| Author: | | New Member Registered: February, 2021 Location: Gard France Posts: 15
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 18, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $890.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, luminous, cheaper as other brands, silent, quick | | Cons: | Heavy, AFS wavering (I shoot AFC though) | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: Pentax K1
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Very good lens that I love to use all the day.
The biggest cons for me is hesitating AF in AFS that gives some shots for more a second... Though I shoot AFC and that's fine.
a great all to do lens !! | | | | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2017 Location: Kiev Posts: 12
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 27, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $1,200.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Convenient lens focal lengths. Beautiful bokeh. Splash protection. Good balance in weight and dimensions on K1. | | Cons: | There is no excellent sharpness at a focal length of 24mm, with an aperture of f2.8 (at other apertures and focal lengths, everything is fine with the lens's sharpness). | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: К1
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This lens, like many others, interested me after reading a review about it on this site. I also read about this lens on other sites. And I often noticed that many of the photos that I like on flickr were photographed with this lens. Only it was not clear to me why the overall assessment of this lens is not large enough here.
Now about the lens itself. At first it seemed to me too large in size and heavy in weight. But everything is learned by comparison. And if you want to know what a heavy lens is, then hold in your hands the new 70-200 * star. And my first impression about 24-70 was wrong. This lens is not that heavy. And if you spend the whole day carrying a camera with 24-70, then this delivers less inconvenience than, for example, with the Fa100 f2.8 macro. And the dimensions of the photo lens 24-70 are actually quite handy when wearing the K-1. Together they look beautiful and are perfectly balanced.
I really liked the 24-70 focal length range at K-1! It is a very convenient and versatile lens. And for most of my photo lens needs, it fits perfectly. An excellent option for use as a standard lens. Autofocus is quite fast and accurate (on the K-1).
Also, pictures from 24-70 have beautiful and rich colors. And good sharpness and resolution. As for the sharpness, it may not be very sharp only at 24mm + f 2.8. If you change the focal length to any other, then the sharpness is excellent even at wide open aperture.
the hood of this lens is small and not deep. It does not increase the overall length of the lens when worn. As do deep hoods on many other lenses.
Back at 24-70, I love the fact that it's all weather and waterproof.
I read in the 24-70 reviews that some people don't like its bokeh. And I was afraid that I, too, might not like the bokeh of this lens. But my fears were in vain. Because actually his bokeh is very good and pleasant! Of course, not as flawless as the bokeh from top-end Pentax prime lenses. But with bokeh everything is great! I like! So I gave 24-70 10 points. He deserves it.
The small drawbacks of this lens, I find minor. And overall I really liked it! And I advise everyone to get this lens for whom its focal length is suitable.
In general, I can say that all the lenses of the D-fa series from Pentax are very good in quality and give an excellent picture.
 | | | | | New Member Registered: October, 2016 Posts: 4
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 30, 2020 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Fast AF, Accurate AF, Nice Colours | | Cons: | Zoom is not internal | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 8
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-1 K-3
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My workhorse lens, great all rounder.
Build quality is not as good as a * lens and it's a bit overpriced compared to the Tamron original
My full review is a video at https://youtu.be/CGwGJX4IxYw | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2013 Posts: 4,319
12 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 8, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $990.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Flexibility, sharpness, WR | | Cons: | Size, weight | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-1
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Shortly after switching to full-frame (from K5IIs to K-1), I found myself in need of a wide-angle lens, since I mostly shoot landscapes. For a while I have been using the DA 15mm in crop mode, but one does not get the K-1 to use it with DA 15. I couldn't find a second hand FA 20mm and the only FA* 24mm that I could find was way too expensive so in the end I chose to buy this lens new. I was a bit skeptical about this lens being a Tamron design, I am not exactly sure how much of the lens is Tamron and how much is Pentax. Most likely it's Tamron optical design with some Pentax elements added, coatings and maybe even the glass is Pentax (although I was not able to confirm this). In the end, the genuine Tamron version had good reviews so I went on with it.
Build quality and handling
Out of the box, first things that I've noticed were the size and weight. The biggest lenses that I used were the DA 16-45mm and the Sigma 35mm Art. This lens is more than twice the weight of DA 16-45, a bit bigger and heavier than Sigma and a true behemoth compared to DA 15, which is to be expected from a f/2.8 full-frame zoom with a lot of glass. Still, it balances pretty well on the K-1 and I had no problems using it on my old tripod. The lens is entirely made of plastic but the build quality is very good, no unwanted movements or wobbling. There is even a zoom lock at 24mm which I engage all the time lens is in the camera bag. The zoom ring is quite large and located towards the far away end of the lens which I like as it's easier to balance the lens when using it. The amount of friction is just right and it seems to be well-dampened, so the ring is easy to operate with just two fingers. Focus ring is much smaller and does not rotate when using AF. There is a focus distance window with markings in meters and feet, and the white text on a black background gives good contrast and is easy to read. Lens mount is solid metal. Overall I was happy with the build quality and handling, it feels nice and solid, the only thing which I don't like it's the hood because I think it's too narrow, but I guess this is in order to accommodate the wide field of view at 24mm. WR also does its job well, I have used this lens in rain and snow with no problems at all.
Focus and Autofocus The AF speed is impressive as compared to all the lenses that I have used before and AF is completely silent with no hunting. However when it comes to precision, I'm a bit confused. Using single point select, I had a lot of failures during daytime in good light conditions, the focus seemed to be just a little bit off. However, when shooting low-light events like concerts and such which should be more challenging by nature, I had almost no failures at all so I don't know what to make of it. I should mention that I did not bother to calibrate the lens. Landscapes are not a problem since I use contrast AF in live view.
Image quality and sharpness Central sharpness is decent wide open and I don't really care if the corners are not that sharp when shooting portraits. For landscapes I tend to stop down to f/8-f/11 and then this lens gets very sharp edge-to-edge, quite a bit sharper as compared to my DA15 so I was very happy. It has nice contrast and beautiful colors resulting in very good image quality with minimal processing work.
Bokeh Long story short, I don't like the bokeh of this lens. I know this is kinda subjective, but I think it's just too busy for my taste. It's not atrocious but it's definitively no FA 77 either. However I didn't buy this lens for its bokeh and it's definitively usable for casual shots, so I'll just move on with it.
Vignetting, distortion, fringing and flare resistance
There is considerable amount of vignetting when using this lens wide open on a full frame sensor, especially at the wide end. This is not a problem for me, because for portraits again I don't care and for landscapes I will most likely stop down beyond f/5.6 and the problem disappears. There is however a considerable amount of barrel distortion at the wide end, but I was able to manage that in post-processing. So far I haven't seen any purple fringing. Flare resistance was a pleasant surprise - I was expecting this lens to do much worse considering the amount of glass that it has. Shooting straight into the sun with this lens is not advisable, but if the sun is partially obscured by something, the lens does not flare that much and the resulted starburst is quite nice.
Filters So far I haven't used any filters on this lens so I can't really comment on it. Although the lens hood has no removal window, it's quite narrow so you should be able to spin a polarizing filter.
Overall I'm very satisfied, I think this is a reliable workhorse which does its job very well and then some, as long as you don't have unreasonable expectations. Below I have added some of my favorite pictures taken with this lens.
| | | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2011 Location: Paris, France Posts: 3,217
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 10, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $1,200.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | fast focusing, sharp, silent, WR | | Cons: | weight | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-1
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Overall : All the reviews said is true : the lens is fast to focus, silent, very sharp from wide open to stopped down, color rendition is very good and stable as you stop down, BUT the lens is a bit heavy.
On the weight side : basicaly a K1+24-70 very much feels like a bigger k3II + 16-50.
Details :
- Sharpness : the lens is sharp. At f2.8 be it 24mm, 40, 50, 70, if you take a portrait, you'll see the skin port of the subject.
wide open : The sharpness is very good on the 2/3 of the frame, with a transition to less sharp for the corner. To be honest, i'm a bit picky with this kind of thing, and the lens does a very good job. transition is very subtle.
stopped down : it's really sharp, but then every lens is good at f8 nowadays.
-Aberration : coming from the 16-50, i have to say the 24-70 is another league. No aberrations so far. And i shot in high contrast scene most of the time : outdoor wth sun and shade in the frame almost every time.
- Bokeh : This one is smooth, good transition from sharp to blur. Very different from the Sigma's one for instance. Pretty much in the style of the DA*55.
- Autofocus : It's fast. and i don't mean "quick" i really mean fast. Nothing to envy to the Canon or Nikon world for instance. It's even better on the K-1 II. Compared to the 16-50 i can say it's really faster. Day and night. Faster and more precise than the Tamron 70-200/2.8 that is quite fast.
I shoot rock climbing wich implies lots and lots of micro-movements from climbers, and now i don't have the problem of misfocused frame between small moves, or during big movements, swings and stuff like that.
- Handling : Handling is normal. nothing special to say. The lens is well balanced on the K1, no front or back heavy when mounted.
I like the "Lock" switch for transport.
When reversed, the hood prevents you from using the lens, so i mount it every time.
- Value : If you need a workhorse, something that does the job well, is reliable, with no quirks or suprises, that will last 10 years, that's the lens you need. it's a workhorse, plain and simple.
There is cheaper alternatives, of course, and if you're not confortable spending 1K $ (new) or 700$ (second hand), that's perfectly fine, take another lens. If you're Ok with the idea of spending that much, and just want something that will work for a long time, then, that's the lens you need.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: September, 2009 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 156 | | Review Date: December 30, 2019 | Not Recommended | Price: $599.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Really sharp | | Cons: | focusing speed, inability to lock | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 5
Handling: 6
Value: 5
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-3
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Ugh, I so wanted to love this lens, but sadly it makes me alternate between it and the DA* 16-50 it was suppose to replace. I both this lens hoping it was the big move to a 15-80 range quality lens for Pentax. And it sure is big - Pentax has shed its reputation on trying to squeeze quality from small lens bodies, much like the industry in general, and try to ram into us that bigger and heavier is better.
There is no quibble or qualm about this lens being sharp. Its like a prime, no wait, better than one when it is locked on, and it is great on image quality.
I just wish it wasn't so dang slow.
Look, I have the DFA* 70-200, and the FA*85, as well as a number of other fast Pentax lenses. There is a reason this lens didn't get a * or a gold ring, and the one I have is slow, and has trouble at times locking in. For the price these are new, I want something that is quicker than the 16-50, but sometimes I feel this may be slower.
| | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2019 Location: Roma Posts: 10
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 2, 2019 | Not Recommended | Price: $850.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Colori splendidi senza Flare ottimo contrasto | | Cons: | <il peso | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Autofocus: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
New or Used: New
Camera Used: <pentax K1
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E' IL MIO OBIETTIVO MIGLIORE, E' FAVOLOSO IN OGNI SITUAZIONE E COMBINATO CON LA k1 E' EFFICACE ANCHE A TEMPI MOLTO BASSI CON OTTIMA RISOLUZIONE
| | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2014 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: October 11, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $1,000.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | very high quality | | Cons: | very high weight | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 8
New or Used: Used
Camera Used: K-3
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I am very enthusiastic about this zoom. It replaces my Sigma 17-70 and suggests this by lengths. No AF adjustment is necessary. Simply attach to the K-3 and take pictures. This is often not the case with sigma lenses.The AF speed is fast enough to make action photos of my dog. I like this lens.
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: July, 2011 Posts: 2,213
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 16, 2017 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Fullframe, Pentax branding/features | | Cons: | flare, filter size | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 8
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K1
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The only available standard zoom for FF in Pentax land. All rings move in Pentax direction, weather sealing and design talen from Pentax - which is all nice. Sharpness is nice overall.
Performance is fine based on price and features. Filter thread is huge with 82mm, flare is not well controlled, sharpness is fine, but differs for changing focal lengths. AF fine adjustment is not consistent, you need to define the least problematic one for your work. Heida polarizer system starts vignetting at shorter focal length - not Pentax' probem, but still not nice. My go anywhere lens due to the lack of FF lenses in Pentax land.
Will sell as soon as decent new primes become available.
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: September, 2014 Location: Singapore Posts: 98
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 11, 2017 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, faster focus, weather sealed. | | Cons: | Heavy, focus hunting at low light, vignetting. | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 7
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: Pentax K-1
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Its a re-badged Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 for Pentax mount.
It gains:
a. Weather sealing instead of moisture resistance.
b. Proprietary Pentax HD coatings.
It loses:
a. Image stabilization (Not needed as Pentax has IBIS)
b. Price advantage.
c. 1 year limited warranty compared to 6- year warranty on Nikon/Canon/Sony mounts.
Positives:
1. Sharp enough for Pentax K-1.
2. Weather sealed, so no need to worry when going on a hike.
3. Decently fast focusing.
4. Very useful all general purpose range of 24-70.
Negatives:
1. Heavy, makes for a heavy kit with Pentax K-1.
2. Flimsy lens hood compared to Sigma ART.
3. Zoom rings focus rings not as sooth as Sigma ART.
4. Cheap quality lens cover. Sigma ART ships with high quality lens cover.
Scope of improvement:
1. Pentax can learn from Sigma ART and ship good quality hood and lens cover.
2. Zoom and Focus ring smoothness can definitely be improved.
3. Could be priced lower. It doesn't have Image stabilization and 6 years warranty but still ends up being more expensive than native Tamron for other mounts.
 | | | | | Junior Member Registered: July, 2014 Location: Tenryu Posts: 29
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 18, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $1,200.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | detail, sharpness | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-3
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I've shot a wedding, night concert, conferences, and now a graduation with this lens. I can say that when the image is in focus, it's extremely sharp. For the graduation photos here in Japan, I had to tone down the clarity in Lightroom because I got every single pore and skin flaw every girl had. The night photos came out great and had very nice character to them. For the conference photos, I've been torn between this lens and my Sigma Art 18-35. The Art has a 1.8 aperture and renders beautiful image quality, but is in need of calibration for front and back focusing. The Pentax has a more accurate autofocus plus the longer reach so it tens to be on my camera more often.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: January, 2014 Location: St Petersburg Posts: 402
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 15, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $1,100.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Handling, Sats, No Backfocus, Qshift, No Wobble | | Cons: | Wish it was an IF | |
Extensively tested with LensCal and Yves' calibrators. At both ends of zoom range and using LensCal stand offs and Yves' lengths, and a close up test, all were dead zero +- .3. Tight and crisp. Unexpectedly good. My DA* 16-35 wasn't even close, in performance at same Focal lengths and especially not in build...
Colors, sats, MF in the field also Exceptional, nearly as good as the 16-50 (which was stellar). For my hands, handles better than DA*16-50 in size and smoothness...
Nicely Done Tamron .... OOPS Pentax contractor !
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: November, 2016 Posts: 72 | | Review Date: January 9, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $1,149.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Solid build 82mm filter pulls in lots of light | | Cons: | Focus accuracy sometimes off | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Autofocus: 7
Handling: 9
Value: 9
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-1
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Nice solid build, feels like a pro lens. Autofocus is fast and quiet but not always accurate particularly with AF-C. Reasonably sharp at f/2.8 when focus is on, quite sharp by f/4. Has a nice bokeh and is a good walk around zoom which balances well on the K-1 body.
 | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: November, 2007 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 588 | | Review Date: December 28, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $1,300.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | IQ in the center | | Cons: | IQ in the edges | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Autofocus: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 7
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-1
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Have been using this lens on the K-1 for some 8 months now. Build quality still appears good, no signs of wear or problems so far. Solid construction. AF very quiet, locks focus promptly and reasonably fast. Image quality is a bit of a mixed bag. In the center rendering and sharpness are very good already wide open. Stopped down excellent. However, edges remain softer even stopped down. There is also a fair amount of vignetting at large apertures. This can of course be corrected in pp but having to do it all too often is definitely an annoyance. Occasionally there has been a bit of purple fringing in the corners in the wide end at large apertures.
With better sharpness in the edges I would have rated this for a 10.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2013 Location: Nevada, USA Posts: 3,348
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 16, 2016 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Almost prime-like IQ esp. in the center, fast focusing | | Cons: | Huge and heavy. | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 6
Autofocus: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 8
New or Used: New
Camera Used: K-1
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I have been photographing my kid's Walk-A-Thon fundraiser at school for the past few years. Most of the shots were action oriented, like kids running towards me and hamming it up for the camera by doing cartwheels. I also photographed stationary kids just posing in groups or with their friends. Making a photo album takes me about a month. The album is mostly filled with 4" x 6" prints but it also has a healthy amount of 6" x 8", 8" x 10", 8" x 12", 16" x 9", and a few murals/posters that have a 24" edge. My biggest print was 65" x 24" of the entire school.
In 2016 I photographed the event with this lens mounted on a K-1. Focusing mode was set to AF-C and the focus points was set to SEL9. The lens focused very quickly when commanded by the K-1. I did not experience too much difficulty with the K-1 locking onto a kid running toward me. Sometimes the K-1 would get confused and focus on a neighboring kid about to pass my subject but I think any camera would experience the same difficulty in this case. Focusing on stationary subjects is easy-peasy for this lens. Focus noise is very low. It's like a breathy whisper.
I needed some depth of field so I shot at f/6.3 for the most part. Sometimes I opened to f/4 and sometimes I closed down to f/8. Image quality in the center is excellent and I would even say the quality is prime-like to borrow a phrase from the forum. The corners and edges start to soften up a bit, even at f/8, but it is only evident in big prints. The school shot I mentioned earlier that was printed at 65" x 24" is a good example. A print that big really stressed the lens. Softness was is evident but it's not horrible. It's noticeable when examining the image at 6" to 8" viewing distance - just like pixel peeping. I took the shot at 27mm and f/8. Perhaps I could have zoomed out to 24mm and crop more. The 36 MP sensor would still have plenty of resolution. Prints like 8" x 12" are no problem for this lens. I would say a bigger 16" x 24" is also excellent especially if you are taking portraits. The edges and corners should be filled with soft creamy bokeh so corner sharpness is less critical.
Colors from this lens on a K-1 are punchy, saturated, and vivid. This is a huge difference compared to the sterile rendering I get with my u4/3 lenses. Those images need to be livened up.
Ergonomics of this lens are very good. I mean, there's only a zoom ring to worry about.  What can go wrong? The lens is huge which is a blessing and a curse. Big lenses make for easy grabbing but they are heavy. A K-1 with a battery grip, an external flash, and this lens is ridiculously heavy. Mount this lens on a tiny K-S2 and the result is a cartoonish looking setup. I think this is pretty typical for any 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.
The WR seals work well. I have taken my K-1 with this lens to the local hot springs. The lens was splashed on and splattered with water. Water did not leak into the lens.
I don't think you can call this lens a stack of primes. Pixel peeping the edges will quickly tell you have a zoom lens ... a damn good one though. If you had a choice between buying some FA Limited lenses and this zoom then get this zoom for the versatility. My only wish is that it could be lighter - not necessarily smaller. Walking around with this beast can wear you out.
This lens definitely borders on excellent.
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