| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: May, 2008 Location: Rhode Island Posts: 4,180
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 12, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $42.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Inexpensive--Fast--Sharp | | Cons: | none | |
This is a great little lens with very impressive image quality. Once you get the metering down, success is yours for the taking. I get a lot of use from this lens as a low-light, indoor lens. I have tested it up against many of the other fine Pentax 50s and find the difference between them insignificant. I sold my M 1.4 and A 1.7 and stayed with this. This lens can be picked up for under $30 if you carefully search the various sales outlets.
The opportunity to use old glass on my K20d was one of the main appeals to the Pentax DSLR system--the M 50 f 1.7 did not disappoint.
The price I posted above is for my first copy--my 2nd copy, which i found in like-new condition, inbox, was $23.oo
Sharpness: 10
Contrast: 9
Colors: 8.5
Bokeh: 8.5
Build: 9
Handling: 10
| | | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: March, 2008 Location: Toronto, San Diego, Seattle Posts: 455
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 30, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, small, nice colors and contrast, a winner | | Cons: | none | |
My favorite M series 50 lens. I prefer this over the M 50 1.4 in most circumstances. And they usually can be found for a little less money and are also smaller.
I have 2 M 50 1.7's and 2 M 50 1.4's and on my copies, the 1.7 seems sharper and holds more detail than my 1.4's, but the 1.4's are a little more saturated and have more of an "organic" quality to them than the 1.7's (really picking here, and glad I have both) Still, these 1.7's have a nicer color and contrast than most of the newer DA series lenses. Focusing on my K20D is quick and easy and very accurate. (I have the magnifying eye piece) Exposure (in Manual mode with the Green Button) is dead-on with my 1.7s.
A terrific little lens even if you own the 50 1.4. I would recommend this lens above all other M series lens as your first "M" or manual lens to put on the K20D.
| | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2008 Posts: 5
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 10, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $39.99
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp image, great in low light, fantastic feel to the pictures overall | | Cons: | manual focus on a DSLR is a pain. | |
Sure, it's an M lens, but man, it blows my F1.4 50mm AF out of the water for IQ. I find the 1.7 doesn't have the same 'blooming' problems the 1.4 AF does on the K20D. Love it, and a great deal at 40 bucks.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2006 Location: Tokyo Posts: 962
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 16, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | fine image quality, light weight, feels great | | Cons: | tricky to focus | |
This lens is the one I use for portraits. It is also, along with my beloved SMC-M 28mm f/3.5 and the Zenitar 16mm make up my travel kit. I chose this lens because of the effective 75mm field of view, which I find to be very versatile.
I picked it up cheap (very cheap for Tokyo) and it's a lightweight addition to my camera bag that I find myself using all the time.
I'm very pleased with the photos I get from this lens, they tend to have the right intimacy for portraits and it renders colours and shapes very well.
Curiously, I have trouble visually measuring with this lens. I don't with the (several) other manual lenses I've got for my *istDS, which go all the way up to 135mm. Here's an example: I focused a bit too far back in this portrait, but I'm still thrilled with the results.
(Non working link removed)
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2008 Posts: 12
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 14, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $26.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | IQ, cheap, plentiful, easy to focus | | Cons: | | |
Killer lens. It has sharpness galore starting at F2.8, great color, contrast, and resolution. I have an extra for backup, and I think I will pick up just one more, on the off chance that they ever become scarce. I love it for studio and walkaround. I think it has a great personality that is very compatible with mine. My all-time favorite lens.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2008 Location: Oregon, USA Posts: 681
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 27, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Cheap, Sturdy, Excellent image quality | | Cons: | None | |
I prefer to use this lens over my kit lens when ever I can. Excellent Color, bokeh and everything else.
The manual focus thing can take some getting used to but remember that people have been shooting manual focus for longer than then auto-focus has been around.
I love this lens
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: January, 2009 Location: Ontario Posts: 1
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 11, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Robust, Fast, Smooth focus, Crisp and Sharp, Bokeh | | Cons: | | |
I love this lens and I love that Pentax SLRs allow the use of these old but great optics. My favorite use of this lens is when I want to pack light for a rough trip or hike. On these adventures I take along my old *Ist D with my 50 -1.7 mounted. It is like carrying a point and shoot but rendering crisp images in low light.  I recomend this lens to those DSLR first time buyers instead of the DA 18-50 kit lens.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: February, 2009 Posts: 43
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 15, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Inexpensive, sharp, versatile | | Cons: | | |
The "fast fifty" is often the recommended lens to have in every photographer's bag. For the beginning photographer with the extreme budget-conscious mindset but an eagerness to learn about depth of field - this is perhaps the best deal across the board among all 50mm lenses from any company. When I was first exploring my first dslr, manual focus "forced" me to stop, think, compose, focus, and then shoot. This quickly broke my old "point and shoot" habits which sneak up on me with my faster auto-focus lenses.
I got this lens used for approximately $45 canadian. It has since been a proven performer. I couple this with a split image focusing screen and a vivitar 2x macro focusing teleconverter (~$50) and I have a poor man's 100mm 1:1 macro lens that takes fantastic photos.
Sample Images:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwfchu/5718129012/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwfchu/5177287582/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwfchu/324600868/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwfchu/327021724/ | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: January, 2009 Location: East Bay Area, CA Posts: 6,620
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 17, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp optics, solidly built, nice bokeh | | Cons: | fully manual | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
| |
This is the lens I keep on my camera most of the time. The 50mm FL is just right for most situations where i dont need to go wide to my DA16-45. The wide aperture is great for low light indoor shots and achieves a pleasing bokeh.
My first manual lens, i expected it would be a hassle to manually meter and focus but on my DSLR, it is ultra simple with the AE-L button. I only use M mode anymore for all my lenses and am quite comfortable selecting an aperture with the ring and then pressing the AE-L to set shutter. The focus ring is easy enough to dial in a moving object decently but takes practice.
If all my lenses were lost tomorrow, this is one i'd buy back right away - it is a no brainer, and at $45, what a deal!!
Recommended.
Here are a couple of shots i took with this lens:
(Non working link removed)
And, not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but you can mount the lens backward using a reversing ring and achieve some very satisfying close up shots too. Here is one i took with this lens:
 | | | | | Forum Member Registered: June, 2007 Location: quebec Posts: 75
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 21, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Rich color, good contrast, sharp, smal and well built. | | Cons: | what? | |
Small and fun to carry.
| | | | | New Member Registered: February, 2009 Location: Bodø Posts: 5
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 24, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Everything its better than gold | | Cons: | They havent made this lens for a long time | |
I think this lens is a 10. Its a beauty and the lens, if used carefully, takes werry werry werry nice photos on my k20D... Its a 10 no doubt about it.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: January, 2009 Location: University of Waterloo, ON Posts: 239
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 17, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | small, fast, nice bokeh, incredible build quality | | Cons: | narrow space between focus and aperature rings makes changes a bit fumbly | |
This has to be one of my two favourite lenses in my kit (toss-up between this and the M 135/3.5). For starters, as with most any K or M series lens, Pentax meant business with the M 50/1.7. The all-metal construction, precision fitting, and comfortable rubberized focus ring grip make for a solid lens that inspires confidence. This is yet another example of my flood-surviving free gear from my mother.
The image quality is astounding; contrasty, colourful, and rather sharp stopped down. It tends to be a tad soft wide open, but not in a bad way. The out of focus rendering is rather dreamy, but still leaves a bit of room for improvement.
My only gripe is the lack of space between the focus and aperture rings, making it somewhat difficult to get on and off of the body. However, I don't tend to remove it from my K200D that much anyway. :P
Given the prices these normally go for, I can't see any reason why one shouldn't have one of these in their kit - unless, of course, one already has the 1.4 or 1.2.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: October, 2008 Location: Great Plain, Hungary Posts: 204
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 3, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Built and image quality, sharp, nice contrast | | Cons: | none | |
This is my favourite consumer lens in the Pentax stable (not talking here about A*, FA* and Ltd. lenses, which are another league). I am amazed how well these lenses are put together. The focus and mechanics are very precise after 25+ years.THE '70-80 M* LENS (if there was such lens line-up/category).
As I have some leses to compare to I can say that this lens is on par with the M 1.4/50mm and probably even with the A-FA 1.4/50mm. At least I cannot find any difference that can be noticed by eye. Just listing the advantages I personally found:
- cheaper than the M 1.4/50mm and is probably as good
- cheaper than the A 1.7/50mm, better construction, unnoticable difference in IQ
- cheaper than the A 1.4/50mm, better construction, unnoticable difference in IQ
My experience mainly based on shooting slides and some occasional digital image. (I cannot comment on F and FA versions.)
For those complaining about its limited use on digital camera: please take into account that these lenses were made well before the AF, and very well before the digital era. If you find focusing awkward change the focusing screen of your camera to a classic split image/microprism one (I did it with my *istD and MZ-S and works great. Never changed back the AF screen since then.)
| | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2009 Posts: 6
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 13, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $90.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | everything | | Cons: | uhm, ... Oh yes, i found it : autofocus ? ^_^ | |
Well,
It's a fantastic lens.
See the picture : (no crop, no photoshop) taken with Pentax K100d
 | | | | | Otis Memorial Pentaxian Registered: March, 2007 Location: Vancouver (USA) Posts: 42,007
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 6, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Compact, light, optical performance, excellent build | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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Mine came new as the kit lens on my Ricoh XR7 in 1982. (Yes...that one left me scratching my head as well. I ordered the Rikenon and got a Pentax...go figure...) Over the last 27 years, I have formed a pretty firm impression of this lens. In a very few words...it ROCKS. Here are the bullet points:- Excellent optical performance
- One of the most compact 50mm lenses ever produced
- Very light
- Mostly metal construction (save the rubberized focus ring)
Even though it has seen frequent use over the years under all kinds of conditions, the controls on my copy are still smooth and precise. A great lens. Were it not for the inconvenience of using it on the current digital bodies, I would rank it a 10 for build, performance, and value. However, due to the inconvenience of flaky stop-down metering on many Pentax dSLR models along with the lack of a 9.5 rating, I am forced to rank it at 9.
Edit: Updated on 25 April 2022 and still all true.
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