Piotr's Reviews - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database

The Latest

Forum

Cameras

Showing all 17 reviews by Piotr

Review of: SMC Pentax-DA* 55mm F1.4 SDM by Piotr on Sun December 2, 2012 | Rating: 9

View more reviews

Views: 303347
Reviews: 70

Great portrait lens with excellent color rendition, bokeh and sharpness. Lens hood is big, robust and has hole which allows rotate polarized filter. Lens is very good for longer distances, gives very good contrast at strong daylight. For some time I used FA50/1.4, A50/1.3, K50/1.2, DA*55/1.4 and Leica 50/2. Finally I decided to stay with A50/1.2 and DA*55/1. DA*55 as portrait lens

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v167/p1169761901.jpg

and landscape lens:

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v182/p1169762876.jpg

More samples here

Review of: SMC Pentax-FA* 85mm F1.4 [IF] by Piotr on Fri November 30, 2012 | Rating: 10

View more reviews

Views: 165026
Reviews: 30

Best portrait lens I had. My Leica 90/2 is a little similar in nature. Fantastic sharpness, great color reproduction, amazing bokeh. Hood is great but very well fitted and durable. These two shots are at f1.4.

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v173/p1169762765.jpg

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v157/p1169762149.jpg

Few more shots

Review of: SMC Pentax-FA 43mm F1.9 Limited by Piotr on Fri November 30, 2012 | Rating: 9

View more reviews

Views: 341275
Reviews: 96

43Ltd is a great portrait lens as FA50/1.4 or A50/1.2. And as similar lenses Pentax is sharp, with great color rendition and has a beautiful bokeh. Additionally, it is compact and well built. Highly recomended.

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-2/p1169760525.jpg

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v185/p1169759165.jpg

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-2/p1169760561.jpg

Few samples here

Review of: SMC Pentax-FA 20mm F2.8 by Piotr on Fri November 30, 2012 | Rating: 8

View more reviews

Views: 162045
Reviews: 24

Before I bought FA20/2.8 I used A20/2.8. They look to be identical construction. So it is sharp lens, with good color rendition. Probably best Pentax 20mm lens ever made.

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v180/p1169755553.jpg

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-2/p1169755155.jpg

more samples here

Review of: SMC Pentax-A 20mm F2.8 by Piotr on Tue February 9, 2010 | Rating: 8

View more reviews

Views: 126339
Reviews: 21

It is small, cute lens. Quite sharp from f2.8 and better from f8. It has low contrast. I compared it with DA12-24 & K20D and it looks A20 is better at f8 on borders. With strong sun light it gives low contrast. Overall good wide lens for APS-C.

http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/image/127066590.jpg

more samples at: http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/a20

Review of: SMC Pentax-FA 31mm F1.8 AL Limited by Piotr on Tue February 17, 2009 | Rating: 10

View more reviews

Views: 354410
Reviews: 90

Number one from BIG3 (31, 43 & 77). Great performer, 3-d effect, works well with front sun. [added in 2012] After a few years of use this lens I can confirm all the good reviews, and once again confirm that the cap is not very comfortable;) 31mm on APS-C is not wide and is not normal, it is something in between, and forces me to carefully frame the scene

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v185/p1169757446.jpg

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v166/p1169758597.jpg

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v163/p1169759961.jpg

More samples here

Review of: SMC Pentax 50mm F1.2 by Piotr on Thu May 15, 2008 | Rating: 8

View more reviews

Views: 236944
Reviews: 56

It is old, it is heavy, difficult to focus because narrow DOF. It creates beautiful bokeh, more smoothly than that from FA50/1.4 even with bigger apperture. It is full metal with quality of typical K series lens. Pentax *ist DS ,Pentax SMC 50mm 1:1.2 1/500s f/2.0 at 50.0mm iso200

http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/image/96911763.jpg

Pentax *ist DS ,Pentax SMC 50mm 1:1.2 1/750s f/1.2 at 50.0mm iso200

http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/image/96911760.jpg

more shots are here http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/k50

Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.8 Limited Macro by Piotr on Thu May 1, 2008 | Rating: 9

View more reviews

Views: 446547
Reviews: 119

Classical limited lens, looks like 77/1.8. Beautiful pice of metal. Very sharp from 2.8, nice colors with good saturation. Interesting macro feature, 1:1 at 14cm so it can be difficult for bugs and flys. Overall veary good lens for this money. This is what we should always expect from Pentax.

http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/image/104390621.jpg

few macro examples http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/da35

Review of: SMC Pentax-FA* 24mm F2 AL [IF] by Piotr on Sat September 29, 2007 | Rating: 9

View more reviews

Views: 177921
Reviews: 41

My copy is second or even more ... hand. It has many marks of previous owners. But still ok. It is sharp at f2. So before f2.8 I still have f2 and f2.4. Comparing with K24/2.8 it is more contrast, better colours and has better (some) bokeh. I agree that is is quite big and heavy comparing to other 24 from Pentax. here is example of how it works with f2.0 in quite dark room.

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v186/p1169756001.jpg

After one year I decided to promote it from 8 to 9. I had chance to use it few times for landscapes and it gave me great colors. In 2010, I sold the old lens and bought a better one. I paid twice as much, but I think this lens is worth the higher price. I had FA20/2.8 and if I do not need a lens wider than 24mm I always take with me my lovely FA*24

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v162/p1169757035.jpg

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v186/p1169757167.jpg

More samples here

Review of: SMC Pentax 30mm F2.8 by Piotr on Mon July 9, 2007 | Rating: 9

View more reviews

Views: 149214
Reviews: 30

very good rendition, good color reproduction. Sharp, works well in good light conditions and is not so bad in bad - direct light, reflections. here you will find few examples http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/czarnowlato In general, very interesting lens and my rate is very high.

Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 12-24mm F4 ED AL [IF] by Piotr on Fri March 30, 2007 | Rating: 9

View more reviews

Views: 302792
Reviews: 61

great lens, not small with big hood. But, very sharp from f4, sharp from end of lens till infinity. No bokeh at all :fedup: Great for architecture and landscapes. Big quality is very good. If you look for someting wide difficult to beat. I use it often with slim b&w c-pol and vignetting is seen at 12mm and 13mm. [added December 2012] after 6 years this lens is still with me. It is very robust lens. Once I dropped it from a height of 1.5 meters onto concrete and nothing had happened to him. He fell on the hood and there is no any sign of it.

http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/image/92698071.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/image/122796439.jpg

More samples are here

Review of: SMC Pentax 24mm F2.8 by Piotr on Fri March 30, 2007 | Rating: 8

View more reviews

Views: 194369
Reviews: 32

it is quite sharp with f2.8 . It has good colour rendition. I compare it with DA 12-24/4 which is sharp as razor from f4. In my opinion it has better colours rendition then DA 12-24/4 and Tamron 24-135. Contrast is similar to 12-24 better then Tamron.

Review of: SMC Pentax 135mm F2.5 by Piotr on Mon February 26, 2007 | Rating: 9

View more reviews

Views: 305115
Reviews: 67

I've just received and did few test's shots. It is sharp from f2.5, very sharp from 4. Great color rendition, nice bokeh. I feel that this lens have something :o. After few weeks of usage: very good for portraits, did few really good shots. Very nice for landscapes, can have problems with difficult light conditions. Overall - for this price - excellent.

Review of: SMC Pentax-FA 77mm F1.8 Limited by Piotr on Thu February 1, 2007 | Rating: 10

View more reviews

Views: 377062
Reviews: 99

great bokeh and sharpnes from wide open. Not big. I've changed my rate to 10 after half year of usage. Great performer. Difficult to imagine better portrait lens. just few samples:

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v179/p1169764532.jpg

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v178/p1169764301.jpg

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v162/p1169763369-4.jpg

others are here http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/pentax_fa_77

Review of: SMC Pentax 500mm F4.5 by Piotr on Thu February 1, 2007 | Rating: 9

View more reviews

Views: 85604
Reviews: 12

It costs just tens of % of other 500/4.5. It works with Sigma TC1.4 and even TC2.0. It is manual focus in pure mode. First you need to focus wide open then you go from 4.5 (here DOF is thin like sheet of paper) to 8 or 11 and take shot. Not easy but works even with 1/100 sec with my DS (no any SR). Of course you need to have very stable setup - I use bean bag. I always use it from my car - too heavy to carry and use tripod. There are some CA at borders from time to time. But it is not big problem as I always crop my pictures with birds. Some examples can be found here http://www.pbase.com/piotreks/czw2006ptakli Hood is very deep and works perfect.

Review of: SMC Pentax-FA 100mm F2.8 Macro by Piotr on Thu February 1, 2007 | Rating: 9

View more reviews

Views: 165204
Reviews: 28

Great lens. Great 3D effects, beautiful bokeh and colors. Quite big and heavy, slow AF, but easy to use in manual mode. Works with my Sigma TC1.4 and TC2 and AX1.7 without problems. Very good performer from 2.8 till 32. I always prefered it as maco lens than portrait lens.

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v180/p1169765853.jpg

http://piotrsobolewski.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v184/p1169764389.jpg

More samples here

Review of: SMC Pentax-FA 50mm F1.4 by Piotr on Thu February 1, 2007 | Rating: 8

View more reviews

Views: 468687
Reviews: 156

I will say more or less the same. Soft wide open. Quite sharp from 2.8. Overall must to have for all pentax users.