New Member Registered: January, 2009 Location: Texas Posts: 16 | | Review Date: June 15, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Compact, image quality, sharpness, min focus distance | | Cons: | Slight vignette on full frame, small focus ring | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 7
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-1
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I found this lens at a flea market and got it for $15, which after some quick research, appears to be a great deal. The build quality is very good, all metal with an aperture window on the DOF scale. Metal K-mount without the Ricoh pin.
The close focusing distance, at least on my copy, is around 9cm. About half of what is listed in the lens description above. I was very surprised at how close I was able to focus on objects. Focusing was somewhat of a challenge due to the narrow rubber focusing ring positioned right at the end of the lens. Attaching a hood made gripping the focus ring difficult with having your fingers rub against the hood.
Optically, it is very impressive. Sharp wide open with a natural color profile. Colors are slightly muted from what I've seen on Pentax lenses. Aberrations are very well controlled, even wide open. I noticed very slight pin cushioning at 2.8 on a full frame. Quite surprising was that it had a slight vignette on my full frame K-1. It was fine without a hood but my widest, shallowest hood would still result in very slight vignetting. Shouldn't be a problem on an APS-C sensor. The vignetting was why I rated the aberrations lower, CA and PF very well controlled.
Appears to be a hard to find lens but, if you can find it, it would definitely be a worthy addition to any lens stable. Makes me want to seek out more Rikenon XR lenses if they're as good as this one.
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Pentaxian Registered: July, 2016 Posts: 5,129 | | Review Date: October 9, 2016 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | minimum barrel distortion, compact solid build, good center sharpness | | Cons: | significant coma at edges and corners, light falloff, field curvature | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 2
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 8
Camera Used: K-1
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Significant coma aberrations at the edges and corners limit the use of this lens to scenarios where only center sharpness matters or where one can stop down to at least f/8.
I've only done cursory testing but it seems like it could be very nice lens for landscape & architecture if one is careful to manage the aberrations and field curvature.
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