| Author: | | Forum Member Registered: June, 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 96
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 9, 2007 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, very fast, small, build quality | | Cons: | very light aberrations wide open, not as handy as the A or F(A) | |
This one is also one of the legendary fast Pentax 50mm primes, and for the money, it's probably the best solution for a 1.4 lens you can buy under 100$ (the fast A 1.4 and 1.7 versions usually go over 100$ on ebay now)
As mentioned, it is extremely fast. Excellent for indoor photography.
DOF at 1.4 is razor thin, but the part in focus is very acceptable in terms of sharpness. Stop down to f2 and it's even better.
Starting from f4 this lens becomes razor sharp. really.
As mentioned before this one does a decent job for macros too, especially with an extention tube attached.
Very nice lens, and apart from the ease of use of the A, F or FA versions, it's as good or better than the more recent primes.
Tom
| | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: August, 2007 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 233
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 21, 2007 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Great build, great low light capabilities | | Cons: | Focus is a bit tricky on AF bodies | |
I'm a beginner.  In terms of bokeh, IQ, sharpness, color, I can only say to my untrained eye, the pictures this lens takes look great. At 1.4, the DOF is really shallow, so you have to use carefully. This is my first prime lens and my first manual one since I got my K100D so I wasn't sure what to expect when I got this "old" lens. What I got was a great lesson on photography. With this lens (and any manual lens I imagine), I was able to learn volumes about aperature, exposure, shutter speed, DOF things that really really just don't sink in when you are using an auto-everything lens. While no manual lens will ever match the speed and ease of use of an AF lense. I believe understanding the mechanics make learning to use these older lenses really worthwhile!  | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2007 Location: Seattle Posts: 393
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 13, 2007 | Recommended | Price: $79.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Fast, Build Quality, Focus Ring Damping | | Cons: | Soft wide open | |
I purchased this in near mint condition at a local store for use on my K100d. I put it through the paces immediately upon getting it home and I have been very impressed. At f/1.4 it's soft but stopped down a bit I can find absolutely nothing to complain about. The focus ring is silky-smooth and well dampened, making my kit lens feel like a cheap toy.
| | | | | | | | Review Date: July 22, 2007 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Beautiful images, great build | | Cons: | No auto exposure | |
I paid over the odds for a very nice copy of this lens, before I knew what a typical price should be. Good thing it's such a nice lens.
On the strength of this lens, I switched DSLR brand from Canon to Pentax. I don't know why, but this lens just makes images look the way I've always wanted them to look. I can only fault it because it doesn't do auto exposure on a DSLR. Perhaps I should try the A version  | | | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2007 Location: Toronto/Victoria Posts: 460 | | Review Date: April 21, 2007 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Compact, solid, smooth focusing, excellent optical quality | | Cons: | Not as functional on DSLRs as it could be | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-1, K100D
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This lens was the only lens my father ever used on his MX which he gave to me in 2003.
Like most 50mm lenses it's somewhat dreamy at F/1.4 in strong daylight (a UV filter makes it much worse), but is already very good at F/2. It only gets better as you stop down. For people photos, I use F/2 and the subject is extremely sharp anywhere remotely close to the centre of the frame. Its colour is a little more subdued than my DA and FA zooms.
I also had it roll off my bed once and fall on a hardwood floor. I don't notice any change in its imaging qualities. I did the same to an FA zoom and I think something came loose because it lost a lot of sharpness in one corner.
It is hard to focus on an unaltered DSLR but I recently got a prism focusing screen and now it's a joy to use, except for the annoying button press required to meter.
It and the FA43 are the two most wonderful pieces of glass to use with a Pentax MX.
Update: on the K-1, I actually think it does even better than on the K100D. It still has the same behaviour, but it holds up near the corners quite well. It needs F8-11 to be perfect, but it's very, very good at F2.8-F4.0 and the glowiness is mostly gone at F2.0.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: October, 2006 Location: Masachusetts Posts: 243 | | Review Date: March 1, 2007 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | small, sharp, fast. | | Cons: | It's pretty old, other than that nothing. | |
This was my original fast 50, purchased along with a couple of MX cameras back in the Paleolithic era.
It's solidly built, the focus has a good feel to it, and it's one of the better designs around.
No electrical contacts, so it's best reserved for slow shooting or studio work. But it's one of the classics
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2006 Location: Dallas, Texas Posts: 2,482 | | Review Date: January 18, 2007 | Recommended | Price: $115.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | very fast, very sharp | | Cons: | Aperture data not saved in EXIF on K100D (see comments) | |
I'm using this lens with a K100D. I bought it because I wanted something faster than the Tamron 18-200 that I'm using daily. This lens represents at least three firsts for me. It is the first used lens I've purchased. (I got it from KEH.com in excellent condition.) It is my first prime/fixed focal-length lens. Finally, it is the first "old" lens I've purchased, by which I simply mean that it is not automatic in every way that the kit lens for the K100D is.
When all the settings are right (focus, exposure, etc.) the Pentax-M F1.4 50mm takes really great photos - very clear details, very rich color. I'm impressed and very pleased with the Image Quality of the photos I've taken with it so far.
There are a couple of things to note, mainly for the benefit of other shoppers who, like me, might not be quite sure what they're getting into. These are not really problems with the lens in itself, rather, they are problems you may encounter using the lens with a K100/110D.
Since the lens is fully manual, when you first receive it, if you're not already using M-series lenses, you'll have to figure out how to set your camera up so that you can use the lens properly. AS of today (1/18/07) there are already at least two threads in this forum containing excellent advice on how to do this. There are also instructions in the users guide that came with the camera, as well as in Joe Farace's Magic Lantern Guide book on the K100D/110D.
It seems to be in the nature of the thing that my camera can't determine the aperture when a picture is taken, so this info is not displayed on the camera's viewing areas (you see "F---" instead) and the aperture isn't written to the EXIF data stored with the image file.
I bought the lens mainly to shoot in low-light. To be honest, at the moment I would not care too much if it had a fixed f/1.4 aperture as well as a fixed focal length. However, since the light is low, manual focusing - which is the only option - can be a bit tricky. I find myself using the distance numbers on the focus ring a good bit, then trying to tweak the focus manually. I don't mind manual-focusing at all. But we all know that auto-focus has problems in low light, and manual focus does, too, for the same reasons.
Finally, for the benefit of anybody who, like me, is fond of zoom lenses, it has to be noted that a fixed focal-length lens is not as versatile as a zoom. I expect that I will continue to use my Tamron 18-200 F3.5-6.3 lens most of the time outdoors, and my Sigma 18-70 indoors to get the benefit of f/2.8. But when I really want to take a GREAT shot indoors, with natural light, especially if the subject is capable of sitting still for me while I make sure the focus is spot-on, this will be the lens I will turn to. I should note also that, while I have not yet done any outdoors shooting with it, it may prove to be as good or better for outdoor shots, at least of a certain kind.
Personally, I don't think I would have wanted to spend a lot more for this lens than I did ($115). But for that price, I'm very glad to have it in my bag.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: September, 2006 Location: D/FW area, Tx. Posts: 1,710 | | Review Date: January 17, 2007 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | great with a lotof contrast and sharpness, size | | Cons: | none | |
had this one for 29 years and never had a bad shot due to the lens.
works Great reversed also. only reason for an 8 is that it could be better wide open. it's a true work horse.
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