| Latest Review Posted | SMC Pentax-A 645 200mm F4
I've owned and used this lens new since acquiring my 645 body, 35mm & 75mm primes, back in the late 80's. Compared to the exceptional sharpness and rendering qualities of those wide-angle and normal primes, this telephoto produces disappointingly soft and low contrast images. 4 elements in 4 groups may be problematic.
Considering the other reviewer's assessment, I may have gotten a flawed copy, but have assumed it was just the nature of this lens and its design. As a prime, I do have higher expectations and the 200mm f/4 has what I would consider the equivalent of below average zoom quality at that focal length. A majority of my photography is enlarged and printed to at least 16x20" gelatin silver prints or A3+ (13x19") inkjet from scans, so perhaps I'd be more satisfied with smaller images with less magnification.
Today I shot a test roll of 120 Ilford Delta 100 developed in Kodak Xtol. In full sun, I shot the posted examples of two mops wide open at f/4 @ 1/1000" as well as mid-aperture f/9.5 @ 1/250". The negs were scanned on a Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro at 3200 dpi, saved as TIFF files. In PS CS6, I optimized the levels and put in a 3 pixel high pass filter that was overlay then merged.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/90191-alex645/albums/10431-smc-645-200mm-f-4/picture95656.jpg https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/90191-alex645/albums/10431-smc-645-200mm-f-4/picture95657.jpg
As a point of comparison, I've also uploaded two shots from my 75mm f/2.8 prime (spider we... |
