| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 16-45mm F4 by kh1234567890 on Sun April 26, 2015 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 462370
Reviews: 120
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Sharp even wide open except maybe at 16mm where the corners begin to go soft. Bokeh is nothing to shout about but passable. AF is reliable at all focal lengths but on the slow and noisy side. Colour and contrast are very good, as is flare resistance. There is a fair bit of blue/yellow CA at 16mm which has to be corrected either in-camera or in post-processing.
Nice ergonomics with a wide zoom ring. Somewhat useless (not deep enough) hood is included. My sample has a good build - little if any decentering and no barrel wobble.
The cons are the size and weight of this lens and that it extends at the short end of the zoom. This makes it pretty useless for candid street photos.
Compared to the kit DA18-55 it is much better but not as convenient to carry around. Compared to the DA15 Ltd it is actually usable at f/4 and 16mm, but of course it is a fair bit bigger.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 40mm F2.8 Limited by kh1234567890 on Fri September 5, 2014 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 576053
Reviews: 148
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A little pancake gem. Small, light, excellent build. Optically very sharp corner to corner, hardly any CA or distortion, nice bokeh, good colour and contrast. Autofocus is very quick and accurate. Manual focus is a bit harder - the focus ring is of necessity quite narrow and the focus throw is on the short side. The inverted lens hood is clever and works well, the screw-on lens cap is unusual but usable.
40mm is just a little bit tighter than 35mm but the difference is small in practice and one gets quickly used to it. I prefer this lens to my DA35 Macro Ltd. It is nearly as sharp, just as fast but handles better.
         
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 15mm F4 ED AL Limited by kh1234567890 on Mon September 1, 2014 | Rating: 7 | View more reviews | |
Views: 411889
Reviews: 103
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Somewhat over-rated. It does all that a rectilinear 15mm lens should do. You can get some spectacular ultra-wide shots, although if you don't watch out you'll end up with lots of sky in your photos.
There is plenty of CA and bokeh is terrible. Flare resistance is good. My copy is reasonably well centered. With the SMC version you can get the pretty (or naff, depending on your point of view) starbursts. The lens cap is clever but impracticable.
The corner performance is annoyingly bad. Unless you really stop it down (to f/11-16) you'll invariably end up with soft out-of-focus frame corners. This can often be simply due to the foreground in the bottom frame corners being nearer to you than you think, but it appears to be a 'feature' of this lens, usually blamed on its field curvature. You can compromise to some extent and focus nearer, but the choice is then between a razor sharp center with fuzzy corners or not so sharp everywhere. Many of the spectacular DA15 shots you see on the web were taken with this lens either stopped right down or have had the fuzzy corners cropped out.
It is also important to realise that the rectilinear projection makes objects at the corners appear nearly twice as big than if they are at the centre of the frame, which doesn't help ...
On my K-5ii the autofocus (not that you really need it) at infinity is a hit-and-miss affair. It is a miss much of the time. You can help it by pre focusing at the far end stop but usually the AF decides to stop its spin short of the best focus setting.
Overall a bit of a disappointment. You can get the same ultra-wide view by stitching together two portrait orientation shots taken with the DA21. Or just use the cheap DA16-45, which is nearly as wide but much better at f4.
         
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-M 80-200mm F4.5 by kh1234567890 on Sun March 9, 2014 | Rating: 8 | View more reviews | |
Views: 221244
Reviews: 35
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My copy came well fungus infested and hence very cheap (£12.50 including postage). Fortunately, as with all the M lenses, it dismantled and cleaned up easily.
Physically it is very similar to its smaller sister, the M75-150 f4, of the same diameter but just a bit longer and slightly heavier. Same push-pull design - the zoom does not extend the lens at all and the focus ring has a similar well damped long travel. There is also a shortish built-in extendible hood. It is an all metal build, internally all parts are well finished and obviously made to last.
Performance-wise it is surprisingly good. Quite useable wide open and sharpens up a lot stopped down a few clicks. Bokeh is a bit on the rough side. As with all the old lenses there can be some purple fringing but there is little CA or distortion on my copy.
As far as handling goes I prefer the shorter M75-150 f4, this one is just a bit too long and heavy on a DSLR.
Some test shots at various apertures and focal lengths are here.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 70mm F2.4 Limited by kh1234567890 on Mon February 17, 2014 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 420226
Reviews: 102
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A brilliant little lens. Excellent build. Great corner-to-corner sharpness even when wide open. AF is fast and reliable. This lens likes people :)
Susceptible to bokeh fringing in contrasty shots and wide apertures.
         
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-A 35-105mm F3.5 by kh1234567890 on Sun February 2, 2014 | Rating: 6 | View more reviews | |
Views: 343128
Reviews: 79
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Having read all the wonderful reviews I'd bagged one off eBay. I'm disappointed - this lens is greatly over-rated.
It is bulky and heavy. On a K-7/K-5ii it unbalances the camera, making it far too front heavy for my liking.
The ergonomics are bad - the throw of the focus ring is only some 90 degrees (not counting the 'macro' extension). This is fine at the short end but makes accurate focusing harder at the 105mm end. The zoom ring is too narrow, badly placed and also has only a short throw. Being a A-type lens the aperture ring is best parked at the A setting and left there since the camera can control the aperture. The focus and zoom rings are well damped, the zoom ring bordering on 'stiff'.
The lens is parfocal (focus does not change with the zoom setting) over the normal focus range, becoming varifocal at the 'macro' extension settings. The 'macro' is engaged in an awkward way, a bit like a manual car gearbox shift. It is not really a macro setting, just a close focus extension. I understand that often over time the focus and zoom mechanism bushes do wear and loosen, resulting in some backlash which stops it being quite parfocal - my copy is just beginning to go that way.
The front of the lens rotates with focus over the normal focus range and it takes sizeable 67mm filters.
Sharpness wide open is reasonable but not exceptional in the centre and in the corners, except at 105mm where the wide open corners go quite soft. Things improve once stopped down to f4 or more. Centre sharpness is then quite good as is corner sharpness, except at 105mm where sharpness does not improve until stopped down to f5.6 or more. Past some f11 diffraction sets in and both centre and corner sharpness begin to go.
Bokeh is quite pleasant. Flare resistance is reasonable and a hood helps, although finding one which is effective both at 35mm and at 105mm might be hard.
This lens has something of a learning curve if you want to get the best out of it. Accurate focusing is certainly much harder than with my other manual lenses, even with a good focusing screen. The K-7/K-5ii viewfinder 'in focus' indicator is not much help either - for some reason it seems to be a bit erratic with this one.
I cannot see this lens growing on me - it can be good but is simply too fiddly and unfriendly to justify dragging its weight about. Carrying a bag of primes might be a better bet.
Some test shots at various apertures and focal lengths are here.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-M 75-150mm F4 by kh1234567890 on Wed May 22, 2013 | Rating: 7 | View more reviews | |
Views: 199246
Reviews: 58
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What a strange lens !
Mechanically it is a piece of very clever engineering. It is a push-pull zoom, but the lens does not actually extend at all over its focal range. In common with most of the M series lenses it is beautifully built, exuding solidity and precision. The aperture ring has precise half stop detents. Next comes the wide zoom/focus ring. This is unusual in that 150mm is set with the ring nearest to the camera end. The zoom/focus is nicely damped, just stiff enough to minimize any zoom creep. The front of the lens extends slightly at short focus distance and rotates when focusing. A short built-in sliding hood completes the design.
The overall look and feel is of a quite heavy, 'long and thin' telephoto lens. It is actually not that long, about the same length as the DA50-200. The focus travel angle is quite short at about 120 degrees or less, just a bit too short for really precise focusing. Similarly, the aperture clicks are quite closely spaced. The zoom travel is also short, at about 2 cm. However, in use it handles well, better than some other push-pull zooms of that era.
On APS sensor camera it is optically sharp even at f4 over most of the focal range and becomes very sharp when stopped down a few clicks. There is no geometric distortion to speak of and very little chromatic aberration. There can be just a touch of purple fringing in high contrast areas. Bokeh is not bad, possibly slightly on the 'busy' side - the aperture has only six blades. Overall contrast is reasonable, considering that there are 12 glass elements in the way. Colour is slightly on the cool side.
In its day, on a full frame camera, it would have been a fine portrait zoom lens.
There is however something not quite right with this lens when used on a DSLR, such as my K-7. Somehow the shots lack 'bite', requiring a fair bit of post-processing contrast tweaking. It is hard to tell whether it is a lack of microcontrast, flare, shortage of pixie dust or something else. I suspect that there is simply too much glass in the way.
Well, having taken it out on a sunny day with plenty of contrasty light, I have changed my opinion of this lens. It is actually very sharp and it seems to like plenty of harsh light - as long as you don't let it shine on the front element. Shoot from the shade into the sunlight and it really starts to perform, as it the last three shots below.
Being an all-manual lens the aperture and focal length are not recorded. The shots below were taken mostly at f4 (or maybe f5.6) and 'various' focal lengths.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-M 135mm F3.5 by kh1234567890 on Sun May 12, 2013 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 453496
Reviews: 112
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Some lenses are just right, others can be real dogs. This one falls into the just right category. eBay seemed to be flooded with copies of it going cheap, so I could not resist a quick snipe.
In its day it was the 'standard' telephoto to have, probably churned out by the thousand. There are faster 135's about, but this one has that intangible old Pentax M build quality about it.
It is small, even with the sliding built-in hood extended. The focus is well damped and the focus travel angle is perfect at about 225 degrees end to end. The aperture ring has half stop clicks and feels very precise. The sliding hood is quite short, certainly too short on APS to be really effective. But it is yet another nice little design touch.
My copy has blueish SMC coating on all the elements, including the rear one.
Image quality is very good. There is practically no distortion and only very little CA. There can sometimes be a touch of purple fringing in high contrast areas. Contrast could also be better but this can be easily fixed in post-processing. The lens is actually sharp and perfectly usable wide open at f3.5 and becomes very sharp at about f5.6. Colour is slightly on the cool side compared to modern DA Pentax lenses. Bokeh is superb, especially when wide open - very smooth and not at all intrusive.
A quick comparison with other lenses at 135mm f5.6 is here.
The more I use this lens, the more I like it - it definitely grows on you. It is so small that one can shoot unnoticed - ideal for those sneaky street shots. Also it seems easy to get the elusive '3D' effect, with the subject in focus against a just slightly blurred background and foreground. It is happiest in gentle light, overcast sky or 'golden hour' shots - contrasty scenes can provoke purple fringing.
Most of these shots were taken at f3.5 :
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 21mm F3.2 Limited by kh1234567890 on Wed December 5, 2012 | Rating: 10 | View more reviews | |
Views: 383731
Reviews: 96
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I've got the DA35 macro but often I would end up using the kit 18-55 at its wide end instead. The DA21 seemed like the ideal answer.
The DA21 is small and the clever lens hood hardly adds to its length. On a K-7 it looks positively diminutive. As with all the limiteds, the design and build exude that certain satisfying precision feel. The lens hood design is unconventional but effective. The lens cap is a solid piece of felt lined aluminium, in keeping with the look and feel of the lens, but a bit impracticable and probably expensive to replace. Fortunately a standard old Pentax slip-on 51mm plastic lens cap fits perfectly.
The 21mm focal length is just right on an APS sensor camera, such as my K-7. It is just wide enough to make a difference but not too wide to give that somewhat boring stretched effect of ultra-wides. Autofocus is accurate, quiet and quick - there isn't a great deal of mass to spin around with this lens.
Optically, this lens is sharp enough to allow some cropping without a great loss of quality. It is quite sharp even wide open and gets better stopped down. The sweet spot seems to be somewhere between f/4 and f/5.6. There is a fair amount of barrel distortion and some CA, both easily correctable in post-processing. Contrast and colour rendering are excellent. Flare resistance is good, although when shooting into the sun at a certain orientation it is possible to provoke a 'green blob' flare, probably a sensor reflection. Stopped down it gives nice highlight 'starbursts'.
The DA21 is inconspicuous enough for street photography and sharp and wide enough for landscapes and architectural shots.
            
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-M 50mm F1.4 by kh1234567890 on Sat June 23, 2012 | Rating: 8 | View more reviews | |
Views: 660005
Reviews: 113
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I spotted this on eBay attached to some old film body, another case where the seller thought the body was worth more than the attached lens, and had to snap it up.
Very nice metal build, much better than the series A lenses with their nasty aperture ring. Smooth and well damped focus. Aperture ring has half stop detents and is precise, if just a touch wobbly.
In use, wide open is a bit of a disappointment. Below f2 or thereabouts it seems quite soft and 'dreamy'. However compared to say a fully opened A 50mm f2 it is actually a fair bit sharper at that aperture. Things improve considerably at f5.6 and beyond. A good trick to try is to use a 49-28mm step-down ring as a lens hood. This effectively stops it down to f1.8 - most of the examples below were taken using this.
Bokeh is beautiful with the possible exception of f2-2,8 where the aperture blades overlay in a strange way.
As with all 50mm, on a crop sensor body the focal length is just a bit too long for my liking. Also, having a better focus screen than the stock Pentax one, such as the cut down Canon Ee-S, is just about essential.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED by kh1234567890 on Sat June 16, 2012 | Rating: 8 | View more reviews | |
Views: 526732
Reviews: 119
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I must live in a different world from some of the other reviewers. I also have the 50-200mm WR so I can't help but compare the two.
The 55-300 feels bulky, heavy and since fully extended with the hood on it hits some 23cm in length it also feels long. Not being into birding, this matters to me - it is hard not to be conspicuous with this lens on your camera.
AF can be noisy and slow but that is the price you pay for a long spin on the focus ring which actually makes it possible to accurately focus manually (no damping of course because of the AF). Performance-wise it is good but not significantly better than the 50-200mm. There is little CA or vignetting and very little purple fringing - what CA there is does vary with focal length, becoming quite noticeable at the long end. Bokeh is very pleasant and sharpness is good, as is contrast and colour.
Manufacturing quality control is abysmal - my first sample was badly de-centered. So if you get one and aren't happy with it throw it back at whoever sold it to you, the replacement might be better. However, do set up the fine AF correction properly, preferably at infinity, it does make a difference.
I like to travel light and hence I still prefer the 50-200 to this one.
Some pics :
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.8 Limited Macro by kh1234567890 on Thu November 3, 2011 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 492604
Reviews: 123
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Solid design, optically excellent - little distortion, no CA to speak of, very sharp even wide open, no flare. Colour rendering is excellent, as is contrast. Bokeh is OK, can end up a bit 'busy' with some shots when wide opened. Mechanically it is a good design with a built-in retractable sliding hood and a recessed front element.
35mm is a nice focal length on APS-C and I've found that I tend to use this lens more and more, not just for macro shots. f2.8 is not all that fast though.
On a K-7 the AF can hunt - it is a long way between the end stops and it takes time to spin if AF misses the first time. Assembly quality and QA could be better - on mine one of the iris blades sometimes slightly sticks.
At 35mm you have to get in really close for macro shots - not much use for things that can crawl or fly away !
If you are thinking of splashing out on a DA prime, get this one - it will grow on you. But do not lose that expensive metal lens cap ! :p
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-F 28-80mm F3.5-4.5 by kh1234567890 on Thu October 27, 2011 | Rating: 7 | View more reviews | |
Views: 204870
Reviews: 20
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My copy is the non-SMC, all white logo, eight blade diaphragm, eight optical elements version - i.e. the cheap, nasty, unusable kit zoom ;)
It had obviously sat in someone's shed for years and was well infested with fungus - not just on the optics, but also fluffy clumps of it on the inside of the main tube. Fortunately, as it was designed for quick assembly it came apart very easily and had cleaned up nicely.
Having taken it to bits, I can confirm that this version has coating only on some of the elements - in use this shows, the contrast of this lens is nothing to write home about and it is slightly susceptible to flare. However it is surprisingly sharp, once stopped down a notch or two, with good colour rendering. There is hardly any CA or distortion. On a K-7 the autofocus is fast and precise. The macro facility is basically a setting at 80mm with the focus zone shifted a bit nearer from infinity.
On APS-C sensor the 28-80 focal range is actually quite useful.
Not bad for £7 eBay bargain.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-A 50mm F1.7 by kh1234567890 on Thu October 20, 2011 | Rating: 8 | View more reviews | |
Views: 567644
Reviews: 143
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I had the 50mm f2 and have now picked up one of these. The difference in sharpness, especially when wide open is considerable.
Mechanically it is very similar, if not identical, to the f2 - nasty plastic aperture ring with a 'scratchy' feel, but perfectly smooth and wide span focus ring. Since the main reason for buying the A version is to be able to control the aperture from the camera and the aperture ring sits on the auto setting just most of the time this is of little consequence.
Optically it is acceptable at f1.7 and very good above about f2.4. Little, if any, distortion, but seems to be more susceptible to purple fringing than the f2.
On the K-7 with the standard focus screen accurate open aperture focusing is a bit more difficult - the standard focus screen does not work all that well at apertures below f2. Similarly, the angle of view of a 50mm lens is a touch restrictive on a APS sensor camera.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-A 50mm F2 by kh1234567890 on Thu October 20, 2011 | Rating: 7 | View more reviews | |
Views: 250578
Reviews: 73
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Cheapest of the auto 50mms. Soft wide open, gets better at f5.6+. Built spoiled by the nasty plastic stop ring with its ball bearing guided detents. Easy to focus even with the standard Pentax DSLR focus screen. With a bit of care it is a reasonable performer, but for just a little more you can get the f1.7 which is much better optically.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL WR by kh1234567890 on Mon September 26, 2011 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 335494
Reviews: 97
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Unbeatable price to performance ratio. An ideal consumer zoom. It could do with being faster, sharper, less CA, less distortion, better build, etc., but probably not at the price.
Autofocus works perfectly, quick shift focus is handy, lens hardly extends in length over its zoom range and the front element does not rotate. Bokeh is great, WR resistance is useful, the lens is very light and sturdy. Any misbehaviour (CA, barrel distortion, vignetting etc.) is predictable and easily corrected either in-camera or in post-processing. But do not put a UV filter on this lens - even a good one degrades IQ noticeably, use the hood instead to protect the front element.
My copy is acceptably sharp even wide open - if yours isn't then you either have a bad one or you are doing something wrong.
A great lens to get you started with.
I have little else to add except some pictures, all have EXIF data and full size originals accessible on Flickr, if you want to pixel-peep. All shot as RAW and post-processed with SilkyPix Pro 5.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 50-200mm F4-5.6 ED WR by kh1234567890 on Sun September 25, 2011 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 222049
Reviews: 35
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I love this lens.
Once you get used to its few shortcomings, mainly image corner softness at some apertures and focal lengths, it can produce some great images. Bokeh, colour rendering and contrast are brilliant. My copy has very little CA or distortion above some 60mm. WR seals are handy to have.
It is a fair bit smaller and lighter than the DA 55-300mm and IQ-wise there is really very little difference - I have both and still prefer this one. Handling and bokeh are much better.
A couple of tips :
Use the lens hood, it does make a difference.
Don't put a UV filter on this lens, it degrades IQ noticeably.
And make sure shake reduction, if you are using it, locks in before you fire the shutter.
Some shots :
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 10-17mm F3.5-4.5 Fish-Eye ED [IF] by kh1234567890 on Thu November 25, 2010 | Rating: 7 | View more reviews | |
Views: 306359
Reviews: 101
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Nicely made, not the lightest of lenses but well balanced and of solid, precision feel. Some fringing and CA effects with a K-7. No internal reflections or flare, you can shoot straight into the sun without any problems.
Fun to use but takes some practice since some shots work better than others.Great for shooting 360 degree panoramas, being arty or just messing about.
Edit :
I've had this lens for over a year now and the novelty has largely worn off. These days I tend to use it mainly for 360 degree panoramas since it lacks sharpness over all of its zoom range. At 10mm you can live with this as you'd be using it for the fish-eye effect, but at 17mm it is worse than the kit 18-55 at 18mm. Purple and blue fringing can also be bad in some situations.
The https://www.pentaxforums.com/userreviews/samyang-8mm-f3-5-fisheye-cs.html is a better and cheaper fisheye alternative if you don't need autofocus and zoom.
      
And an interactive 360 degree panorama - click image below and follow instructions, or better still use this link :
http://www.360cities.net/image/snow-in-manchester
Have a play with the different views or follow the big arrows for other of my 360 degree panos nearby.
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