| Latest Review Posted | PENTAX-110 20-40mm F2.8
This review is for a mint condition 20-40/2.8 bought second-hand in Sweden.
PROS
Fun
Cheap
Compact
Build quality
49mm filter size
CONS
Soft
Inconsistent performance
Lack of aperture control
I have had five out of the six Pentax-110 lenses for several years now (lacking the Pan-focus), and used them on and off as fun lenses. A few things are inherent in the lenses as they where designed as super-compact somewhat cheaper lenses already from the beginning, e.g. the aperture control was in the camera body. There are still things to be said for each of the lenses.
General
I have used the 20-40 on both Micro Four Thirds and APS-C. On m43 it covers the frame during the entire focal range, but on APS-C it covers the frame only at the long end. Build quality is together with the 70/2.8 best of the Pentax-110 primes, mainly metal build. Zoom is push/pull type and the front rotates with focusing.
Negatives
I had used the primes for some years when I purchased a mint 20-40/2.8 zoom. Especially the 50/2.8 and 70/2.8 primes was very impressive, so I had some hopes for the zoom. I am sorry to say it is of noticeable lower image quality. At or close to 40mm it gets very dreamy/soft look, lacking contrast and bokeh is bad (not even artistic fun bad like say a Helios-44). Both sharpness and contrast varies a lot in the focal range, but also the advertised "f/2.8" aperture gets a lot darker at the long end (at least one stop darker), so it takes some getting t... |
