Value for money, excellent resolution and colour rendition, light weight, solid construction.

None though 62mm filters are more expensive than the 52mm or 55mm used on many Pentax lenses (I be bought my new Hoya UV much cheaper on e-bay for £10 )

I brought this lens second hand. I am very pleased with it. I have compared it against my 28mm and 50mm manual prime lenses and it outperforms the 28mm and equals the 50mm in sharpness and colour rendition and knocks the spots off my old manual focus Tokina. I have used it with my MX with great results where it has replaced the 28mm-200mm zoom which is much softer and lacks the contrast of the 28mm -105mm. It is mainly used with my istD where it compliments the 18-55mm lens giving the equivalent of a standard to medium telephoto lens. It is very light but well constructed. The lens has some flare when the sun is in the frame but this is well controlled compared to some lenses that I have used. If you are looking for a good value medium telephoto for your istD I can recommend this lens.

Customer Service

Can't comment as it's not been needed

Similar Products Used:

Tokina manual focus 3.5-4.5 28mm-70mm

Very good sharpness
Good contrast
Internal focusing
Large manual focusing ring
Excellent price/quality ratio

Big front lens (62mm) may be sensible to flare but can be easily eliminated with a hood (included with the lens).
Some, but acceptable, vignetting at larger aperture.
May be relatively slow for some people.

I use this lens as a replacement for the F35-80. It is clearly a far better lens. Pictures are very sharp at all focal lenght with minimal distorsion at the extreme. I have done some 8x10 enlargement with excellent results. Internal focusing is great when you use filters. This lens have one of the best manual focusing ring I have seen on an autofocus lens. It is something like 1/4 inch thick and coated with some rubberish substance that make it very practical and easy to use. The only drawback of this lens is the 62mm front element. With such a large element, you can get flare when shooting under the sun. However, this drawback totally disappear if you use a hood, which is included with the lens. Another minor disagreement caused by this 62mm element is that 62mm filters may sometimes be much more costly and hard to find than the more usual 50 to 55mm filters. The 4-5.6 aperture may be slow to some peoples but it is now much less of an issue with all the excellent 400-speed film that are now on the market. All in all, it is a great all purpose lens that covers 95% of my needs and is now my main lens at a very affordable price. I recommend it to anyone that want the flexibility offered by an excellent trans-standard zoom without breaking their budget.

Customer Service

Don't had to talk to Pentax.

Similar Products Used:

SMCP F-35-80