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New DA 35 sharpness question - am I expecting too much

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I don't have time to read all the replies, so perhaps someone has already told you this.

Macro lenses are optimized to be sharp close in. They tend to be mediocre for distance shooting.

Joe
 
RBellavance said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't understand why the
DA35 Ltd has been brought to market before an "affordable" fast
normal prime.
Click to expand...
Right. But this is Pentax we're talking about. Do you expect to understand why they do things?

Joe
 
If you can try it with a tripod,Mirror Lock-up and Manual Focus just to see what it you come up with!
--
Leopold
Pentax forever
 
Natural jpeg directly from camera from objects near infinity:



Your example picture looks like if it is not focused correctly. Try manual infinity focus and a tripod and an long distance subject over 100 meters away. I use it as a walk around lens as do many others and have no problems.

Note that using an aperture around F8 is the natural thing to do when focusing at infinity for landscapes, so even if its performance wide open at long distance is reduced then that is not an issue for normal usage.

Performance of all tested macro lenses at intermediate distances are excellent according to photozone.de, they test all their lenses at intermediate distances, so the comments of some others are contradicted by photozone measurements.

So sharpness is no reason for not using a macro lens as general purpose. Size, cost, focusing speed might be reasons to prefer another lens, but the da35 is quite nice in these aspects too.

--



Tom - http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/tomvijlbrief
 
Standard lenses are optimized for optimum sharpness at infinity, they tend to be mediocre at other distances. I therefore prefer macro lenses over standard lenses because macro lenses has better sharpness over the whole distance scale.

I'm very happy with my DA 35. Sharpness is even and very good, but also the contrast and colour rendition is excellent.
--
Take care
R
http://www.flickr.com/photos/raphaelmabo
 
Nothing wrong with the sharpness of mine for landscapes that's why I bought it.





--
Regards Dean - Capturing Creation
 
here's some full and crops of DA35 vs FA43 and DA*16-50, also Tamron 90 Macro vs FA77

All images shot on tripod, manual exposure the same at 1/250, all at F8 Remote release.

All on Manual Focus which was set to infinity.

DA35 Macro Ltd. Full



DA35 Macro Ltd. Crop



FA43 Ltd. Full



FA43 Ltd. Crop



DA*16-50 Crop



Tamron 90 Crop



FA77 Crop



--
Brian
 
I should post my macro stuff done with this lens, because at close range it is the sharpest lens I have, so if it is a bad copy, it's only bad at longer distances. Also my Tamron 90 which is super-sharp also performs poorly at infinity as well.

Anyway, if you're right, then this could wind up being a decent lens to take outside with me...
Gary Martin said:
Yikes! Your DA35 looks like a bad sample, you should exchange it for
another copy. I have that lens, and I can assure you that it should
be vastly better than that.

--
http://www.pixelstatic.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelstatic/
Click to expand...
--
Brian
 
Ditto for me! My DA 35mm Macro Ltd. does very well at all distances...I'm with Dean, Roland Mabo and Gary. This is one heck of a fine lens for macro and all other shooting. BTW my Sigma 70 Macro and 105 Macro also shoot well at all distances as well as up at macro distances. From what I have seen over the years I think the adage that says macro lenses are only super at macro and normal short distances is unfounded...well, at least according to my experience.
Go back and exchange for a good copy.

Warm regards and good luck
Leo

--
K10D and Canon G7...simply the very best!
mitch
 
OK, thanks, I appreciate everyone's replies and thoughts. I'll spend some time with this lens now to check to see if it is focusing properly with AF (I have used MF when using it close up) or maybe send it into Pentax if all that fails. It's a lovely lens and I'd really like to use it as a walk around prime. I like the colors, the FOV, and the build, and if I can get some more detail out of mid and long-range scenes, I'll be happy with this lens.

--
Brian
 
Brian,

I think your lens may be performing worse than mine at inifinity, but only slightly. And like yours, my close ups are extremely sharp. I'm sending mine back for a replacement tomorrow. I'll let you know the results of the new lens when I receive it, but I imagine it will be a couple of weeks.

Steve
 
Brian I can see your concern @ infinity, its not good. Just check it is not BF or FF.

You said you set it to infinity when taking this shot, sometimes lenses will actually go past infinity, I wonder if you tried winding it back a touch. Mind you at f8 one would expect the dof to still be there.
Your 43 is very impressive - don't exchange it!
--
Regards Dean - Capturing Creation
 
Stephen82 said:
Brian,
I think your lens may be performing worse than mine at inifinity, but
only slightly. And like yours, my close ups are extremely sharp.
I'm sending mine back for a replacement tomorrow. I'll let you know
the results of the new lens when I receive it, but I imagine it will
be a couple of weeks.

Steve
Click to expand...
Thanks, it'd be great to know if a replacement is better than the one you have.
ozdean said:
Brian I can see your concern @ infinity, its not good. Just check it
is not BF or FF.
You said you set it to infinity when taking this shot, sometimes
lenses will actually go past infinity, I wonder if you tried winding
it back a touch. Mind you at f8 one would expect the dof to still be
there.
Your 43 is very impressive - don't exchange it!
--
Regards Dean - Capturing Creation
Click to expand...
Autofocus took it to the same point at infinity that manual focus did. I can't seem to make the lens go past infinity.

I'm gonna check the BF and FF to see if it is off or not. And I am gonna try a few shots at F16, I think with this lens F16 is as far as you can go before diffraction sets in. I wish that Photozone or SLRGear had their tests of this lens' performance up, that'd clue me in a bit on best apertures to use for this lens.
--
Brian
 
How do you create your 100% crops?

When I look at the height in pixels of the DA35 100% crop of the tower clock and the 90mm version I would expect the 90mm version almost 3 times higher but it is not!

The clock is about the same size on all 100% crops. This means that the 90mm is really near a 39% crop, the FA77 about a 45% crop, the 43 about a 81% crop, etc!

This is clearly wrong and will make every shorter lens appear worse than longer, although the quality of the 90mm image is worse than expected.

--



Tom - http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/tomvijlbrief
 
Thats a valid point Tom.

Brian I suspect that shot may be out of focus just try a wisker either side if you can.
--
Regards Dean - Capturing Creation
 
tomtor said:
How do you create your 100% crops?

When I look at the height in pixels of the DA35 100% crop of the
tower clock and the 90mm version I would expect the 90mm version
almost 3 times higher but it is not!

The clock is about the same size on all 100% crops. This means that
the 90mm is really near a 39% crop, the FA77 about a 45% crop, the 43
about a 81% crop, etc!
Click to expand...
Not 100% crops, these should be

DA35



FA43



Tamron 90



But I'm wondering now if my new K20D has the sensor misaligned and cannot focus to infinity properly?

--
Brian
 
Augustmoon said:
tomtor said:
How do you create your 100% crops?

When I look at the height in pixels of the DA35 100% crop of the
tower clock and the 90mm version I would expect the 90mm version
almost 3 times higher but it is not!

The clock is about the same size on all 100% crops. This means that
the 90mm is really near a 39% crop, the FA77 about a 45% crop, the 43
about a 81% crop, etc!
Click to expand...
Not 100% crops, these should be
Click to expand...
Ah, that looks more like it! The difference in IQ between the 35 and the 43 is much smaller now! Part of it can be attributed to the 43 projecting a bigger image on the sensor.

The 90 image is really over exposed which makes it look worse than it is. I find the other images also over exposed by the way.
Augustmoon said:
But I'm wondering now if my new K20D has the sensor misaligned and
cannot focus to infinity properly?
Click to expand...
I would say these images are not great but also not bad. I think that if you develop maximum quality jpegs from raw files and compensate the exposure at least the 35 and 43 perform decently.

It is interesting to hear the opinions of others.

I'm glad that your test shows that the DA35 is in the same league as the FA43!
Augustmoon said:
--
Brian
Click to expand...
--



Tom - http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/tomvijlbrief
 
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