Otis Memorial Pentaxian Registered: March, 2007 Location: Vancouver (USA) Posts: 42,007
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 26, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $118.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Good performance, low price, relatively good build | | Cons: | 77mm filter, bulkier and heavier than the Pentax kit lens | |
I was a little skeptical of the "plastic fantastic" claim, but for the price, this one is pretty hard to beat. It has better resolution and contrast and lower distortion than the Pentax kit (based on my personal test shots). CA is well-controlled and I did not experience significant purple fringing. While the body is plastic, it is pretty darned nice plastic. There is nothing cheap about the way this lens feels or handles. Zoom and manual focus is smooth and the "tire-tread" grips feel good to the fingers.
I bought this lens new on eBay for $118 as a gift for my daughter and was lucky enough to have the seller include the lens hood. (Yes, it is essential...) After a couple of dozen test shots, I was hesitant to follow through on the gift! She recently took it to Antarctica and it functioned flawlessly under some pretty rough conditions. The pictures look pretty good too!
| |
Senior Member Registered: January, 2007 Location: Phoenix, AZ USA Posts: 165
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 23, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $123.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp images and very affordable | | Cons: | Tokina lens hood is a separate and pricey option | |
It's a great lens for the price. I haven't noticed any purple fringing or distortion on landscape photos but I may not notice it if it jumped out and bit me. A cheap rubber hood should take care of potential flaring. The images are very sharp. | |
Veteran Member Registered: February, 2007 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 2,948
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 16, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $130.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | cheap, compact, nice results | | Cons: | 77mm filter size, lens hood not included (and it really needs one) | |
This is a good lens for the price, particularly on a 1.5× crop camera, because it's a full-frame design and you only ever end up seeing the best parts. I haven't done newspaper or brick-wall shooting, but from my practical use it seems plenty sharp edge to edge when stopped down a bit.
I've heard this lens called "Plastic Fantastic", but I'm not sure I'd go that far. There's definitely purple fringing and some barrel distortion and even irregular distortion, and despite the multi-coating, any bit of direct light will cause flare — they really should have included the lens hood.
The build is very solid for a cheap lens, though, and overall I'd say that it does constitute an upgrade from the kit lens for a moderate-wide-to-normal zoom. It's nice that the front element doesn't rotate, but with the 77mm filter thread, decent multi-coated filters cost more than the lens itself.
Hard exactly to know where to rate this on a simple 1-to-10 scale — when compared to other AF lenses at $130, it's hard to beat. But on an absolute scale, it's actually easy to beat. So, uh, let's call it a 7.
| |
Quote:
