| Author: | | New Member Registered: December, 2016 Location: The Hague Posts: 2
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 27, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $120.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Built like a tank, tack sharp, easy handling | | Cons: | Too glassy cold image | | Sharpness: 10
Bokeh: 1
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Fuji X-T1 + Zhongyi Turbo II
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(EDITED Mrt 2019: new pic)
First of all, yes, this is a manual lens, just like all lenses from the analog era. So the new digital generation that may balk at manual operation, reverting to AUTO settings better stay with their modern stuff.
I am from the analog rollfilm era and so I keep on doing everything manual and nothing with computer.
This Zenitar with Pentax mount is for me a very easy and nice fun lens for short range landscapes especially in the woods. It is very easy to focus, just by rotating the focus ring, and we all have eyes, no? it is not an extreme fisheye, so the distortions are moderate at FF and even less at APS-C.
I use this lens on a mirrorless APS-C with a Zhongyi Turbo II to emulate FF capability. So I do enjoy the full fisheye range of this lens. SOmetimes I use this lens on a Fotodiox Shift Adapter on APS-C (without focal reducer turbo), which is a lovely and extremely cheap surrogate for the more expensive 24mm shit lenses!
Usually I shoot from ground or hip level, so it is easy to get the horizon straight with this lens while the distortions are really not so fishy so to speak.
I mainly have the aperture at the notch between f/8 and f/11 and for me bokeh is not important for the kind of subject I use to shoot. The image comes out tack sharp, for me a bit too "cold" like glass. It lacks a certain warmth or softness, so I do need optical filters and some in-camera WB/k-temp tweaking and in-camera picture styling.
The image character is to me more like a scientific type rather than an artistic type. Color rendition is a bit bland, lacking saturation. So yeah, I do use rear and front filters plus camera adjustments in order to get some more warmth, or special color effects. I don't shoot RAW, just JPG for lack of time to edit/pp, so that's why I use optical means.
Sharpness is amazing even when using crappy filters up front. It is almost impossible to screw up a shot with this lens. Even wide open it's sharp in and around the center, and slightly blurry at the edges FF. On APS-C (without focal reducer turbo) sharp wide open.
There is no bokeh! Perhaps a slight unsharpness wide open, but that is not bokeh.
Well, I did not perform any nitty gritty scientific tests on this lens, just summarizing my own experience in short range landscape shooting.
I would definitely recommend this lens to anyone who loves friendly fisheyes.
MINUS: The focuser breaks down after a couple of years frequent usage. Then again time to buy another one. This now is my third sweet baby, I just bought for 95 Euro from a German ebay seller.
Here a screenshot from my NatGeo gallery. I am sorry I don't have the original anymore for upload. My disk ended functioning.
This photo I shot JPEG (no pp/edit) with a Zenitar Pentax lens adapted onto a Fujifilm X-T1 APS-C, hence the FOV 1.5x of that of a FF. I used the rear Yellow filter and adjusted the WB color temp, the blues and reds to compensate in order to get warmer highlights.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2014 Posts: 9
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: March 13, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $130.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Huge field of view, Nice bokeh, Simple to use | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-r, Pentax MZ-7
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The main reason I bought this lens is its focal length and that it can be used both on my digital and film camera.
The focus feedback works perfectly on my K-r camera.
I have uploaded some test shots for comparison with the stock lens and a Raynox teleconverter.
I have noticed that the F3.5 setting on this lens produces brighter images than the stock lens with the same settings. Notice the shutter speed differences and the photo brightness.
Sorry for the slanted pictures ;-) https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/68003-thunderflash/albums/9528-field-view-test/ | | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2014 Location: Europe Posts: 4
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 26, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $180.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp,sturdy,angle | | Cons: | a bit weird construction | | Sharpness: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax *Ist DS,Lumix GF2
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I love this lens ... sharp , perfect for video shooting , very comfortable to use ... although it has its quirks , i definitely don't mind it , it is very good quality lens overall,Nice not too fishy on my *Ist DS and perfect ultra wide on my Lumix gf 2(2x crop).Bought it mainly for video recording , so far handles perfect  | | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2014 Posts: 1
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 8, 2014 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | simple a utilisé | | Cons: | un peu lourd | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 5
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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Un bon grand angulaire et simple a pratiqué en plus il est solide | | | | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2013 Posts: 2 | | Review Date: July 2, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $140.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very sharp stopped down, good color rendering, coolness factor | | Cons: | Heavy, focus ring very stiff, soft wide open, not very fishy on DSLR | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 9
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I got this lens on the cheap when I looked for an affordable wide lens (it can be de-fished quite easily). But it isn't that fishy on a DSLR (K-30 in my case) anyway and the effect sometimes looks cool.
It is quite soft at f/2.8 and difficult to focus, even with a split screen, but that may be my lack of skill and my lens's super stiff focusing ring. It is very sharp from f/8 and when you shoot at f/11 or above, you don't have to worry that much about focusing anyway
Build quality is generally good, by with my lens, the aperture ring is set wrongly, so when I change the aperture it will click in place between two aperture values, which is inconvenient for a beginner. Other than that, it is excellent, and looks cool.
Bokeh is much better than I expected reading the reviews here, but nothing to write home about either. See below for an example.
Overall, I would really recommend this lens. It is fun to use, produces very nice pictures and is an affordable wide angle lens when de-fished.
The examples below were shot in RAW, I did no PP except convert them to Jpeg:
1. Close focus at f/2.8. I focused (or tried) on the leftmost spigot. Note the not-so-shabby bokeh:
2. Shot at f/8. Quite sharp, and I like the colors:
 | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2010 Location: NV/CA Posts: 370
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 13, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $199.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Build quality (excellent functinality in all aspects). Sharp, good contrast and price. | | Cons: | None that can't be worked around, like modifity a short hood or cap. | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 5
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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Excellent lens overall, superbly build like most if not all Soviet/Russian lenses. Excellent optical performance and very easy to use. Would use this lens over any other 16mm.
This is modification of lens cap/hood. Very easy and inexpensive.
Few defished JPG's
Can be a great lens for RE purpose.
 | | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: November, 2017 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,982 | | Review Date: July 29, 2022 | Recommended | Price: $150.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp, cheap, ultrawide, fisheye | | Cons: | soft wide open, fisheye | |
So this is a lens that I recently acquired used as it was something interesting in K-mount that I didn't have that my local camera shop got in, so a rare occastion. I did look here to see if this would at least be something interesting ot get or a waste of my time and it looke dlike it would at least be interesting so at $150 I figured why not. I didn't have my camera so my ability to actually test before buying was limited but the shop has a very good return policy so I have no problem buying if interested and then trying.
So here is my review and first impressions but I have not tried it for astro yet. Some quick and dirty test shots show that it does fairly well wide open but has some softness and if one pixel peeps there is some slight color fringing. In high contrast situations there is a good amount of purple fringing and wide open the corners are always soft. In going through and using the clicks on the lens it seems to get to it's best in the center at f/4 but the click before it gets really good. The corners don't clean up until f/5.6 and there they are great. If you noticed I said click instead of 1/2 stop because it really seems that going the click between 2 f-stops it doesn't go 1/2 a stop but instead 1/3 of a stop and the other 2/3rds is going from the click between to the next f-stop. I had the camera on my big (Manfrotto 3058) but not gigantic tripod so it wasn't moving and used green button to set the exposure and the click between each f-stop was consistently +1/3 stop instead of +1/2 stop. So this may mean something is a bit off with my lens but if that is the case I am still happy with it.
Wide open it purple fringes in high contrast situations and there are some slight color fringing but that clean up fast. It is also generally soft and low contrast at f/2.8 but that cleans up quickly with one click and at f/4 you are just left with soft corners. By f/5.6 the lens is golden to the corners.
From what I can tell from others my copy was from 1993 so was made during the time of very inconsistent quality control so my copy really seems to be one of the good ones.
I listed fishey as both a pro and a con as a fisheye means lots of distortion which can be fun once one masters and understands it or can be a pain.
Like always, I want to try this lens for astro shooting so expect an addition but I would guess that this will do fairly well but likely worse than my Laowa 12/2.8 Zero-D. I suspect it will be really good at f/5.6, pretty worthless at f/2.8 but in between depends on how it handles point light sources and how quickly it improves so that is a total crap shoot. However at this point that is all just speculation.
EDIT:
So I have gone and run this for astro shooting. I was pleasently surprised that it was not bad at f/2.8. It isn't as good as my copy of the Laowa 12mm F/2.8 Zero-D wide open but it is not bad. I wouldn't run it at f/2.8 but by f/4 it cleaned up very nicely like the Laowa does and apart from the fisheye distortion I would have a hard time telling them apart when they both are run at f/4.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: December, 2010 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 141 | | Review Date: March 12, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp at F5.6, Fisheye on FF, Solid build Quality | | Cons: | Custom lens hood | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 3
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K3, ME film
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Love my little Zenitar. Fun imaging at a good price.
A bit washed out at F2.8 but greatly improves at F5.6-F8
Colours are OK, image distortions are to be expected at this focal length
but can be compensated by careful composition (angle, height etc)
Fully manual so it takes a short time to get the settings on my K3.
DOF is nice at F8 to F22 and focusing is easy for landscape and
architectural applications. Close up, its great for distortion effects
but generally I haven't used it much that way.
A very solid build, smooth focusing, AP ring a little noisy
No quality issues with my specimen
Recommended for those who want to try an UWA at a
very decent price range
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: June, 2018 Location: Lyon / Rennes Posts: 39 | | Review Date: December 7, 2018 | Recommended | Price: $90.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Fish-eye, solid. | | Cons: | Reliability, CA control. | | Sharpness: 5
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 5
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K30
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So, this lens is quite hard for me to review, since I had a lot of problems with it, but let's start with the good points.
1 : It's solid, with the only pieces of plastic being the focusing ring, diaphragm ring and lens cap.
2 : It's gorgeous. Isn't it ? To me it looks really nice ; sadly, cyrillic K-mount version and cyrillic M42 mount versions are quite tough to find.
3 : It's a fish-eye. Yeah. That's cool no ?
4 : It's for full frame. That's why it is so hard for me to review it. (let's get to the cons) On APS-C there's quite a lot of chromatical aberrations, because of the smaller sensor (see why it matters here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_sensor_format ), with the crop it gives a 24mm not fish eye with a lot of distortion, so it blows away all the advantages of a fish eye lens.
Then, I find it to be nearly unuseable at f/2.8, being very unsharp, with quite low contrasts and huge chromatic aberrations. You need to stop down to f/5.6 to have okay results.
My copy was badly assembled, so it was unable to focus to infinity, I did a little bit of modifications and now I can, but still. Quite decieved of this lens.
Note : Older version seem to perform better, so if you want one, go for one built before 1991 (you can know the manufacturing date with the two first numbers of the serial number, mine was built on 2001, so the serial number starts with 01. A copy built in 1989 for instance will have a serial number beginning with 89.)
So I highly recommend this lens, but if you want one, buy one built before 1991 Or after 2016 (only the new, entirely black design) , and use it on full frame or with a focal reducer. Please.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2014 Location: Paris Posts: 1,939
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 7, 2016 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Build, size, price | | Cons: | MF (not really a problem), IQ at wide open | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
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This lens is small for the focal length, build like a tank (as expected from a Russian lens  ) and easy to handle, the angle of view is great : 180°
Wide open is not this lens' biggest advantage but improve a lot at f5.6 and f8 (understandable as portraiture is not the main target of this kinda lens anyway).
MF is considered an inconvenience but for this kind of focal length, it's not really a deal breaker either. Put the lens at hyperfocal and close the aperture to f8 and everything is in focus 
Great great great value compare to other modern lens ! Another good news is Zenit is producing this lens new so their QA is better now (no more stuck at infinity focus issue or lens hood problem ). And did I say it's in native K mount ? there, I said it, no more adapter
I'll add picture later and maybe more details review (pros/cons)
Here is a 100% of my test shot at f5.6 (focus at the eye)
Update : after testing for a while, I think the Zenitar 16mm is tack sharp at f5.6-f11 and can compete with the DA 15mm f4 limited (without the AF) in this sweet aperture range ! Again, super wide angle is mostly used for landscape and usually shot at f5.6-f11 so this is a great value lens, IQ/price = huge The fisheye effect is easy to fix with Photoshop or Lightroom and if you like the fisheye effect, even better, another reason to choose this little gem | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: December, 2007 Location: Jacksonville, FL Posts: 531 | | Review Date: March 19, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $165.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | very sharp, low price, inexpensive, full frame | | Cons: | Soft wide-open, | |
I purchased this lens a few months ago, and was initially amazed at how sharp and contrasty the images are. I have compared this lens to my Sigma 10-20mm, a Pentax DA14mm, and at 16mm on my Pentax 16-45/4 lens. From f/4 to f/11 the IQ is wonderful! I continue to be impressed with the sharpness of the images from this lens.
Since this is a full-frame lens, it can be used on a K1000 film camera or one of the many Pentax DSLRs. On my K10D, the image is a bit more that 90 degrees from side to side of the frame. It is a fully manual lens, so using it on a DSLR will take a little practice if you haven't used a manual lens before.
It is a full frame fish-eye lens. Which means that is will exhibit some distortion on the K10D. Using PTLens, most of the "fish-bowl" distortion can be removed. The result is a very wide, sharp, contrasty image.
I have considered selling this lens many times, and even listed it on the Marketplace once. But after thinking about it, I couldn't let it go.
This is one of the finest super-wide lenses in this price range. I feel that it would still be a bargain at twice the price. I rated it a 9 because it is so very sharp, and it is worth far more than it sells for. If it was an "A" (auto-aperture) lens, I might have rated it a 10!
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: January, 2009 Location: Berlin, DE Posts: 30
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 13, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $150.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | SHARP; contrasty, great colors, very low cost | | Cons: | Iffy construction, sample variation, build quality | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 6
Value: 10
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I have two samples of this lens, and found their quality control sub-standard. The first sample (M42 mount, made in 2005) was new-in-box; it was unsharp on the right. I had to unscrew the rear mount and add two 0.3mm washers between the mount and lens body to make it even. The second sample (native K mount and made in 2002) was used, and it was perfect from the beginning. That said, after I fixed the first lens, it became just as sharp as the second sample. However, I've heard multiple reports on users having to adjust one thing or another (most mention the built-in hood shading one of the corners, and mis-adjustment of infinity mark), which makes me conclude the problematic QC.
This lens (when problem-free) delivers great sharpness even in far corners. I think it's simply easier to make a sharp fisheye lens than a sharp rectilinear ultra-wide. CA are not a problem; they are not particularly low, but don't exceed the level of the 12-24 lens. I didn't notice any purple fringing.
Contrast is pretty high in this lens, with good color saturation. I didn't get the flare problem mentioned by other reviewers even when including the sun in the picture. Yes, the flare is there, but nothing more than you would naturally expect from a quality multi-coated wide.
On crop cameras, this lens makes limited sense, being a fun, distorted wide. On film (and full-frame bodies) it truly shines, but then it's already too wide to my taste. For this reason I prefer it on my crop digital bodies, as effective 24mm produce a very comfortable angle of view (at least for me).
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: January, 2011 Posts: 440
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 18, 2011 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | compact, sharp and cheap | | Cons: | flare could be better controlled, build quality needs improvement | |
This is really an awesome lens, esp. for aps-c. It's reasonably sharp, even wide open, very compact and easy to use. You get a view similar to a 24mm on FF, but with some distortion on aps-c, which is easy to slightly de-fish in PP.
On FF with film, it's a sharp full-frame fish-eye,with excellent contrast and color.
It takes a special front cap, which is easy to loose (I was VERY lucky to find a replacement recently). Also make sure you get the rear filters, or at least the "clear" one installed in the back of it.. it's part of the optical path!
Downside is the build quality means it's got some "give" to it, and the focus is a bit too "easy" for my taste, still, although none of this seems to affect the IQ, so quite reliable! A great travel wide-angle, I just got through using it for 4 months!
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: February, 2011 Location: Tallinn Posts: 162
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 4, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $150.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | sharp from 2,8 to 22 good color, ideal for video | | Cons: | quality is not first class, special lens cap, CA at f22 | |
Actually it is a happy lens. Very useful. Medium fisheye distortion. But most of all it is pixel sharp at f2,8. It get bit too sharp on higher apertures and produces color aberration on high contrast edges. This is easily corrected in RAW editor though.
I got it for video shooting with my K-5. Since it is manual lens with deep focus range it works great using *sweet spot*. No need to worry about your subject being in focus. At f11 you have everything from 80cm to infinity in focus. Distortion is not too extreme.
I rate it 8 because of the quality of the lens body. It is shaky here and there, but looks like made for military use. However the glass is really good.
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: August, 2009 Location: Courbevoie Posts: 72
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 24, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $130.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Light, price, overall quality | | Cons: | low contrast, poor coating, proprietary lens cap | |
Bought it used from Ebay, this was my cheap wide angle solution until I could move to the DA15Ltd.
I had a second-hand K-mount version, with only 1 filter. I did not experience any of the QC issues mentioned above.
I agree with most comments above.
- For the price you pay, you get a good wide angle lens with a slight fish-eye effect that you can either correct or play with.
- It's quite good when stopped down at f5.6, better at f8, and usable at f4. I would really avoid using it at f2.8
- The coating is mostly useless: the lens is very much prone to flare, and you can easily leave prints on the coating... Avoid shooting with any light source in front of you
- Don't lose the lens cap: it's unique... and tends to fall off easily
- I don't think the contrast is that good (if unfairly compared to my Ltd), but you can push it in post-prod
- Solid build
- All manual + green button, but exposure was ok on both my k200d and then my k-7
Obviously it does not replace a real fish-eye (DA10-17 or a samyang 8mm) or a linear WA (DA15 or 14)... but for the price, I believe there isn't anything better. Well worth trying - I have just sold mine, I hope I won't regret it in a few months  | | |
