Pentax DA 35mm f/2.4 AL Lens for Pentax Digital SLR cameras

This is a great lens, lightweight and compact; it allows me to photograph people without attracting a lot of attention. The autofocus on this lens is very fast and accurate, and allows me to capture moving children . This has helped me to increase my keeper rates to around 90%, around a 30% increment when compared to my zoom lenses(Tamron 28-75 & 24-135); which always never had the subject in absolute focus when speed was necessary. This lens has made me understand why people love Pentax primes, and rejuvenated my passion for photography. I can carry this lens everywhere and shoot for hours without any signs of tiring. Prior to this, I sometimes used to dread taking my camera out of my bag. But now I do not think twice about doing so. One con I can think of is the usage of six aperture blades for this lens. Due to that attribute, this lens produces a smoothy blurred background with hexagonal circles of confusion; at any aperture above f2.4. This is an area where I certainly miss my zoom lenses; which produces very creamy bokeh with beautiful circles of confusions. I wish the lens was a f1.8 lens, which would have made this lens a true classic. However, I do realize why Pentax could not offer a faster lens as the DA 70mm limited is the fastest DA branded lens; which runs for 500+. If Pentax started offering lenses faster than that I guess it would be harder for them to market the 70mm limited. On the plus side, however, since this is a f2.4; the DOF at that f-stop is not razor thin and allows me to take great pictures w/o worrying about subjects being out of focus. Now, I have seen people complaining about the build quality of this lens. In my honest opinion, it is very good and tightly built. Sure the lens barrel wobbles slightly but I have held the 40mm limited (which I returned since I did not like the FOV) and Canon 24mm f2.8, and IMHO the build quality of the 40mm is not that superior than the DA 35mm f2.4, and the Canon is pretty appalling compared to this lens. So, I don't have any complaints with the build quality of this lens. Other camera manufacturers have been getting away with far less. It is certainly near the build quality of my Tamron 28-75, which has loosened up a lot after 2+ years of reliable service.

I have read a lot of reviews about this lens on many sites but the two that sold me was Photozone, an excellent review there as well as on DPReview. When I saw this on Amazon for $177 I grabbed it. The description said box would have cosmetic damage made me a bit wary but Amazon does have an excellent return policy so I wasn't overly concerned. Well the lens was in perfect shape and I was surprised about how well it's made and although I have only taken a dozen photos with it, mostly in an alley photographing debris, one of my favorite things, I was very pleased with the results. Wide open a bit soft on the edges but hardly noticeable, you will have to do some serious pixel peeping to find it which I did, when doing closeups it really isn't something to be concerned about besides stopping down to f/4 it's very sharp. Contrast is excellent as well as colors, I generally use a natural setting as opposed to bright or vibrant with and extra fine sharpening for me it's a good combination considering I prefer to create abstracts. Bokeh is ok and there is some barrel distortion, the latter easily correctable, the former can be modified somewhat in LR5 or Topaz Lens Effects so a better rendition could be had with a bit of effort. Vignetting is almost nonexistent, again easily correctable. CA's are there wide open but at f/4 there gone. No doubt they will appear in high contrast conditions but there are tools to correct this including in the K5 which I use. You will have to know your subject and change your setting on the fly. This lens does not come with a lens hood but I did buy a metal one from Rainbow Imaging for $8.59 (Prime) listed on Amazon. I really recommend this hood. It's a metal screw in type but it will accept 55 mm filters, since the hood can be left on and if you have a need for a lens cap you will need a 55 mm one. I like this hood for one other reason, the filter threads on the lens are plastic so this hood reduces the chance of damage, in theory anyway. Finally, I have no doubt I can recommend this lens, it's light weight, compliments the DA LTD's very well and fills the 50 mm gap FOV nicely. Plus I was very lucky to get a fantastic price from price from Amazon but I think it would be a good buy at retail. If I had the need for the 50 mm version of this I would also buy it but since I have a Pentax A 50 mm f/1.7, which I doubt if I would ever give up except for the f/1.4 version, I couldn't justify the purchase.

Great lens for street photographers. Not too wide to distort but enough to capture great moments

It's plasticy but feels alright. The front lens protrudes so it will need some sort of protective filter or a lens-hood attached to it. The lens is sharp, light and value for money but the Auto focus is too noisy. The AF does hunt a bit but it is just too noisy and may be embarrassing while in crowd. Overall it is a good lens and value for money.

Premier jour = 150 photos avec cet objectif et déjà il me parait déjà indispensable. Très léger. C'est vraiment l'objectif passe partout pour les photos de tous les jours. Je suis surpris par la différence avec mon 50 mm. On se retrouve beaucoup moins souvent en manque de recul par rapport au sujet et de ce fait donne un confort d'utilisation bien supérieur. MAP bruyante mais très réactive. Qualité des images de très bonne facture. En lui adjoignant un filtre polarisant on améliore de façon significative les contrastes du ciel en gommant les reflets sur l'eau. Très satisfait de mon achat, je le recommande a tous ceux qui cherche un focale fixe pour un usage courant. Et, pour ceux qui hésitent entre 50 mm et 35 mm (j’étais de ceux-là) je conseille vivement le 35 mm qui "couvre" beaucoup plus de situations avec une plus grande profondeur de champs. (comparé au 50mm F1.7) Très bon rapport qualité prix. La construction plastique ne me gène pas car le produit parait de bonne qualité.

Quick delivery and as described

Plastic Fantastic - non ha bisogno di presentazioni. Obiettivo perfetto.

I've had this plastic fantastic almost 2 years now, and it's been a little revelation. Here are some plus and minus points that I feel are worth noting. Positives: - Well made. Even though it is an all plastic body and mount, it's very solid. In my experience, the plastic mount is no problem, just as it's never been a problem in my 18-55mm DAL. Obviously, you wouldn't want to drop it - but even if it was all metal, this wouldn't save the glass. - It's a sharp lens, even if it doesn't have the highest resolution according to DxOMark (8 P-Mpix, depending on the body it's mounted on). The rendering is pleasant - not too clinical, although not with the character of old glass, since this is definitely a "modern" lens with better coatings etc. - AF is fast, and quiet (for a screw driven lens, of course), and there's no hunting, even in low light. - The lens handles flare like a champ, seems to be quite free of CA (my copy is, at least), even in difficult situations where most of my other lenses exhibit it to some degree. I do use a cheap rubber hood (to fit the 49mm filter diameter) to prevent stray light from hitting the front element at an angle - helping the lens to achieve optimal contrast. - The ergonomics are very good, the lens feels just right on my K-r. Perhaps it might feel light on a K-7, K-5 or K-3, but I would guess it would be fine, since lightness is hardly likely to be a downside for a lens. Since this is a fast lens, I'll talk about that in the next two points: - Light gathering ability is good enough for night shooting hand-held, and I've had some joy doing night street photography. It's perfectly adequate for indoor shooting too, provided the lights aren't too low. I would guess that the T-stop is about as close to the F-stop as could be expected. As would be expected with any 35mm lens, a shutter speed of just 1/50s is fast enough to avoid shots being spoiled by camera shake. And, since all Pentax bodies have SR, you can get about 3 stops better performance than that - meaning reasonably sharp handheld shots at 1/8s or even 1/6s are quite easy to achieve with proper technique (for still subjects, of course). - Bokeh is, for the most part, pretty pleasant. However, it's really not possible to be objective about the quality of bokeh, since it's very much a matter of personal taste! Obviously, there's a greater DoF than a 50mm f/1.8 would have, since the FOV is wider and the aperture less narrow. Also, it doesn't focus especially closely (min. focusing distance = 30cm or 1ft), so if your subject is close to a "busy" background, then the blurring of the background is likely to seem "busier" too. If you know what you're doing, then you can get quite lovely bokeh, so I'm including this as a positive. Besides, when you consider the price of a 35mm f/1.8 vs. this f/2.4, I think you can appreciate that you're getting good bang for the buck here! Negatives: - For manual focusing, the focus throw is just a bit too short, however, it is smooth at least. When you are working with apertures like f/4 and beyond, DoF isn't so fine and focus isn't so critical. At f/2.4, however, you need to be a little more patient. - There is no aperture ring. This means that if you want to use extension tubes to shoot macro, you'll need ones that support automatic aperture (KA). If you reverse mount the lens, then you might use a toothpick to open the aperture a bit to approximately f/8, as per your best guess. - The lens exhibits a fair amount of vignetting at f/2.4. It's mostly gone at f/3.5, and I can't see it anymore at f/4. It's also a little softer in the corners, but again, once you stop down a bit, that problem is gone. - There is some - While in my copy, I can honestly say that CA is NOT a problem, DxOMark state that it's 9nm, which is quite high (about 1.8px wide). I have never felt the need to correct for CA with this lens, and I don't have in-body CA correction turned on. I experience more CA with most of my other lenses. I may have an exceptional copy, or DxOMark may have been testing a defective copy with poor coatings - who knows? In fairness, these negatives aren't much of a criticism, since this is an AF lens that you're not likely to want to manually focus with, and 35mm, whether using extension tubes or reversing the lens, isn't going to give the best macro results anyway. The vignetting can actually look quite arty, and is really nice in casual portraits (even if the 52mm equiv. focal length is at least 30mm too short for classic portraits), and is gone from f/4. Perhaps the best application for this lens is street photography, where it really excels, although it's my no.1 walkaround lens. I use it for landscapes, details, casual portraits, street photography, interiors (where wide angle isn't essential) and non-macro flower shots (that's basically everything, isn't it?). I suppose the main downside is that it's just so useful, and I use it so much, that I have a tendency to just take it for granted ;) For what it's worth, I've included some sample shots.

KPでスナップ撮影に使用。キレイに撮れます。安いです。コスパ最高です。 緑のラインは素敵ですがカメラに付けた時の姿はあまり格好良くはないかな。