New Member Registered: February, 2019 Posts: 15 | | Review Date: March 21, 2019 | Not Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Cheap | | Cons: | Lacks "vintage" look" | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 10
Value: 7
Camera Used: Film
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I bought one and it was very good. Got a second one a year later and it was poor. Both clean. Both correctly put together. So no consistency.
As with many 28mm/35mm lenses from the 1970's and 1980's this suffers from poor infinity focus, but it's great up to about 20 yards away.
It's not as good as a Takumar or Pentax 28mm or 35mm, but it's good-ish. That makes it a fair lens for everyday work across a broad range of situations. Good contrast and overall quality across a wide range of functionality from f5.6 to f11 and still good at the extreme ends. Fair-to-good sharpness range from centre-to-edge, too. Really nice close-focus. Good at mid-range focus work. Only fair at long range landscape/architecture. It would be a 9/10 lens if the distant focus and overall sharpness was better by just a little bit. Good lens flare control from the multicoating. Pretty good turning circle to focus.
Servicing it is fairly easy. Front lens cluster is glued together so you have to break it open to clean out any internal fungus if it gets any. So make sure you get a clean version.
I hate the modern lens look that this has on a vintage camera, but other folks will love it. One of the best wide-angle lenses from my experience in terms of being a good - not excellent - all-rounder for under $30 in price.
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New Member Registered: June, 2017 Posts: 15 | | Review Date: September 22, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $11.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Its a rebadged Tokina 28mm F2.8 | | Cons: | variable quality now 30y old | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax P30 & M4/3 Lumix
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This is a rebadged Tokina 28mm F2.8 from the 1980s-90s.
It performs as well as the SMC M 28mm F2.8 - and on many bench tests from formal reviews it is better. With a 6 blade aperture bokeh is nothing special when stopped down but circular and smooth when opened up to F2.8-4.
Mine came from eBay - for GBP 9 - about 11 USD in September 2017. Take a look at how it came - https://www.pentaxforums.com/gallery/photo-hoya-28mm-f2-8-54021/
The problem with 30 year old lenses is that IQ depends on the dust and debris in the lens. Take a look at the copy I got described as being "Hoya 28mm f2.8 wide angle lens, Pentax PK mount in very good condition, easily adapted to fit most DSLR cameras with a simple adapter ring available on eBay or Amazon and camera set to manual. Clean optics and good cosmetics with both caps."
Now Tokinas in their Hoya badging are well made and the structure of this lens is very similar to the Pentax A 50mm lens - so it is not difficult to unscrew the front and get the lens elements out for a clean. Check out You Tube for how to do this. In this case it also needed some of the lens elements to have a soak in 100% ethanol and detergent to clear the fungus. Fortunately it was "new fungus" of about 4mm diameter - so had not solidified or calcified and etched the glass or coating.
As you can guess - the IQ jumped from 3/10 to the expected 8/10 after cleaning. Always be methodical and put the lens elements back the right way around. If you get this wrong you can create amazing defocused off axis images with swirly bokeh just like the Russian lenses that folk rave about ! Only the brave try to fix zoom lenses or lenses with cemented dual-element optics!!
The easist way to check for haze, fungus and debris is to shine a torchlight from behind. To photograph it I use the light of a laptop screen and a small sensor pocket camera - use these because of the incredible close-focus ability.
Conclusion -
[1] the IQ rating of an old lens depends on the clarity of the optics. This probably explains why so many reviewers differ in their opinions on Pentax Forums. Have a try at showing us the "through the lens" view when rating an old lens.
[2] the Hoya 28mm F2.8 is an excellent lens - when in good condition. Like all wideangles, the retrofocus rear element lens is both small and is very close to the film or sensor. Dust, haze and debris have a greater magnified effect than with telephotos that have much bigger rear lens elements. Plus wideangles get to have more sun in the picture - increasing the risk of flare.
Best wishes to you all. But Not Best wishes to the ******* who sold this as "very good condition"...."clean optics".....
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Site Supporter Registered: May, 2015 Location: Hampshire Posts: 892 | | Review Date: April 19, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Quite sharp | | Cons: | Not an "A" lens | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-5
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My copy differs from the example shown. It has a black aperture ring, a focus throw of about 190 degrees and has half stop clicks from F2.8 to 16 then a full stop to F22.
Maybe a later version?
It is quite sharp and seems to work well if maybe the colours are not quite as rendered by a Pentax SMC lens.
If you need a 28mm lens and don't mind green button metering, this could very well be closer to the better lenses in 28mm than those of lesser ability at a budget price.
My marks reflect the performance relative to the low cost of this lens.
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Site Supporter Registered: November, 2012 Location: North Wales Posts: 2,869
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 18, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | good all rounder | | Cons: | not in PKA mount | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K5, NX20
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One of the better 28mm I have tried, holds its own well against eg the vaunted SMC 28mm f3.5 and showed better than the sigma miniwide II compared it to. A bit underwhelming wide open but that's almost always the case, these wide angles are really designed to be stopped down. Good at f4 and from f5.6 shows very good sharpness across the (apsc ) frame.
Click on the composite to open full sized test image in a new window (4MB). Samsung NX20 (20MPx, default pp from RAW only)
8.5/10
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Senior Member Registered: January, 2014 Location: viking country Posts: 276
5 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 28, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | price, build quality, seems to be very sharp | | Cons: | the auto aperture size needs to be removed on K-30 | | Sharpness: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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Okay, I've had this lens for quite a while, but never used it... I got it for close to nothing at a garage sale and well, it's just been tucked away...It is almost in pristine condition, a small dent on the focusing ring is the only sign of use, internals are clean and close to dust free! Mine says Hoya, but judging from what others have stated and the looks of the lens, it seems to be the same as the tokina 28mm lens... So while cleaning out today I though I might aswell sell it, read a little about it, noticed that it had a value of about $20 and was ready to just put it back and forget about it for a while longer... But then decided to try it real quick at home, dark outside so only light was from the dining-room lamp and the subject of my photomania were a few reluctant fruits that could not run quick enough to keep away from the pointing lens.
here is the entire picture
and here are the cropped versions
F2.8
F4
F5.6
F8
F11
there should have been a picture at F16 here aswell, but it came out under exposed so I decided to scrap it.
maximum sharpness seems to be at around 5.6 to 8 before it goes down again. F11 is a tad better than f2.8 but it is definetly usable at wide open aswell and the main reason for that is displayed in the test below
sooo... I continued to the next test by yelling at the apples until they lined up nicely with about 4-5 inches apart. (this took some time, apparently apples are slow)
F2.8
F4
F5.6
F8
F11
F16
I love this Bokeh, it is stunning! too bad it could not go below F2.8...
The conclusion is simple, I'm glad I decided to try it out, this will probably get to work alot more in the future, and if you can get your hands on this lens, do it! For the money it seems to go for I don't think you can get a better wide angle lens!
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