Pentax SMC PENTAL-Da 35mmF2.4AL Standard Lens Focal Length 53.5mm (Equivalent to 35mm Format) High Delineation Performance F2.4 High Brighness Compact Lightweight Design Aspherical Lens Super Protect Coating, Black (21987)

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.

Prior to buying this lens, I've just been using the 18-135 WR that I bought with my K-30. I wanted to try a prime and this was the cheapest one I've seen that got decent reviews. I've been using it for about a week; I'll update in 6 months or so. I'm impressed so far. First, the drawbacks: 1) I shoot mostly outdoors. We get a lot of rain and wind here. The 18-135 is weather resistant, so I don't worry about taking it out in the rain or down to the beach when the sand is blowing around. I wouldn't want to take this lens out in those conditions, so that limits its utility for me. 2) As pretty much everybody notes, the lens is very soft on the edges at f/2.4. I tried shooting some distant landscapes with it completely open with pretty poor results. The center of the image was fine, but a significant portion of it was unacceptably blurred. 3) It seems like an awkward focal length to me, which may just be my lack of experience. If I had a bigger budget I would probably get one wider prime lens and one longer one. 4) The K-30 is a pretty loud camera, and with this lens it's noticeably louder than it is with the weather-resistant zoom. You won't be sneaking up on anybody. On the plus side: 1) It's extremely light but the K-30 still feels balanced with it, so it's very comfortable to carry around. 2) At smaller apertures it is really, really sharp. People noticed the clarity and detail of the images right away. Full size prints (14"x21") will look good, and I think it'll be possible to substantially enlarge images that are well lit and well focused. 3) While I won't be using it wide open on landscapes, I went out and shot some macro-ish stuff and got decent-to-good results at every aperture. The very narrow depth of field at large apertures on close shots makes the softness on the edges pretty much irrelevant so long as your focal point is in the center. If you're into macro stuff, you should be able to do very well with this lens. I'm sure the focal length won't seem so alien once I get used to it. Meanwhile, the image quality of the shots that I am comfortable with ranges from really good to stunning. For $150 or less, there's no way to go wrong with it. It has its limitations but they're easily worked around and when used to best advantage, it'll give you some great images.

The free shipping was fast as usually, thanks to Amazon.com! You can read all other reviews for its pros and cons. I'm just telling you why I've picked up this lens. I went to a kid's party about two weeks ago, I took my K-x with the 18-55mm kit lens on it. I set ISO to 1600 (sometimes 3200) auto. I didn't use flash at all. Most of time, the indoor light were sufficient for a decent photo. However, kids moved a lot and fast, the shutter speed was simply not enough to capture those actions...so a faster lens is obviously necessary for this situation. I have a M 50mm f1.7 lens, I got the decent speed, but with manual focus, it's almost impossible to get focus quickly enough. So my conclusion is that I need a faster lens with AF! I've been thinking to get FA 50mm f/1.4, but for indoors with limited space, its FOV seems too narrow, although its price is acceptable, I doubt its usefulness for indoor application (when I shot with 18-55mm lens, I seldom used any FL higher than 50mm, most of the time, 18-35mm). The next thing I've been considering is this lens. Its price is right, it has f/2.4 aperture, it's lightweighted, it looks nice on my K-x (see those pictures I shot with my cell phone). I tested it as soon as I got it. Indoors, no lights on, only tv is on, so it's pretty dim, I set ISO to 1600 auto, lens wide open (f/2.4), AF worked well, pretty fast, no hunting, the picture came out bright, sharp, the color looks very good to me. I further tested in a restaurant (see those photos I uploaded). With K-x's low-light performance, this lens is a perfect companion! I would think it's more than enough for a kid's party (light condition is much better than restaurant). I cannot wait to put it in real test for the next kid's party coming soon... Usefulness: although it can be used for anything, I would think it's most useful for indoors (specially for moving subjects that require decent shutter speed). For other situations, like outdoors, in good light condition, I still prefer using my 55-300mm (a very sharp, versatile lens to me), or the 18-55mm kit lens (I don't have any other expensive lenses). Lens hood: it doesn't come with hood, I don't think you need a hood for indoors. I bought a lens hood on ebay for the old 50mm f/1.7 lens, but doesn't fit well. I put the hood on this lens, perfect fit! I can put the cap on the hood, too. Thank you for your time, and hope this helps. UPDATES: After attending two birthday parties (one at school, the other at a friend's house), I would say this lens is sufficient for this purpose, although sometimes I only wish I got wider FOV (I killed FA 50mm F1.4 for this reason). Other than that, with aperture wide open, the picture is sharp, bright, color rendering is good, WB is accurate (more natural compare to my M 50mm F1.7 lens which gives me warmer tone). At both parties, I set my K-x to ISO1600 auto, at school I often got ISO800 at 1/60sec, in the house (in the afternoon, all natural light through windows except in the basement), I can get ISO-200 sometimes at 1/60sec, most of the time, I got 400-800, because of this, I switched my 55-300mm lens on for the second half for some candid photos.

Just mounted this lens on my new Pentax K-70. I've been using my Pentax K-5 with a bunch of different lenses, and wanted to have a couple of economical fixed focal length Pentax lenses to interchange with zoom's etc. I have their affordable 50mm f. 1.8 lens -similar price point, and it far exceeded my expectations. This lens is its wider angle sibling. Affordable, and 'punches way above its weight.' I am so pleased with this pup. Autofocus seems to love it, too - I don't have to defeat autofocus sometimes to get the best results. Only first day using it, so story may take some twists and turns, but I highly recommend this lens. star rating on "Quality of Material" takes into account that this is a low priced lens, with some plastic parts. That being said, it's beautifully made and I could not be happier with it, at the price. It's "a find!" n.b. 2 months later and lots of shots, I'm totally, totally in love with this lens. "Just what I needed!"

This modern entry-level prime is still higher priced than the competition. Canon, Nikon, and Sony all have 50mm primes at F1.8 aperture below the 150 price mark. That said, this is stil a welcome addition to the Pentax lens selection. If you search at photozone.de there is a nice review of its performance. It says its sharp with excellent resolution wide open at F2.4, and I totally agree. Things in focus really pop out and look 3D. I like the focal length (53mm in terms of film) which is not too zoomed in and not too wide. 50mm was the standard kit during the film era. The 1:6x magnification is not great, but its close enough for food shots of your plate or head and shoulder portraits (bust). Focus is fast because the lenses themselves are very light. But its screw-driven by the camera so you can hear it. Accuracy was spot on in my sample. If you use a k-x, research about "modset.492" it can allow you to fine tune your autofocus for back or front focus. Since its not official, proceed with your own risks. Image quality is great. Lots of contrast. Excellent to very good at F/2.4 and almost off the scale excellent at F/4. Aperture blades are not rounded so although bokeh is smooth wide open, highlights do get edgy starting at F/4. Front bokeh looks a tad more nervous. Vignetting (dark corners) and CA (color fringing at high contrast areas) are well controlled and I dont worry about them in my pictures. Flare controll is excellent too, as shots into the sun did not make any prominent ghosting. Like always, a prime lens means that you do the zooming with your feet. But in a way that inspires you to get different angles once your moving around. For its performance its 5 stars. For the price you pay I would say 4 stars. No hood is included nor does the lens have any attaching location if there ever was one. But considering its performance, I dont think it needs one anyway.

It always seems odd to me that prime lenses are more expensive than zooms. They have fewer elements and are probably a lot easier to design, so they should be cheaper, right? Well, no. All the manufacturers know that photographers will pay big bucks for lenses which produce better quality pictures. Prime lenses almost always beat zoom lenses for image quality, so the manufacturers know they can charge more. It's rare to find a prime lens that is high quality, works with all your camera's modern features, and is reasonably priced. But the DA 35mm f/2.4 AL lens is just such a creature. I bought mine for just under two hundred clams, and I see the price has dropped a bit more since then, making this a really good deal. Image quality is excellent - it's a prime! I think Pentax is aiming this lens at users who are starting to outgrow their kit lenses. If you've ever pixel peeped images taken with your kit lens you've probably noticed some things that didn't make you happy. Softness, purple and green fringing, distortion. Don't get me wrong - Pentax's kit 18-55mm lens is quite good as kit lenses go. But it 'aint a prime. If you're looking for substantially better image quality without spending several weeks' pay, then the DA 35mm f/2.4 is a great entry point to the world of primes. Sure, you can pick up older lenses on the used market for even less, but they probably won't have autofocus and may not have auto-aperture either. The DA 35mm f/2.4 is auto everything and will work with all the available modes and settings on any modern Pentax DSLR. Highly recommended!

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

Quick delivery and as described

DA50mmを持っていますが広い画角が撮りたくて購入しました。 まだうまく使いこなせてないですが、DA50mm同様軽くて持ち運びが楽で、見た目も格好いいです。 作動音の大きさも許容範囲です。 オートフォーカスは甘い気もしますが、撮影した画像はとても綺麗です。

- Definizione molto elevata - Grande apertura e piacevole effetto bokeh. - Un po' rumoroso l'autofocus; abbastanza veloce. - Costruzione economica. Non sarà piacevole al tatto o resistente come uno in metallo, tuttavia è leggerissimo. - Veramente piccolo, paragonabile ad una lente mirrorless. - Non è macro: la distanza minima di messa a fuoco è di circa 30cm circa (non li ho misurati). - Non è WR (weather resistant), ovvero non è tropicalizzato. - Consiglio sempre di proteggere la lente (che probabilmente non sarà super resistente dato il costo) utilizzando un filtro o un paraluce.

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.

Este se ha convertido en el lente que trae mi cámara todo el tiempo. 2.8 para situaciones con poca luz y generar buen bokeh. Excelente compra a un exclente precio.