Pentax smc DFA 50mm f/2 – A must have for the K1
I got the penatx 18-270mm as an update for my old pentax 18-250mm. The quiet motor is a definite improvement and the new lens doesn’t suffer from zoom creep (yet). The 18-270mm range makes this a good travel zoom. Even the 270mm end is useable. The main problem i find, as with the 18-250mm, is the way the focus point shifts with aperture and focal length and possibly focus distance too. At 50-60mm and at fairly close distance it exhibits back focus wide open at f/4. This means, for optimum results, you need to learn its focus quirks and compensate for them when you compose your image, which is not ideal. This lens is certainly worth considering if you want the zoom range and convenience. Just don’t expect it to replace a bag of primes when it comes focus accuracy and image quality.
I had wanted a small, wide-angle prime for my dslr for some time, and options are very few indeed. Outside of pentax and fuji, even fewer. I decided on the 21mm as less expensive and a better all-round focal length than the 15mm. 21mm is a good focal length – not so wide as to cause distortion or leave subjects looking very small, but wide enough to capture a whole scene. It may not be wide enough as a travel lens where you want to capture wide scenes in streets with limited space to back up. The lens is very small, extremely well constructed in metal and a pleasure to use. Image quality is very good – it could be sharper at f/3. It can sometime produce yellow_green flare when pointing at the sun. There is some barrel distortion which is visible when taking photos of buildings or other structures with straight lines, but it’s easily corrected later (some cameras can do it automatically).
It has a constant large aperture/4 which is quite nice and the focal length can meet my daily need. I’ve heard that the focusing function is not so good, but as i tried, focusing is not bad.
I was dubious that this lens would satisfy being a general purpose short tele lens due to it being designed as a macro. I was most concerned that the af would be slow, in fact it is faster than the da50mm 1. 8 and locks on af on my k5ii with impeccable speed. It is early days yet however i have a good feeling about this lens. Fast af, sharp, high contrast well done pentax.
An excellent lens, saves taking multiple cameras and lenses when just out and about.
I have used pentax since 1981. I bought this lens hoping that it would conquer my focussing troubles. I have pentax k5 and samsung gx20, and have found with both bodies that lenses focus very nicely at the long end of the zoom but the wide end tends to be focussed too far away. After purchase this lens was returned to pentax for re-calibration, and a new k5 body was put onto it, but still it focusses too distantly when at the wide end. But fine at the long end so i switch to manual and reframe then.
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Excellent all-in-one travel lens.
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At £385 as low as it’ll go & in the absence of a 16-300
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A Small Wonder
I found i used it a lot in the studio and miss it now i’ve dropped it :(it’s a little soft, but still very usable even for commercial work. I dropped mine from about 6 inches onto a laminate floor, which is fairly forgiving normally, but despite landing on the hood, something broke inside and that was that.
Lighting fast autofocus beautiful picture quality.
Compared to the standard 18-55mm lens this is a fair bit heavier and about double the bulk. However it is much lighter and smaller than carrying a bunch of lenses around with you. It also has a far stiffer zoom ring than the standard lens. This takes some getting used to, but it helps prevent zoom creep when carried lens-downwards. On the plus side the lens has a superb long range room. About as long a zoom as you can sensibly use hand-held without using rather silly high iso settings. As a pentax da lens this one has on-board operating information that works with most pentax dslr bodies to automatically correct the image distortion that all lenses exhibit. Zoom lenses are worse than most and super-zooms are the most extreme. This lens works well with the geometric auto-correction settings in my k5. I haven’t tried the auto-correction chromatic settings in earnest yet.
I wish i had bought this lens sooner, i use it more than any other lens that i have, it is wonderful for every and any occasion.
. Recommended if you own a pentax made recently. I use mine on a k30 & a ks2 both of which correct aberrations & faults on in-camera jpegs. Mine replaces a tamron 18-200 which wasn’t bad for the low price paid. The pentax is made by tamron & comes without optical shake correction as pentax cameras do this in-camera. This makes the pentax version both sharper & quieter. I only shoot jpegs but if you shoot raw you & don’t mind the post processing time involved you can save £100 by buying the tamron. I waited for the price to fall a little before buying – i also hoped a 16-300 version would appear but i think ricoh are more involved with the new full frame camera to bother about aps-c for the time being. But i digress – this is a great, all purpose lens which can replace a whole bagfull of heavy lenses & can save getting dust on your sensor – as long as you don’t want prints bigger than a3.
Features of Pentax smc DFA 50mm f/2.8 Macro Lens
- Make sure this fits
by entering your model number. - Optimised for use with digital cameras
- Compatible with PENTAX SLR film cameras
- Magnification to 1:1
- Quick Shift Focus System
- Corresponds to a focal length of approx. 75mm with the Pentax digital cameras
- Built-in focus-clamp mechanism to fix focus at any distance
From the manufacturer
smc PENTAX-D FA MACRO 50 mm F2.8 – Overview
The smc PENTAX-D FA MACRO 50 mm F2.8 is designed for digital and film SLR cameras. It utilises curvature and positioning of optical elements to virtually eliminate flare and ghosting for clear, high-quality images particularly important to digital photography. This versatile lens can also be used as a standard lens. Achieving life-size (1:1) magnification it features our acclaimed SMC multi-layer coating to lower surface reflection, reduce ultraviolet rays and deliver clear, high-contrast images.
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| PENTAX-FA 31mm | PENTAX-FA 35mm F2 AL | PENTAX-FA 43mm F1.9 | PENTAX-FA 77mm F1.8 | D FA MACRO 50mm F2.8 | D-FA 100mm F2.8 Macro WR | |
| Focal Length | 31mm | 35mm | 43mm | 77mm | 50mm | 100mm |
| Maximum Aperture | F1.8 | F2 | F1.9 | F1.8 | F2.8 | F2.8 |
| Minimum Focusing Distance | 0.300cm | 0.300cm | 0.450cm | 0.700mm | 0.195cm | 0.303cm |
| Magnification | 0.16x | 0.17x | 0.12x | 0.14x | 1.1x | 1.1x |
| Weight | 0.345g | 0.214g | 0.155g | 0.270g | 0.265g | 0.340g |
| SMC Coating | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Weather Resistant | N | N | N | N | N | Y |
| Quick Shift Focus | N | N | N | N | Y | Y |
Make sure this fits
by entering your model number.
When i first got this lens i was a little bit disapointed. I own a few other limited lenses, and they blew me away the second i attached them to my camera. With the 21mm, the first shots were a little bland, and didn’t really do it for me. Fast forward a year or so, and now it’s probably my most used lens, although i still think it’s the weakest of all the da limiteds. In general i’m not the impressed by landscape pictures taken with this lens (the 15mm & 40mm are better in that regard). I also often find myself looking at a picture taken with the 21mm, and wishing i’d used the 40mm instead (which has a much smoother bokeh, and better subject isolation). The focussing is fast, and generally accurate. Low light performance is a mixed bag. The focussing in low light is usually fairly accurate, however the smaller aperture isn’t able to cope with anything that moves too quickly. It’s too slow to capture drunken shenanigans in a pub after dark, but it’s fast enough to capture a group sitting down to dinner.
Bought for my husband who is a keen photographer very good results for the close up excellent would recommend to others.
Zoom range is good and results are very acceptable (even hand-held), very sharp at the low end, a little softer fully extended.
A nice fast lens for the pentax k1, not too wide, not too long. Works out about a 52mm lens on aps-c bodies so not as impressive. Image quality is top notch too.
Bought as am ‘everyday’ lens for a k30. The range is perfect ( approx. 26 -105mm in old money) for the great majority of the shots i take and i therefore chose this lens over the 18-135 feeling that the loss of far end telephoto was a worthwhile trade off against the mixed reviews that that lens has received. Great build quality, pin sharp images and great colour rendition. No regrets an excellent body/lens combination.
I’ve got the da35 macro but often i would end up using the kit 18-55 at its wide end instead. The da21 seemed like the ideal answer. The da21 is small and the clever lens hood hardly adds to its length. On a k-7 it looks positively diminutive. As with all the limiteds, the design and build exude that certain satisfying precision feel. The lens hood design is unconventional but effective. The lens cap is a solid piece of felt lined aluminium, in keeping with the look and feel of the lens, but a bit impracticable and probably expensive to replace. Fortunately a standard old pentax slip-on 51mm plastic lens cap fits perfectly. The 21mm focal length is just right on an aps sensor camera, such as my k-7. It is just wide enough to make a difference but not too wide to give that somewhat boring stretched effect of ultra-wides.
Optimised for use with digital cameras
Fantastic lense well made good in all light levels with f4 and water resistant too :-).
Quiet autofocus and quality of image overall ok but max zoom not quite as good as my previous smc fa lens.
This is a great lens and i think, much over-looked (i did also get it for a good price on amazon). Granted it might not be the best lens to take macro shots of insects (due to the 50mm focal range) but for what i need it for (taking photos of jewellery and close-ups of plants, etc) it’s a really useful lens. It’s really sharp with good colour saturation, and can be used as a general walk-around lens. It’s quite small so can be used for handheld shots without problems. It’s pretty much stayed on my camera since i’ve purchased it. My only criticism is that bokeh could be better and softer, but you can’t have everything.
Compatible with PENTAX SLR film cameras
Magnification to 1:1
Quick Shift Focus System
The post Pentax smc DFA 50mm f/2 –
A must have for the K1
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