| Showing all 8 reviews by Cipher | |
| Review of: SMC Pentax-DA 50-200mm F4-5.6 ED by Cipher on Mon April 17, 2023 | Rating: 8 | View more reviews | |
Views: 155628
Reviews: 58
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Bang for the buck, this lens is hard to beat.
Decent IQ, minimal CA, good range, weaker at 50mm. Bokeh is somewhat edgy.
Reasonable weight.
52mm to 49mm adapter filter rings are available and work well.
This is the lens to take climbing or hiking, if you break it you are only out a hundred bucks.
Biggest drawback is manual focusing—very touchy.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-M 28mm F2.8 by Cipher on Wed March 13, 2019 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 498087
Reviews: 93
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A great value.
I use it for general shooting on APS-C as well as for generating panoramics.
Good edge to edge image sharpness and illumination.
I think you would have to spend a lot of money to get a better 28mm.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-Q 02 Standard Zoom 5-15mm F2.8-4.5 by Cipher on Wed August 15, 2018 | Rating: 9 | View more reviews | |
Views: 53550
Reviews: 17
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It is hard to find anything to complain about in this kit lens. Exceptionally sharp at the wide end, very good at the long end. How many other kit lenses are 24-70 FF equivalent with flash sync up to 1/2000 and a built-in ND filter? It is robust (especially compared to the 06) and a great starter lens. It would be nice if it was constant 2.8, but then it wouldn't be as small. The common 40.5mm filter size is also a plus—it’s easy to find filters, caps and hoods. It is a little slow for low-light use. The manual focus option is twitchy.
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| Review of: Pentax-Q 07 Mount Shield Lens 11.5mm F9 by Cipher on Sun April 1, 2018 | Rating: 7 | View more reviews | |
Views: 24304
Reviews: 4
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Does anyone need a lens like this? For $27 I think it is worth it, just to shake things up a bit. "Instant Holga" from an optic that is about the size of two stacked silver dollars. It couldn't be simpler in operation.
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| Review of: SMC Pentax-Q 03 Fish-Eye 3.2mm F5.6 by Cipher on Thu September 21, 2017 | Rating: 10 | View more reviews | |
Views: 39413
Reviews: 19
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A great little lens, more than just a "toy". Usable images with very close focus capabilities.!
Use the 6x preview to aid in focusing. Bokeh is neutral, only visible on close-ups, and is pretty good considering what it is.
It does have some quirks, however. The focusing is not like regular lenses, here is what I have found the tick marks on the lens barrel to mean (Left to Right as looking down from behind the camera:
1. Way beyond infinity
2. Beyond Infinity
3. Hyperfocal (3 feet to infinity)
4. About 1 foot (from the front of the lens)
5. About 6 inches
6. About 4 inches
7. About 3 inches
8. About 2 inches
9. About 1 inch (as above)
NOTE: A Q-7 or Q-S1 the camera will auto-crop the image to fill the frame. You can get more coverage (with a tiny bit of vignetting at the corners) if you put paper over the lens contacts before mounting the lens, you'll have to manually input the focal length on start-up.
UPDATE: I've used this lens for a couple of years now, having it "hiding" in the bottom of my kit. I have found it to be really useful in many situations. This is a great value for someone who is interested in exploring fish eye photography. It is tiny, smaller than a 35mm film canister, and very light.
UPDATE UPDATE: If you shim the mount/lens connection with regular frosted tape, the focus range will be at infinity at the left-most tic mark (there is still a little play beyond infinity.) This will also enable the close focus distance to be less than 1/2 inch (12mm).
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| Review of: PENTAX-110 18mm F2.8 by Cipher on Mon August 28, 2017 | Rating: 7 | View more reviews | |
Views: 58198
Reviews: 10
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Used on a Q7.
Very nice little lens, capable of quality images. I usually use with a rubber washer in the adapter to give a f4.5 aperture, although it is also nice wide open. Use a hood. Gives images a different 'look' than modern optics. Here is a link to a photo essay I shot with the 18mm:
https://flippistarchives.blogspot.com/2017/07/food-truck-frenzy.html
In direct comparisons, for near to mid distances I've found it to be almost as sharp as the 06 at 18mm and the 02 at 15mm. This is a very easy lens to use, with only 1/8 of a rotation to change focus from 4 feet to infinity. The 10" close focusing distance is very nice for a FF 80mm equivalent FOV. Used on the Q7 edge to edge sharpness is excellent, with minimal distortion and CA. That said, it is hard to justify its use if you have a 02 or an 06. I've also been using it with the W21 close-up lens for macros for nice compact macro lens about the size of a film canister—with about a 2 x 2 3/4 inch field of view.
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| Review of: PENTAX-110 50mm F2.8 by Cipher on Mon August 28, 2017 | Rating: 10 | View more reviews | |
Views: 41961
Reviews: 6
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This is simply a wonderful lens, and the one I use most often on my Qs.
Its size, weight, and superb handling characteristics are exceeded by its unique image quality. It is as clinically sharp as a modern lens, but it has a "smoother" rendition. I generally use it at f4.5 with a rubber disc in the adapter, a little beyond the diffraction limit, but that setting gives it a very uniform edge to edge sharpness and illumination. At f4.5 with an extension tube it gives great macro results.
Wide open (no stop down disc) is good for dreamy portraits. You should use this with a deep hood. Get a 37.5mm to 37mm filter ring adapter to be able to use a common 37mm hood. It shoots OK into the sun, but it will fringe a little on high contrast edges—see example below:
Here is a link to a photo essay I shot with this lens:
https://flippistarchives.blogspot.com/2022/03/carmel-capers.html | |
| Review of: SMC Pentax-Q 06 Telephoto Zoom 15-45mm F2.8 by Cipher on Mon May 22, 2017 | Rating: 3 | View more reviews | |
Views: 47116
Reviews: 12
| When it works, a perfect 10.
It has very good contrast, and good resolution. It is very light, perhaps too light. Auto focus is reasonably fast, but manual focus is almost unusable. Considering that it is the FF equivalent of a 70-200 f2.8, it is remarkable for what it can do in such a tiny size.
There is a definite problem with this lens in its construction and robustness, however, as others have noted. It has a known issue of the internal focusing failing without cause, unrepairable if out of warranty, take your chances on a replacement from Pentax if under warranty. Because it is a focus-by-wire lens, it appears to be a failure of the circuitry, when it fails it cannot be used in any mode.
I have owned dozens of Pentax products over the years and this was the most disappointing, in that it worked so well but broke down so soon. The other Q lenses I have seem to be made to a higher standard.
Consider it a disposable item. Buyer beware! | |
