Pentax K10D, SMC Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4, ISO 125,  f/1.4, 1/60 sec, +2/3 EV, IS on

Been playing around a bit with a Pentax FA 50 f/1.4 lens I’m borrowing. This shot was taken almost directly into the late afternoon sun streaming through the windows on the front of our house. So far I am finding the FA 50 to be a bit soft for my taste wide open (as you can see here) but the autofocus and extra 2/3 stop advantage over my old A series 50mm f/1.7 are nice. There does seen to be a fair amount of purple fringing in a lot of my shots but I have yet to really test the lens with anything more than some plinking around. I don’t think I’m going to do my usual full-on User Review for the FA 50. I’ll probably just do some anecdotal comparison to my old 50 f/1.7 for those people who either have an older manual focus lens and are thinking of upgrading or for those people who are considering their first fast fifty.

BTW, this image was imported into Lightroom using my standard import settings for my K10D. I then selected “daylight” for the white balance and nudged the blacks slider up to 16 to dial in a bit more contrast. Lastly, I cropped it square and rotated it slightly clockwise to adjust for level on the left side of the frame.

Ever since I started shooting DSLRs with APS-C sized sensors I have struggled to find the perfect go-to lens for the majority of my photos. I love the speed and image quality of my old A series 50mm f/1.7 but the lack of autofocus and relatively tight F0V (75mm equiv.) makes it less than ideal for a lot of my shooting. When my friend Stephen said he was sending me his DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro Limited to take for a spin I was pretty sure that it was going to be the lens I have been looking for. I had read all the reviews so I knew that it was a sharp lens with top-notch build quality. All that remained was for me to live with it for a few days…

Pros:

• Razor sharp starting at f/2.8.
• Virtually no flare and very low CAs or fringing.
• Wonderful bokeh (especially during macro use).
• Impeccable Limited build quality.
• Smaller and lighter than most 1:1 macro lenses.
• Durable*
• Ultra close focusing capability.
• Built-in lens hood.
• Excellent bang-for-the-buck.

*I didn’t test this lens’ durability but my friend Stephen did. Within minutes of opening the box he dropped it from a height of 1M onto concrete. The filter mount ring took the brunt of the impact (note silver filed away area in these shots) but the function of the lens was not otherwise affected. Wow!

Cons:

• Slow focusing due to extremely long focal range.
• Lack of focus limit switch (might correct previous point).
• Focus ring spins during autofocus operation.
• Included lens cap falls off too easily.
• Extremely limited stand-off distance at 1:1 magnification (read: “none”).
• Diffraction may be a problem above f/8 with non-macro shots.

Conclusion:

Turns out this is not the do-it-all lens I’ve been looking for. Now, before all you Pentaxians out there start accusing me of bashing Pentax again, let me explain…

The DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro Limited is one of the best macro lenses I have ever used. It absolutely blows everything away within 2 feet of the front of the lens. I love the natural look the 35mm (52.5mm equiv) FoV provides. I can easily see this being one of the best lenses available for shooting products in a studio setting. If I were still walking the floor at Asian electronics trade shows it would be my go-to lens (lots of close-up shots of products held in my hand). However, the things that make this lens so good at what it was designed to do also make it less than perfect for my everyday use. If your primary interest is up-close hand-held macro photography, look no further. Buy this lens. If, like me, you are thinking that this lens might double as a good medium focal length lens for everyday use, please read the rest of my review and decide for yourself:

Build Quality and Size:

Here we see the DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro Limited focused at infinity along side the standard 18-55mm Pentax kit lens…

and here we see the macro lens focused to its closest setting (0.139M)…

and here along side my old A series 50mm f/1.7 lens. The point here? This is a very compact lens. Even when extended for close-up focus. Also, even with the rock-solid aluminum casing it weighs slightly less than the plastic kit lens (7.6oz vs. 7.8oz). There is absolutely no excuse for not being able to find a place in your bag for this lens.

I mentioned the focus ring in the cons. The double row of knurled rings just below where it says “PENTAX-DA 1:2.8 35mm…” in the photo above is the focus ring. It is very nicely damped in manual mode and features Pentax’s nifty Quick-shift Focus System to allow focus fine tuning in AF mode. The double-height ring provides a great grip for your fingers during manual focusing. However, since it takes up so much of the 35’s diminutive body, you have to be careful not to grab it accidentally when holding the camera with two hands (left hand supporting lens) if you don’t want to loose a little skin off your finger tips ;-)

Otherwise, the build quality of this lens is superb. You’ll never question the $480 price tag once you handle one for the first time.

Image Quality:

Uncropped f/2.8 @ ISO 100 shot of dew on leaf (NOT 1:1 magnification).

100% crop from the center of the first image.

The resolving power of this lens is amazing. I’m sure my old 10MP K10D isn’t even coming close to getting the most out of this baby. I’m not going to get into resolution specifics here. There are plenty of other websites that can confirm what I experienced first hand: this is one of (if not the) sharpest lenses you can hang on your K Mount. Here are a few shots I took with it on my Flickr page.

The nine bladed aperture provides wonderful round bokeh at all aperture settings.

It also provides nice 18 pointed starbursts when stopped down for long exposure night shots (if you are so inclined to use it for such things). They are not quite a clean as the ones that come off of the DA* 16-50 f/2.8 but they are certainly an improvement over the kit lens.

The DA 35mm Macro has a built-in retractable lens hood. Without the hood this lens produces almost no flare. Compare the example above with this similar one shot with the DA* 16-50 f/2.8:

Even though Pentax thoughtfully includes an excellent built-in lens hood with the DA 35mm Macro it doesn’t need one!

Handling:

The DA 35mm Macro requires you to get very close to your subjects to achieve maximum magnification. Here is the shot I took above while focusing at 1:1 on my kit lens with the 35 Macro:

Very close indeed. This is fine for shooting flowers, products and other static and aproachable subjects. If you want to shoot creatures that might not appreciate a lens pressed up in their face you might want to look elsewhere. The only real problem I had with this was the camera blocking light from my subjects. Being so close with the lens to the subject you’d pretty much need a studio and strobes to get enough light in there.

I’ve had experience with longer macro lenses that put you farther away from the subject and I have to say I prefer the up-close DA 35mm Macro. The wider FoV gives a more natural 3D look to the images and makes it easier to lock in focus while shooting hand-held.

This incredible focus range (infinity to 0.139M) is the DA 35 Macro’s Achilles heel. It is very deliberate and accurate when shooting macro but becomes slow and laborious when taking snap shots. If the camera misses the focus point it will usually run all the way to one extreme of the focal range and then back to the focus point where (hopefully) it will lock on. If not, it will continue on to the opposite end of the focus range before heading back to try again. On a normal lens this “focus hunting” can be a bit annoying as the lens “ziiiip-ziiiips” back and forth before locking focus. On the DA 35 Macro focus hunting goes more like “ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip, ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiip, ziiiiiip, ziiip-zip.” I missed a ton of snap shots with the kids while this lens oscillated back and forth the focus scale on me.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying the focus isn’t accurate. As all Pentaxians apparently already know, their DSLRs do not have the fastest autofocus system. The DA 35 Macro exacerbates this problem considerably. Its deliberate focusing is an important feature for shooting critical macro shots in controlled conditions but is also the main reason why it isn’t a replacement for standard lenses for every day use. IMO there’s nothing wrong with being good at what you do and sticking to it.

That being said, it is not to say that the DA 35mm Macro can’t be used for every day shooting. When more deliberate shooting is possible all the things that make this such a great macro lens also make it an excellent portrait lens. Most people do not recommend a lens this wide for portrait use. I found it to be great for portrait shots where you want the feeling of being up close and personal while getting a bit more of the scene into the shot for context. Like this:

Of course what’s working for me here most are the 35mm focal length and the sharpness. If you are willing to give up the macro performance there are other lenses that can likely better serve as wide angle portrait lenses.

The only head scratcher for me with the DA 35mm Macro is Pentax’s choice in lens cap. The included cap is machined from aluminum and velvet lined. While this gives it a distinctly premium look and feel, it kept falling off the lens while in my bag. Also, it is easily knocked off while the camera is hanging on your shoulder strap. When I buy one of these lenses I will add a spring clip style 49mm lens cap to my order.

Pentax K10D with DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro Limited lens.

So, the DA 35mm Macro does what it does and does it quite well. Just don’t expect it to do all things equally as well. If you need/want and excellent macro lens then you’d be hard pressed to do much better. If you are looking for a good normal lens for taking those every day shots do what I did and pick up an FA 35mm f/2 AL while you still can. It was a close call for me. I had $500 to spend so I could have gotten the macro lens, but I decided to go with the slightly faster FA lens instead. So far I am quite pleased with my decision- though I really miss the DA 35mm Macro’s build quality and ability to get in close. I can easily justify getting the DA 35mm Macro for use as a dedicated macro/studio lens later on to round out my lens collection.

Some sample shots I took with the DA 35mm Macro while testing it for this review.

About the shots for this post: I shot the studio shots for this post using Fuji’s new F200EXR point-and-shoot camera. I’m not a big fan of PnS cameras but this little wonder has definitely gotten my attention. These shots are straight out of the camera at ISO 800. The camera’s various manual controls allowed me to get the exposure and WB right while the high ISO capability meant I could still go hand-held to knock the shots out quickly. BTW, this shot of the F200EXR was taken with the DA 35mm Macro. See what I mean about it being ideal for product photography?

The BlackRapid R-Strap RS-4 camera strap was only product I came across at PMA that I decided to buy and try for myself because I thought it was such a clever solution for an age-old problem. BlackRapid has obviously gotten a lot of press for this product because I am seeing a high percentage of Google hits on my site from my single mention of it last week. So, I decided to forgo the usual studio photography routine and go ahead and publish my user review to help all of those of you obviously trying to figure out if this thing is worth all the hype.

Pros:

• Quick access to camera as advertised.
• New design camera mount is fairly easy to use and solid.
• Decent construction quality of shoulder pad.

Cons:

• Camera incessantly gravitates to an in-the-way position.
• Difficult adjustment mechanism.
• Camera dangles and spins at your side.
• Chintzy connection clip.*
• S.W.A.T. team riot gear styling.
• Shoulder pad does not stay put.
• Connection clip may contact LCD screen potentially causing damage.
• Camera can not be set flat without removing mount.
• Sharp edges on camera mount can damage surfaces, other objects, etc.
• $50 price tag.

Conclusion:

I’m guessing by this point you can tell that I’m not a huge fan of the R-Strap. The most disappointing thing is that I had such high hopes for this product. In fact, I made a special trip back to BlackRapid’s booth and forked over $40 (PMA show special- $8 off their MSRP) just so I could start using it right away even though they promised to mail me a review unit after the show. Eager to get rid of my 12 year old Nikon branded neoprene shoulder strap, I stepped around the corner and quickly tore into the package. Immediately, I encountered difficulty with the connector clip. Then, I struggled to get the length of the strap adjusted to suit my preference. After spending a good 6-8 minutes squatting behind a trash can I was finally ready to put the R-Strap to use.

Within the first 5 minutes I was already starting to think I had made a mistake. My camera just wouldn’t stay put. It kept gravitating to the bottom of the strap which put it on my right hip with the lens sticking straight out into my arm and oncoming traffic. I tried turning and shifting my camera sideways and around to the small of my back like the BlackRapid people had shown me to do standing in their booth. But as soon as I started walking it would quickly slide back around front where I’d smack my lens against my arm or some poor soul walking by. I knocked the lens hood off my little kit lens 3 times in the first 10 minutes of use. I can’t imagine how bad it would have been had I been sporting a longer lens.

Thinking that maybe I hadn’t gotten used to this new-and-improved way of carrying my camera, I was determined to give it the ol’ college try and muddled through the rest of the day and half through the following day. Yes, the R-Strap did make it quite quick and efficient for me to get my camera to my eye and snap a picture. And, I love the fact that the strap doesn’t get all tangled up across the eyepiece like a traditional strap always seems to do. However, I just couldn’t get used to my camera dangling, twirling and knocking into everything while I was walking the show and the streets and casinos of Las Vegas.

BlackRapid seems to market their product to people on the go. From my experience the R-Strap is really only suitable for photographers in a static position that need quick access to their camera (like sports photographers standing on a sideline with three cameras around their neck). I can see how it might work better attached to the tripod collar on a larger telephoto lens- though the laws of gravity seem to suggest that it’s always going to seek the lowest point and not stay behind your back as BlackRapid suggests. As it is- combined with the geeky styling, camera dings and high price tag- I can not recommend the R-Strap. And I’m really bummed about that. Be that as it may, lot’s of people seem to swear by it so make your own choice.

Now for the details and photos:

Review:

The key to the strap’s design is the sliding camera hook (top). Note how the adjustment buckle is positioned at the left with the tag (loose) end of the strap feeding back through the pad assembly. This makes loosening the strap a piece of cake (pull down on the buckle while tugging on the bottom of the strap). However, if like me you get it too loose, you have to remove the strap and feed it backwards through the pad in 1/2″ increments until you get the fit right. I never did figure out the purpose of the extra buckle on the right. I tried feeding the tag end of the strap through it but it was too tight of a fit. Instead, it just dug into my back most of the time.

Adjustment mechanism detail. It’s basically like a backpack strap turned upside down. Why it is turned upside down I’m not sure.

Connector clip and FastenR camera mount. The connector clip on this version is basically a suitcase strap spring clip with a DIY aquarium tubing “lock” mechanism. The importance of this seems obvious but the implementation made it nearly impossible to open the clip wide enough to get the ring on the mount through. *To be fair, BlackRapid showed me a new carabiner style clip with a screw down lock mechanism that seems much more appropriate to this application. They said it would be shipping on the new RS-4 straps “soon.”

The camera mount screws into the tripod mount on the bottom of your camera. There is a rubber washer that provides tension as you tighten the mount to the camera body. This is a very clever way to lock the mount securely to the camera and is a significant improvement over the previous version. An extra rubber washer was included in the package- suggesting that this one will eventually get lost or fail.

Once installed the camera hangs neatly from the mount via the clip. Orientation of the mount is not important since the clip spins freely.

One potential alarming thing I noticed was that the clip would contact my LCD screen on my camera when I was using the R-Strap without my battery grip. The potential for scratching not withstanding, hit it the wrong way once and you could break the LCD screen. BlackRapid does make a point of including a disclaimer card saying they are not responsible for damage to your camera caused though the use of their product. You know what that means….

Another drawback to this design is that once you screw the mount into your camera you can no longer set your camera level on a flat surface. I made the mistake of doing this on my dining table and the sharp corners of the mount left a nasty gouge in the finish. I guess that’s part of the risk I assumed in using this product. :-/

The strap worn in its intended manner. I say “intended” because a number of times I put it on backwards. I’m not sure what I would put in the pocket. Designers always think we need more pockets on our stuff. More pockets just equals more places to loose things. In this case it also means more material and labor cost. Since the camera is not attached to the two fixed ends of the strap like on a traditional shoulder strap, every time you pick the camera up to shoot, the shoulder pad has a tendency to shift one way or the other due to the effect of gravity. Mine kept working its way over my shoulder and down my back where it was impossible to reach to pull it back up. This lead to me having to remove the strap regularly and replacing it backwards by mistake. The “cool mesh” backing material on the pad is likely to blame here and a non-skid material would make more sense.

Here you can see how the camera starts off in the middle of my back then after a few steps has worked its way to the back of my hip and then a few steps later around to its preferred location at the front of my hip. No matter how I positioned the camera this is what would happen within a dozen steps- banging into my arm on the way around.

Now, with the camera hanging as it is in the third frame above, it is in the ideal position for easily grabbing the grip…

…and quickly raising the camera to your eye for a shot. Notice how the clip has slid along the strap rather than the strap sliding around your body. Also notice how the strap is coming off the bottom of the camera where it is out of the way rather than off the top. This is what held so much promise for me.

However, after walking a few more steps the camera would flip itself around so that the flat back was against my body and the lens was pointing out. This made it somewhat awkward to grab hold of…

…and really creates a problem when your arm swings by. Also, having your camera hanging off your hip (lens out) is the worst position for walking in any kind of crowd. Clink, bump, clank, “excuse me, is this your lens hood sir?”

So, is the R-Strap any better than a standard shoulder strap? That depends. If the shoulder strap is worn like this, it seems like an even bet either way (though at $48+ shipping not a bet I’d be willing to take). Here the camera is always slipping off the shoulder, is dangling with the lens pointing out in the way of your arm and is quite difficult to reposition after a shot.

However (given a long enough strap- unlike my stock Pentax one), worn across the chest like the R-Strap a standard shoulder strap starts to make a lot more sense.

You can easily tuck the camera to the back of your hip where it will stay within easy reach but out of the way while you walk.

When the going gets tough, you can just swing the camera around the the small of your back where it is completely out of the way. Simply tug the strap to slide it back around to the front for a shot. I have litteraly logged hundreds (possibly thousands!) of miles in all kinds of sitautions with this set-up. My only gripe about this whole system is the grippyness required for the strap to stay where you put it also means it will constantly be pulling your clothing around with it. Maybe BlackRapid will continue to improve ther product and make a version that lives up to its promise and potential. I’ll be keeping an eye out for that.

Update:

Apparently the clip I couldn’t figure out on the right in the first picture of the review section is a stop block that you can set to prevent the camera from sliding further backwards than you wish for it to. (For the record, the instructions that came with the strap make no mention of this clip or its function.) I tried it and it basically only prevented me from sliding the camera around to my back where I wanted it. Had I placed it in a way that would keep my camera out of the way it would have prevented me from sliding it around front to take a picture. I also tried positioning it so that it kept the camera hanging in front of my body but the weight of my camera just pulled the whole rig back around to my side again.

Please let me know if there is anything else I’m missing here.

My friend Stephen loaned me his Pentax SMCP-DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 ED AL (IF) SDM lens so I could put it through its paces and compare it to my kit lens (SMCP-DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL). If you don’t know already, Pentax’s DA* (”D-A-star”) line of lenses are their highest quality zooms. They feature very high quality construction, weather sealing, silent ultrasonic focus motors (SDM), and Pentax’s best SMC coatings (SP) to date. Retailing at close to $700 this lens seems like it should be a huge step up from the $99 kit lens.

This isn’t a technical review. If you want MTF and distortion charts go here. Instead, I’m just going to cover my observations during real world everyday use. Keep in mind that I do have a unique perspective here so take my opinions with an appropriate grain of salt. Here are my overall findings. Feel free to read on for a more in-depth look at how I formulated my opinions.

PROS:

• Excellent build quality
• Useful zoom range
• Silent SDM focus motor
• Weather seals
• 9 bladed aperture

CONS:

• Very soft around the edges wide open
• Distracting CAs below f/4
• Big and heavy
• Very long for a 50mm lens
• Pronounced barrel distortion at 16mm
• Expensive

CONCLUSION:

While I would normally suggest upgrading the standard kit lenses from Canikon, Pentax has done an excellent job with their SMCP-DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL and this gussied up DA* lens only helps to prove that point. Had I bought this lens myself I would have sent it back after the first day and put my money to better use. This is a big, heavy and expensive lens that does not prove a significant upgrade to the kit lens in everyday use. Get and/or keep the kit lens and put your money towards a dedicated ultra-wide angle lens and/or some fast primes to compliment the kit lens (some suggestions can be found at the end of this article).

REVIEW:

Purchasing a lens for me encompasses four primary areas of concern: image quality, build quality, handling, and value. There is no standard order of importance here as all of these issues carry different weight depending on the intended application of the lens in question. In this case, the 16-50 seems ideally positioned as an upgrade to the standard kit lens. This makes it an all purpose lens that should perform equally well in all four areas while handily outperforming the kit lens (which is why I am comparing the two here).

Image Quality

I think the crop above says it all. Shoot this lens at 16mm with anything less than f/4 and the color fringing (chromatic aberrations or “CAs”) and edge softness are quite disappointing. F/8 is required to eliminate the problem altogether from wide shots. The fringing persists all the way up to 50mm but is generally less of a problem at the longer focal lengths due to the shorter depth of field at f/2.8 (CAs get lost in the bokeh). Center sharpness is pretty good wide open (f/2.8) at all focal lengths and becomes tack sharp at f/4 and above. Overall color and contrast are very good (as it is with all Pentax lenses).

My biggest issue here is that the three main advantages this lens should have over the kit lens are sharpness, speed and the wider field of view (FoV). I found myself stopping down to at least f/4 for most of my shots with this lens, only using f/2.8 in extremely low light hand-held situations and when controlling the depth of field (DoF) was critical. The extra 2mm on the wide end (16mm vs. 18mm in the kit lens) are noticeable due to the greater FoV but more notably for the exaggerated barrel distortion. This isn’t a deal breaker for me but is disappointing at this price point.

On the other hand, stopped all the way down to f/22 and opened up wide to 16mm, this lens produces some very nice results for landscape photography. Its nine bladed aperture creates awesome 18 pointed starbursts with very little flare. This is one of the areas where the higher build quality of the DA* really shines (pun intended).

That 9 bladed aperture also produces very nice bokeh even when stopped down. The image above was taken at 16mm and f/8 and exhibits very smooth blurring of the background with mostly circular out of focus highlights. This shot also illustrates the 16-50’s macro performance. It’s 0.3m (11.8″) minimum focus distance makes it pretty useful for getting in tight even if the 50mm maximum focal length doesn’t provide a tremendous amount of magnification. Keep in mind that the minimum focus distance of a lens is measured from the sensor (ie: film) plane in the camera body and not from the front of the lens. This means that at 50mm you can get up to about 3-4″ away from the subject with the front glass. This may be useful sometimes and a problem at others. Personally, I like shots like this where you get in close with the wide angle to exaggerate scale and perspective. Meanwhile, the kit lens can focus down to 0.25M (9.8″)…

Build Quality

Not much to say here. This lens is built as well or better than the best lenses from any mainstream manufacturer. One heft and you will not question its price tag. Typical to the DA* line, the 16-50 features gasketed seals to prevent dust and moisture penetration, including a seal at the lens mount to seal it to the camera body. Combined with Pentax’s weather sealing on the K10/20D bodies this makes for a very practical all-weather combination. I’m sure this is a useful upgrade but I have shot in some pretty nasty conditions with my kit lens and have not had any problems with moisture penetration. (I have to wonder if most non-professional photographers would put their cameras through the kind of abuse this level of construction suggets is possible). The zoom and focus rings are well damped and buttery smooth with nicely ribbed rubber rings. There is no slop or wiggle between the various moving parts anywhere throughout the zoom range.

Handling

For me this is one of the most conflicting areas for this lens. On one hand Pentax has included some very nice design features that make this lens a worthy step up from the kit lens. On the other hand, the sheer bulk of this lens really gets in the way. Here are a couple of the nicer design features:

The access port on the lens hood is a nice touch common to all Pentax lenses. It allows access to the control ring on rotating filters without removing the lens hood (like polarized, graduated and special effects filters). This is a very user-friendly feature that all lens makers should adopt. After all, you usually find yourself needing to use these types of filters and the lens hood at the same time anyway, right?

Another nice feature of this lens is the SDM ultrasonic focus system. This lens focuses absolutely silently. This can be a bit strange at first considering how loud the screw drive focus system is with standard lenses. It’s not noticeably faster or more accurate than the screw drive system (still hunts too much IMO) but its silent operation draws less attention to the fact that you are taking pictures (if only the extra-loud shutter wouldn’t betray us so). The focus ring can be used anytime to fine tune the focus. However, it is not directly coupled to the focus mechanism so it does not stop turning when you reach the either end of the focus range. Pentax has included an AF/MF selector switch on the lens for those times when you want full time manual control. This is a lot easier to use than the switch on the camera body and is a nice touch.

Why does Pentax make me spend $700 to get a decent center pinch lens cap?

Now for the bad news. This lens is a brick. On my kitchen scale the 16-50 weighs 20oz while the 18-55 kit lens weighs in at 8oz and my old 50mm f/1.7 is only 5 3/4oz. (BTW, the K10D body w/ battery weighs 28oz). I realize that there is a weight penalty to step up to f/2.8 in a zoom but, considering this lens’ lackluster performance at f/2.8, I really have to question the benefit here. I mean, why carry around all this glass if you’re going to be shooting at f/4 anyway?

Mounting this lens to the front of my K10D felt very awkward. The grip on the K10D is a bit shallow and hanging all that weight off the front of the camera made it very difficult to hold securely with one hand. I found myself carrying the camera by the lens and having to use two hands for most of my shots. (Adding a battery grip would help balance the camera and provide better leverage with the heel of your right hand). Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind a heavy and expensive lens if the performance and application justifies it. (Canon’s EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM is one of my all time favorites). Overall this did not prove to be a very good walking around combination. I find this interesting since this sort of everyday use seems to be the main focus of lenses in this zoom range.

Another negative aspect the comparison photo in the section above illustrates is how long this lens is. The 16-50 is at its longest (5 3/8″ to the mount) at 50mm and its shortest (4″) at 16mm (as shown directly above with lens hood). The kit lens is only 3 1/8″ at its longest which is at 55mm and 18mm. As you zoom from 18mm to 55mm the kit lens starts off long then retracts to its shortest length of 2 3/4″ at 35mm then back out to 3 1/8″ at 55mm. This double action means it only has to extend half as much (percentage wise) as the 16-50 does throughout its zoom range. I point this out mainly because 50mm on a 1.5X APS-C sensor is the equivalent of 75mm on a full frame sensor and 35mm film. This puts it right in the sweet spot for close portrait photography. However, when you point this thing at people they tend to back away as if you’ve just aimed a bazooka at them. I imagine it would be fine in studio situations but for candids and street photography the kit lens (or better yet, a 50mm prime) is clearly the better choice.

Not to belabor the point too much here, but another aspect that should be considered with respect to lens size is how much space it takes up in your bag. Here you can see the 16-50 f/2.8 DA* and kit lens both suited up for travel with hoods and caps. As you can see, the 16-50 will require a pretty massive hole in your bag (4 1/8″ X 4 7/8″). If you are anything like me you have to consider very carefully what goes in your camera bag. Which brings me to my conclusion…

The advertised advantages of this lens are its wide FoV (16mm), speed (f/2.8), SDM focus motor, build quality, 9 bladed aperture, weather sealing, and sharpness. However, in actual use I don’t find any of these things in combination to be a significant enough improvement over than the kit lens as to justify the price and bulk of the 16-50 f/2.8 DA*. In fact, if this were the kit lens I would be looking to upgrade. If you have $700 burning a hole in your pocket there are a number of better choices out there.

I suggest you look at the Pentax SMCP-DA 12-24mm f/4 ED AL (IF) ($670). It is a re-badge of the stellar Tokina 12-24mm f/4 AT-X 124AF Pro DX ($490) and makes a much more useful ultra-wide angle addition to the kit lens. (It is a bit frustrating that we Pentax users have to pay an extra $200 for the same lens the Canikon folks can get directly from Tokina). It is still pretty heavy (15oz) and will take up just as much room in your bag as the 16-50, but the ultra-wide angle shots you’ll get with this lens will absolutely blow you away. If speed and sharpness are what you are looking for pick up a fast prime or two like the Pentax SMCP-FA 50mm f/1.4 ($200) and/or the Pentax SMCP-DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro Limited ($480). If you really feel a burning need to try out a DA* lens, check out the new Pentax SMCP-DA* 200mm f/2.8 ED (IF) SDM ($890). Its bulk is easily justified by its extra reach and speed (just beware of some nasty purple fringing in high contrast scenes).

Finally, if you are buying a new Pentax body and are looking for an upgraded alternative to the kit lens, don’t. The kit lens is one of the best values available for these cameras. If you are determined, take a look at Sigma’s 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC Macro ($420). This was the lens I originally bought with my first K10D back in ‘07. It is not nearly as big and heavy as the Pentax 16-50 f/2.8, has almost identical image quality, and adds a very useful macro focus capability across the entire zoom range. I shot several thousand shots with it in 2007 in several parts of the world and can attest to its quality. That being said, I now know that the Pentax 18-55mm kit lens makes better pictures ;-)

Some sample photos taken with this lens during testing.

UPDATE:

A number of readers have suggested that Pentax’s $380 SMCP-DA 16-45mm f/4.0 ED AL might be a better upgrade choice over the 16-50mm f/2.8 DA*. I have no experience with this lens so I did not mention it as an alternative. Reading over the photozone.de test report I can see that at only 12.9oz it is considerably lighter than the 16-50 DA*. Size wise it is slightly smaller than the 16-50 DA* with the added benefit of being at its shortest at 45mm (opposite of the 16-50). Also, it features an 8 bladed diaphragm which should result in decent bokeh and nice starbursts when stopped down. Resolution seems to be very good with distortion and vignetting similar to the 16-50 DA*. The only real noteworthy negative mentioned is heavy CAs at the edges of wide angle shots. If I can get my hands on one of these I will definitely post a similar review and find out if this lens is worthy of consideration.

After writing this review it was brought to my attention that the 16-50mm f/2.8 DA* has suffered from some quality control issues. It is entirely possible that this example is flawed. However, in researching this a bit more I still find a number of reviews pointing to similar image quality problems on lenses that are supposedly in proper working order. Potential QC problems aside, my opinion remains unchanged about this lens.

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