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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2010
I was UNPREPARED for the quality of this lens with portraits. Granted there is no zoom but wow! I am not a professional but if you are an amateur photographer trying to move upto taking better pics, this lens will go a long way.
The bokeh and the skin tones just look good is all I will say. I bought this lens specifically to take portrait shots of my family and it's superb for this purpose. Pentax claims that it is a good landscape lens even though it is not wide angle. I am happy to say that this is actually true. Obviously you have to move back a lot to get a large scenery since it is not wide angle but I have been consistently surprised by the landscape quality.
Disadvantages:
1. I was unprepared for the limit on close focusing distance. Not a problem with portraits but if you are using it as a walk around lens you will often have to step back to get the picture focused. Once you get used to this limitation it is no big deal.
2. The lens hood is convenient except when trying to place filters for landscapes etc. Then you have to remove the built in hood which would be ok if it could have been placed back with the filter in place but it would not grip onto the filter I already have so I end up having to store the hood when doing so. Not an issue with portraits though.
3. With the issue noted in #1 you cant do anything close to macros. Well I did the next best thing: I got the DA 35mm macro. Another superb product since I dont shoot bugs just flowers and abstracts. Pentax SMC DA - Macro lens - 35 mm - f/2.8 Limited - Pentax K
General advantage of pancake type lenses:
The biggest unexpected advantage to this type of lens is something I just noticed accidentaly. When you dont have to carry a big lens around, you will use your camera more. Which means more photos. More photos means you learn to take better pics. Better pics is a positive feedback cycle. You keep shooting pics...Buy this lens today!
The bokeh and the skin tones just look good is all I will say. I bought this lens specifically to take portrait shots of my family and it's superb for this purpose. Pentax claims that it is a good landscape lens even though it is not wide angle. I am happy to say that this is actually true. Obviously you have to move back a lot to get a large scenery since it is not wide angle but I have been consistently surprised by the landscape quality.
Disadvantages:
1. I was unprepared for the limit on close focusing distance. Not a problem with portraits but if you are using it as a walk around lens you will often have to step back to get the picture focused. Once you get used to this limitation it is no big deal.
2. The lens hood is convenient except when trying to place filters for landscapes etc. Then you have to remove the built in hood which would be ok if it could have been placed back with the filter in place but it would not grip onto the filter I already have so I end up having to store the hood when doing so. Not an issue with portraits though.
3. With the issue noted in #1 you cant do anything close to macros. Well I did the next best thing: I got the DA 35mm macro. Another superb product since I dont shoot bugs just flowers and abstracts. Pentax SMC DA - Macro lens - 35 mm - f/2.8 Limited - Pentax K
General advantage of pancake type lenses:
The biggest unexpected advantage to this type of lens is something I just noticed accidentaly. When you dont have to carry a big lens around, you will use your camera more. Which means more photos. More photos means you learn to take better pics. Better pics is a positive feedback cycle. You keep shooting pics...Buy this lens today!
