Sharp, even wide open, famous Pentax multicoating, and anti-ghosting formula for improved digital performance. Nice lense hood with window feature to facilitate use of a rotating circular polarizer. (Never leave home without one!) Amazingly, this lense holds it's own against prime lenses at just 1/2 stop from wide open. I have not done extensive testing, but this is a fine optic. Images shot on my Ds can easily be interpolated to 150% without any noticeable pixelation. Puts my FA 20-35mm to shame wide open, and the extra 4mm on the wide end makes this lense my go-to for wide angle shots.

A bit long & on the chunky side (67mm filter size) and a tad hefty, but compared to any f2.8 standard zoom, (usually 77mm filter) this lens is very manageable. Hey, there's always a tradeoff. Slight back-focus issue noticed in AF low-light, wide aperture conditions, but I usually shoot in MF, so this almost never is an issue.

This lens is great step-up option from the Kit Lens, and offers a reasonably bright constant aperture of f4.0. Iv'e even used this lense wide open at indoor concerts/plays with good results. As a 'standard' zoom, this lense serves admirably, at a 35mm equivalent of 24-68mm focal lengths. It is reasonably light for a quality optic, and offers the Pentaxian a 'quick-shift' clutch mechanism to easily shift back and forth from AF to MF. My new go-to optic if I want just one or two lenses for a casual walkabout.

Customer Service

Never Needed!

Similar Products Used:

Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 XR
Tokina 28-70mm f2.8 SV
Pentax SMCP-FA-AL 28-70 f4.0
Pentax SMCP-FA-AL 20-35mm f4.0

Sharpness.
Minimum distortions.
Price.

Build quality is OK (good for the price, though).

Before buing it I read much good about this lens. Almost everywhere it is praised for its optical characteristics, price, and build quality.
Personally, I bought it because there was nothing else on offer. (Hopefully, the new Pentax announced real star lens is comming soon.)
I agree that optically it is a very good tool. It is sharp and, what is much more important, distortions are quite well controlled.
I also fully agree that its pricing is very good.
But I can not really subscribe to rash assertions about its "excellent" built quality. It is OK, or could be said as good for the price, but it is far away from the professional standard I'm used to. For me personally, build quality is of the utmost importance and this lens in no way holds to the professional standard in this respect.

Customer Service

Had some involvment with customer services, but not for this specific product yet.

Similar Products Used:

Pentax film and digital cameras
Standard, macro, tele and other lenses

Constant aperture, much sharper than a zoom has any right to be (am I showing my age here?), well-balanced and very little distortion for a zoom. In fact, lower distortion than a lot of primes!! (my age again?).

Of course, it's not cheap. But you definitely get what you pay for!

A crisp, strong lens with very little flare. That SMC coating is impressive!

I will replace it with the 16-50 f/2.8 eventually, when it is released. I find f/4 hard on the old eyes.

For those who care, the lens casts a shadow with the on-camera flash below 28mm.

A constant aperture zoom which is a very big step up from the kit lens.

Customer Service

Never needed it with lenses. They've been great with the MX cameras I used for a quarter of a century.

Similar Products Used:

SMC Pentax A 70-210 f/4, Pentax 12-24 f/4 DA, Pentax 28-70 f/4 FA, Pentax 45-125 f/4 K.

A Canon zoom with an older Canon camera.

Some Olympus zooms for DSLR's

A couple of cr@ppy Quarranty zooms.,

Everything - a solid instrument.

Nothing, other than it does not come with a lens bag. The 10-17 came with one, which I find to be a very nice touch, especially in use. I believe that all the lenses should come with their very own bag/case.

Initially I debated months due to its size and weight. That has turned out to be an absolute non issue. It does weight a tad more than the 18-55 Kit lens, but it focuses instantly - no hunting. just locks on, and is razor sharp. The size and balance is actually very pleasing on my K100D, a bit longer and larger in the barrel, especially with the 70mm primary lens, which appears massive when compared again with the 18-55 Kit.

Purchased it with the $100 Pentax rebate bringing the overall price to $250. The Kit 18-55 is a very good bargin - this for the extra funds is a great lens, extremely sharp, the next step up beyond the kit lens.

Build Quality is excellent, metal mounting base, zoom crisp and smooth. Manual focus is again smooth and accurate - holds the position easily as expected. Feels very substantial and does not have the flimsey plastic feel to it at all.

No vignetting, realistic color, sharp images, nothing soft, very pleasing to use.

There is a gap in lens coverage when used with the 50 - 200mm zoom, but that has not been a problem at all.

Customer Service

Not used - I do not expect to use it either

Similar Products Used:

Pentax DA 18 - 55 mm, F3.5-5.6,
Pentax DA 10 - 17mm, F3.5-4.5 ED (IF) Zoom

Very good optics.

I would agree to spend more for a full metal construction.

A very good lens for the price.

The optical characteristics are good:
1. Flare resistance outstanding!
2. Distortions are low. Especially, when compared to similar products from other manufacturers. For example, Canon 17-40/4 L is more than twice as expensive, but distorts the image more at the widest setting, as on-line tests show. I guess, the price difference is due to the fact that the Canon lens is dedicated to a larger full-sized sensor. But it does not matter if your camera is APS.
3. Sharpness is very good throughout the zoom range.

Constructively, the lens is OK, as much as it's manufacturing cost allows.

Similar Products Used:

Pentax SMC-FA* 28-70/2.8 ED
Pentax SMC-FA 50/2.8

- Sharp.
- Metal mount.
- SMC coating.
- Constant aperture.
- Value for money.

Yet to find one.

I paid A$530 but after tax refund, it only costs me A$480. Sharp, especially for a zoom lens. I only have this lens for 2 months and I can say I am a very happy and satisfied user. I took this lens to Europe recently and was amazed with the quality of the pictures. I cannot compalin about the aperture because I stick to the theory of "you get what you paid for". Aperture of F4 is already good enough in most circumstances. Also, the picture is very sharp even when wide opened. I will stayed with this zoom for a longer time because I cannot see anything in the market can challenge it at this point of time - in terms of price/quality.

Customer Service

Not yet required.

Similar Products Used:

Tokina 19-35mm

Very, very sharp, especially for a zoom, and all the more so for a zoom that doesn't cost thousands of dollars.

None. Some people might moan & groan about the lack of an aperature ring, but I find it very easy to set the lens aperature from the *ist D. Omitting the aperature ring keeps cost and complexity down.

This is a phenomenal lens. It's very, very sharp, especially for a zoom at this price. I had only been using primes (non-zooms) to get very sharp lenses at moderate prices. But when I decided to get a Pentax *ist D, I was intrigued by the raves about the Pentax DA 16-45. Normally I wouldn't consider spending that much on a lens, but after the $200 kit rebate from Pentax and the $53 kit discount from Adorama, the normally $430 lens would only cost me $177. That's still more than I've ever spent on a lens (I normally by old, used ones with great reputations for sharpness), but I figured that if I decided I didn't want it, I could just wait until the rebate period was over and resell it, and probably not come off too badly. I used the DA 16-45 for months, and liked it very much, before finally getting around to running it through my usual test. I also wanted to test it against my Kiron 28mm f2.0, an oldie that is legendary for sharpness. I assumed the Kiron would do better, since its sharpness is legendary and it is not a zoom, but I wanted to have a good idea of just how much better before heading out on a vacation in a few weeks. On a previous film test of the Kiron, I'd found that it was very soft in the corners when wide open, but otherwise very pleasing, and best overall at f8. My "test chart" is our kitchen wall-mounted spice rack. It certainly isn't as precise as a real test chart, but it has the (for me) important advantage of giving me a better idea of what real-world pictures from a given lens will really look like. For all shots, the *ist D was mounted on a tripod, was set to use mirror lockup on the self-timer, and was triggered with the electronic cable release. I used aperature priority and matrix metering. Like most of my shooting, I used the largest JPEG setting with lowest compression, and the sharpness and contrast settings were both bumped up one notch. Since the Kiron is a manual focus lens, I used manual focus on both lenses. I started with the Kiron, then mounted the DA 16-45 and zoomed to precisely the same field of view (and made sure to not budge the tripod). At the same field of view as the Kiron, the DA 16-45 reported 26mm, rather than 28mm. I decided that getting the same field of view was more important than getting the DA 16-45 to report the same focal length as the Kiron. With both lenses, I took a shot at every available f-stop and half-stop. I only tested for subjective sharpness. I didn't notice any distortion or any other problems in either lens. I don't really have the knowledge to test for anything else, except any problems that jump out at me when viewing the pictures. I was surprised to find that the DA 16-45 was sharper than the Kiron 28/2.0 at all aperatures -- a lot sharper. The DA 16-45 is so much better, I'm no longer interested in using the Kiron, especially since I can also use the DA 16-45 on my film camera, without vignetting (darkened corners), at the Kiron's focal length (the DA can be used on a film camera from about 24mm to 45mm without vignetting; from 24mm down to 16mm the corners get progressively darker). I now plan to sell the Kiron on eBay whenever I can find the time. The DA 16-45 was really amazing. The first time I went through the pictures, I thought it was just as sharp wide open at f4 as at any other aperature. Then, on closer inspection, I saw that it was very slightly sharper at f8. It softened up noticeably (though not a lot) at f22. I was amazed at how sharp it was in the corners, even wide open. I didn't know a zoom could be this good, especially in this lens' price range. * How did I only pay $177 for a $430 lens? $430 minus $200 *ist D kit rebate minus $53 *ist D kit discount equals $177 final price.

Customer Service

Haven't needed to use.

Similar Products Used:

None.

1)great range (35mm equivalent: 24-70) 2)constant f4 aperture 3)quality appearance, solid feel 4)can be manually focused even when the camera is in autofocus mode

1)extends when zoomed wide 2)a bit heavy and bulky

An excellent "standard" zoom. Great range, good build quality and excellent optically

Customer Service

The Australian Pentax distributor, CR Kennedy gives good service provided the customer is firm and doesn't take no for an answer.

Similar Products Used:

a variety of auto and manual focus pentax lenses