| Author: | | Forum Member Registered: January, 2012 Location: Frankfurt Posts: 89
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 29, 2012 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Clinical sharpness, small and light, very bright | | Cons: | MF | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
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My father gave me this lens along with two other Chinon lenses, that he used with his
excellent CP-5 camera during my childhood.
I have only used this lens for a short time but the sharpness and clarity (fine details) what I get are among the best I have ever seen. Even wide often I find this lens highly usable, but stopped down a bit it becomes clinically sharp on the K5 and the pictures tend to have a 3D feel.
I also find the colors very accurate. I have tried quite a few lenses (including the Pentax 50,1.7) and I do not rave easily about them, but this one is a hidden gem.
Manual focusing is easy with this lens, but of course it takes some practice if you want to get good results with very thin DoF at the lowest apertures between 1.4 and 2.
| | | | | | | Junior Member Registered: June, 2015 Location: Százhalombatta, Hungary Posts: 37
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 5, 2016 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | F1.4 aperture, great sharpness when stepped down, excellent for portraits and certain shots | | Cons: | You have to take your time for each shot, after all it's fully manual | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K10D
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I just got my hands on this masterpiece. This is my first prime lens and I was in awe, when I saw my first test shots on my monitor back home. The level of detail, as well as the color rendering and the bokeh... was nothing like I ever did produce with a camera before. (I only had a kit lens before)
My copy does have a tiny crack on the 50mm lettering, but that doesn't affect the operation in any way. Condition-wise it was almost new.
I would recommend this lens for anyone, who is not afraid of using a fully manual lens. Using the aperture ring is no big deal and for portraits, it is idea. It must be kept in mind though, that this is a film camera lens and as such, you have a 1,5x crop factor with it, which makes it equal to ~75mm, if I'm correct. Far from ideal for landscapes.
As it was mentioned, wide open at f1.4 it does produce some dream-like blur, which looks very cool, but stepping down the lens does eliminate this. At f/2 it is sharp. At f/2.8 it is razor sharp!
A few shots with this lens:
Roman bridge
Isle of Peace
Unknown flower | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2010 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 2,653
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 30, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Good solid build, nice bokeh | | Cons: | Soft at f1.4, some flare | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 8
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This is a well built, all metal lens. Aperture ring has precise half stop detents (whole stop ones at 1.4-2 and 16-22), focus ring is smooth and has a long, about 240 degree throw. Despite its name, it functions only as an all manual lens on a Pentax DSLR.
Fully open it is soft, resulting in a sort of dreamy, hazy rendering (halation) as the third photo below shows. This disappears at about f1.7 (half a click on) and perceived sharpness improves considerably from f2 onwards, the lens becomes quite sharp by f5.6. Chromatic aberrations and distortion are quite low. Colour rendering is somewhat on the cool side. Bokeh is smooth and pleasant - there are eight curved aperture blades.
The more I use this lens the more I like it - as long as you avoid opening it up above some f2.
Use a good and deep lens hood, especially when shooting wide open on APS sensors, it does make a lot of difference.
Or, even better, use a 49-28mm step-down ring as a hood !
And some images :
  
  
  
 | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: January, 2009 Location: Champagne Ardennes, France Posts: 19
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 29, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $55.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Nice Build (all metal), fast, cheap and good performances | | Cons: | A little bit soft wide open, heavy | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 9
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It was one of the first "old" lenses that I used with my K100D
Good MF feel, all metal built, this oldie (but goldie) makes a very good job for half price of a SMC lens. (fine pictures, and nice colors). It needs to be stopped down at f2
(the picture under is taken at f1,4)
I think the IQ is close to M pentax lenses, and a little bit better than the Chinon 35/f2,8 (that I own) in terms of sharpness. I didn't sell it even after buying a SMC A 50 f1,7. Very nice to use in low-light situation.
 | | | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2011 Location: Lost in translation ... Posts: 18,076
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 3, 2012 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Build, bokeh, compact size, 49 mm filter ... | | Cons: | "Too" soft wide open ... | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
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Bonjour,
I just had another super day at my local French thrift shop and picked a very good copy of this lens for nothing (so no price entry here to distort purchase price average). So far, a great little lens that soaks up a lot of light. Not sharp enough at wide open, but down a couple and things get interesting. Great bokeh and super build of a surprisingly compact lens for a f1.4. Overall, worth a 8 in my books which should increase the more that I use it and learn how to better use it. Sample images to come later ...
Salut, John le Frog
Wide open on K-5
 | | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: March, 2007 Location: Toowoomba, Queensland Posts: 23,920 | | Review Date: July 24, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Solid build, smooth bokeh | | Cons: | Soft wide open | |
My first MF lens.
Used it on my first dSLR (the K100D).
I learnt a lot with this little gem - the bokeh made me fall in love with wide aperture photography.
Quite soft wide open, and hard to get focus right with such thin DoF but a joy to have used in the past.
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