!!
   
Veteran Member

Registered: February, 2008
Location: Waterloo, Ontario
Posts: 4,461

3 users found this helpful
Review Date: February 18, 2008 Recommended | Price: $200.00 | Rating: 9 

 
Pros: Fast, light, good contrast, sharp, good colour, easy focusing
Cons: Fully manual, bit soft wide open
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 10    Bokeh: 9    Handling: 10    Value: 9   

I purchased this lens for my Pentax MX in the early 1980s. I paid about $200 for it at that time and in good condition it still commands about that price on EBAY at the time of writing. I can't think of many things I bought almost thirty years ago that still work and are still worth what I initially paid for them. Of the dozen or so Pentax Lenses I own this one is the smoothest and easiest to focus for some reason. It must be a finer thread, tighter tolerances or something but it works wonderfully well. Manually focusing a digital lens is like grinding pepper by way of comparison.

The Pentax M 35mm f2 is fast, light, virtually distortion free and provides sharp, contrasty images with good colour. Here is a recent example from this lens:



The f2 speed makes it quite bright in the viewfinder and enhances manual focusing. It is a bit soft at f2 but very good from then on. It accepts 49mm filters. Like all Pentax K and M-series manual lenses it features an attractive checked rubber focusing ring, full metal construction and a wealth of engraved information around the front element's retaining ring. Boz Dimitrov's Pentax site provides further technical details:

http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/lenses/primes/wide-angle/M35f2.html


The M-series lenses are not as robust in build as their K-series cousins but they are still still very good in every regard. Most modern plastic digital lenses look like cheap toys next to this generation of Pentax offerings. It was designed for and works very well in the film format and it is in this area it should be evaluated. It will work in digital but expect all the usual shortcomings of a fully manual lens in that format. Metering will be stop down with no AF and no f stop information in the viewfinder. Expect as well some great shots with a little practice. Ben Edict has noted: "the M 35/2 is probably the one lens in the Pentax lineup that cause the most troubles with sticky aperture blades. I have yet to see a sample, that did NOT suffer from this at one time in its life..." Some recent posts indicate that this problem may be more common with the M35/2.8. My M 35/2 is still just fine after 20 years but as I respect Ben's opinion it might be prudent to take a good look at the blades before purchase.
   
New Member

Registered: June, 2007
Location: Monroe, WA USA
Posts: 19
Review Date: July 22, 2007 Recommended | Price: $200.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Speed! And a more nearly normal perspective than 50.
Cons: A little soft in the corners wide open, just visible distortion for architecture.

My favorite lens- almost always on the KX. It is about the same dimensions as the M- series 50 F/1.4, so a little bulkier than I'd like, but the speed allows great OOF areas, easy focusing, and good low light performance. If you like the 35mm perspective, you'll be pleased- this lens shows typical Pentax manual focus optical and build quality.
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