Pentax SMC DA* Series 50-135mm f/2.8 ED IF SDM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Pentax and Digital SLR Cameras by Pentax
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Digital camera reviews of Pentax SMC DA* Series 50-135mm f/2.8 ED IF SDM Telephoto Zoom Lens for Pentax and Digital SLR Cameras
Digital camera Review: Excellent telephoto zoom lens
Summary: 5 Stars
The quality of the photos I take with this lens are simply outstanding. I use the K20D as my main camera and the K10D (updated firmware) as my backup. The lens works great on both cameras. I have been using this lens for about three months. I use the lens for nature photography as well as portrait photography in and out of my studio. Learning the lens, its feel, and its capabilities took a little time, but experimenting for the best settings helped me learn to zero in on the true quality of this lens. I most often shoot in manual mode. The lens does not have a macro setting, but adjusting the distance between the object and the camera, though sometimes frustrating, works okay. On a lighter note, I even tested the lens attaching my inexpensive play with 2X Promaster tele-converter, and the picture quality remained surprisingly good. The lens was so quiet and smooth that, in the beginning, I had to check the lens to see if it was actually working even though I could see it focusing through the viewfinder. For the money (I paid $750) you won't find a better lens. I have no regrets buying it.Digital camera Review: Excellent. One of the best!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm happy to add my voice to multiple A+ reviews for this great lens.
It's sharp, beautiful colors, bokeha, fast, silent. If you can afford it - it's no brainer.
Digital camera Review: Exceptional Zoom Lens
Summary: 5 Stars
I got the 50-135mm DA* a couple of weeks ago, and after extensive testing, I'm willing to say that this is the best zoom lens I've ever owned or used. I've used Canon L glass, the excellent Tamron SP zooms, and Nikkor zooms, and this one whips 'em all. I've dug out old slides and eyeballed 'em with a loupe just to make sure my memory is serving me well. This lens produces excellent color saturation, excellent contrast, and exceptional sharpness.
As has been said, the SDM focusing motor is quiet, but certainly no faster on my K20D. The fault lies with the camera, though, not the lens, I think. We'll see if the K-7 improves AF speed and accuracy as claimed.
A little more at the far end would have been nice, but keeping it at 135 allows them to make this lens much more compact than the ~70-200 offerings of the competition. I want to pair it with a good 1.4x teleconverter and see how it does as a 70-200 f4 lens.
Digital camera Review: Flawless!
Summary: 5 Stars
I thought my K20D was only so-so until I got this lens, now any mediocre images I get are my fault (but still crisp). Focus quick & quiet, depth of field entirely under my control if I use aperture priority. It seems heavy when I'm carrying it, but balances nicely in the hands when shooting. Never owned a lens this good before.Digital camera Review: Great Outdoor Lens! (updated December 2010)
Summary: 2 Stars
When I first got this lens, my initial thoughts were "wow, this thing is gorgeous". I love the gold highlights, the green line near the mount, and the massive zoom and focus rings. The large front element makes this lens look like it means business. This thing looks fantastic.
On my K-7, this lens is perfectly balanced. The large zoom ring means the lens has a wide range of space to support it, so I suspect it would be well balanced on just about any Pentax camera. That zoom ring feels smooth, with a good amount of resistance.
The focus ring is very similar, it's even larger than the zoom ring. It also has a fairly smooth motion with good resistance, although I found it felt kinda "dry" initially. Nowhere near the smoothness of my Super Takumar 50mm F1.4's focus ring, which is buttery smooth. It also has a super-long 130 degree sweep, which would be great for manual focusing but is far too long for an auto-focus lens. One oddity I hadn't experienced with a lens before: when I reach the end of the focus throw, the focus ring doesn't stop turning. There's a distinct "clunk" of the internal focusing mechanism reaching its limit, but the ring can continue to be turned indefinitely. It's a weird feeling, none of my other lenses behave this way.
Its size is a bit daunting at first, but this is mostly due to the fact that it focuses and zooms internally. So no matter what focal length you're using or where you're focusing, this lens always stays exactly the same length. The weight is also a bit much to carry around your neck during a long shooting session. After buying this lens, I got a new neck strap from Op/Tech to help reduce the strain on my neck, and it's been a huge help.
I've been using this lens regularly for over a month now, and I've mostly gotten used to the way it behaves. But one thing that still bugs me is the 3 foot minimum focus distance. The F2.8 aperture and 50mm focal length beg for this lens to be used indoors in low light, but the 3 foot minimum focus distance makes this a really frustrating task. I keep getting caught by this, and have to move back or stand on my tip toes to get 3 feet from my subject. I really wish this thing had a macro mode, or at least allowed closer focusing. 3 feet sucks.
Outdoors, this lens is at its best. Sharpness is impressive at any focal length, including the extremes. Even at F2.8, overall sharpness is surprisingly good. I've never seen a lens that gives such great results wide open. Of course, stopping down to F4 makes things even better.
Contrast and saturation are gorgeous. The colours come out vivid and clear, and chromatic aberration is incredibly well controlled. I have yet to be able to induce flare, even on purpose. The lens hood does a perfect job of keeping stray reflections off the lens. It's even lined with black felt on the inside!
Focusing performance is... disappointing. With all the hype from Pentax over SDM, I expected focusing to be on par with high end Canon and Nikon offerings, but the truth is, it barely matches the kit lens with its screw-drive focusing. Accuracy in daylight is excellent, but it takes a long time to get from close focus to infinity. The focus throw is so long, you can feel the mechanism rolling through its entire range... it reminds me of the distant rumble of a bowling ball rolling down the aisle. Sometimes, there's a hesitation before the focus mechanism gets going. Like it's not sure if I really meant to half-press the shutter button. Occasionally, when I haven't used the lens in a couple days, the focusing mechanism takes a few tries to "wake up". It won't move at all the first few times I half-press the shutter button. Once it does wake up, the precision is excellent. It always focuses accurately on my target. If it doesn't have to go through its entire focus range to find a target, it's usually pretty quick. So if I manually focus real quick and then half-press the shutter button, I can get focus blazingly fast. But this is an annoying two-step process. Overall, I'd say it compares favourably with the kit lens in this respect, but it doesn't come close to the competition. It doesn't even come close to my old and ultra-cheap SMC Pentax F 35-70mm F3.5-4.5, which auto-focuses like greased lightning on ice.
As soon as I get out of daylight, focus performance drops like a rock. This lens has a tendency to hunt more than my kit lens does. It'll often sweep through its entire range twice, and then give up, even when there's an obvious line to focus on RIGHT THERE IN THE MIDDLE!!! Honestly, I don't get it. With an F2.8 aperture, it should have plenty of light to focus easily in most situations, but somehow that doesn't matter. The worst part is, sweeping through its range takes so long, by the time it's failed to focus, my shot is often gone. On the upside, the focusing mechanism is whisper quiet. I hear it when I operate the camera, but anyone around me can't hear it at all.
I've been using this lens on my K-7 in winter, through some horrible snow storms and pouring rain. The combination never missed a beat. I've even half-buried the camera in snow to get different angles of shots. It's great to be able to do these things and not worry about water getting into the camera. Weather sealing is one of this lens' great qualities, and definitely contributes to the rating I gave it.
Since I mainly use this lens outdoors during the day, it's been a perfect fit for me, hence the rating. It's really unfortunate that I can't make better use of it indoors or in low-light, but that's not what I got it for. I mainly got it for outdoor shots of static objects, and for this purpose the lens is excellent. I'm also hoping to use it a lot when the Canadian Football League season starts up again in July, although I'm not sure how it will do with fast-moving subjects. I guess I'll find out the hard way...
*Update* December 8th, 2010
As I feared from the moment I decided to purchase this lens, the auto-focus motor has failed. I really hoped that the rampant stories of failed auto-focus motors with this lens were a thing of the past, and that Pentax had resolved the issue on newer copies, but apparently my hope was misplaced. I have now joined the ranks of idiots who dumped nearly a grand on this lens only to have it fail within one year. I'm lucky that it failed *just* before the warranty expired, but I don't hold much hope that the replacement motor will work any longer than the original did. Considering how widespread this issue is, it's insulting that Pentax would do nothing to resolve it. They market this lens as a professional product, but I feel more like a sap for falling into their trap. Consequently, I'm downgrading my rating from 4 stars to 2. This lens is still optically fantastic, and most of the benefits I listed in initial review are still valid. But the failed auto-focus motor, coupled with the fact that this is a serious, widespread problem, have left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.
I should point out that since I wrote the initial review, I've used this lens regularly on 2 other Pentax bodies. A K-x and a brand new K-5. Auto-focus performance was dramatically improved on the K-5, to the point where I could use this lens indoors in low-light without much trouble... at least until the auto-focus motor failed.