Junior Member Registered: December, 2011 Location: HArtford CT Posts: 46 | Review Date: June 17, 2016 | Not Recommended | Price: $160.00
| Rating: 7 |
Pros: | Bokeh | Cons: | Completely Manual - Aperture stopdown mechanism could improve usaeability | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 5
Value: 7
Camera Used: K1
| | Yes I bought it. Bought it before I bought the Pentax DFA 28-105, so now I don't really have a mission for this lens. The lens is reasonably sharp - which of course will depend on your ability to obtain proper focus manually- the camera will confirm focus with a beep. The tricky part is then stopping down (assumption) to take your shot without moving the focus ring. I gave handling a low 5 precisely because of this. I did not observe any negative attributes in the optics. This lens seems to be more about meeting technical requirements for optics rather than "creator" comforts.
If your workflow involves a tripod and buckets of time to compose your shot this lens may work very well for you. Because of the completely manual features you indeed become the Creator - cant blame automation here. Rest assured focus and exposure will be precisely what you set them at - nothing will change unexpectedly during exposure.
The lens is heavy and well machined. Focusing ring is smooth and precise as well as the aperture ring. I should mention here there is no communication between the camera and lens - no aperture coupling. You may open the lens fully to focus and frame your shot but if you want to shoot at a lower aperture you have to set that lower aperture before exposure.
This is a lens for artists , not for snapshooters. Photo below was shot with the Mitakon right after I unboxed it - Pentax lens is just being a model here. Only sharpening and crop was applied to the Raw image. Pic was shot with the lens wide open at f2 from about 2 feet using LiveView on the K1. Beautiful bokeh | |