| Latest Review Posted | SMC Pentax-M 35mm F2
I love this lens on film.
I got a bargain as my copy of the lens has sticky aperture blades. It will get a cleaning soon. But -- I bought this lens to use it wide open, so it hasn't stopped me from shooting with it.
My favourite focal length is about 40mm on film. Pentax has some choices here
the legendary 43mm (which is GREAT, tack sharp and may be one of the best lenses made in the history of cameras)
the famous 40mm pancake (which isn't as sharp as I'd like, and has a lacklustre f/2.8 maximum aperture
or one of the many 35mm lenses made by Pentax
I tried the 35's last because I thought they would be too wide; I really wanted a "wide normal." But the 35mm field of view is quite close to 40, and can always be cropped a bit.
The M series 35 f/2 gives all the metal bodied pleasure of a classic lens. That it's a bit bigger than the 40mm pancake is good, it makes it easier to focus (and use the aperture ring.)
Optically this lens is great. Nice contrast even without a hood. Image is sharp at both close and longer focusing distances. (I found the old 35mm Super-Multi-Coated Takumar weak on this, with poor performance in close-focus work.) The f/2 aperture makes it easy to focus accurately, and provides nice separation for middle-ground subjects (unlike the slower f/3.5 Super Takumar I had, which was sharp but couldn't separate subjects due to the slower aperture.)
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