Pentax lens vs the other brands ,,,,,

[pentax mono]

bought the monochrome on a whim and know nothing about Pentax lens.

I do know quite a bit about other brands lens ,,,, I know about character ....optical charts ....lens design .... manufacturing process ,,, etc

so far I have been most impressed with the Nikon Z series using their large mirrorless mount

the only Pentax lens I have is their nifty fifty which really impresses me for its sharpness

but overall were do Pentax lens rate vs the other major brands ?

what are the real standout lens in the brand ?

example : Canon makes amazing tilt shift lens ....... Fuji has the 35 f1.4 sonnar style magic lens ....... Nikon makes amazing Z series primes ....... Olympus makes a "killer" small 300 mm bird in flight lens ....... Canikon has professional sports lens ..... Sony has special portrait lens .....

whats Pentax "thing" ?????

 

[asahi man]

bought the monochrome on a whim and know nothing about Pentax lens.

I do know quite a bit about other brands lens ,,,, I know about character ....optical charts ....lens design .... manufacturing process ,,, etc

so far I have been most impressed with the Nikon Z series using their large mirrorless mount

the only Pentax lens I have is their nifty fifty which really impresses me for its sharpness

but overall were do Pentax lens rate vs the other major brands ?

what are the real standout lens in the brand ?

example : Canon makes amazing tilt shift lens ....... Fuji has the 35 f1.4 sonnar style magic lens ....... Nikon makes amazing Z series primes ....... Olympus makes a "killer" small 300 mm bird in flight lens ....... Canikon has professional sports lens ..... Sony has special portrait lens .....

whats Pentax "thing" ?????

Pentax has the worldwide best af 1.4 85 and it's the second best 1.4 85 of all.

One of the best 1.4 50

The best 16~50 2.8

The very best super wide with 2.8

A high recommended 2.8 70~200

A very high grade tele zoom 150~450

I think a lot for the smallest company in this class.

 

[Sjak]

whats Pentax "thing" ?????

I think the Limited-primes are the iconic Pentax autofocus lenses. These are small primes with lovely rendering.

The zooms are not bad at all, but everyone has zooms in the same range, so not really differentiating.

 

[chris gunn]

but overall were do Pentax lens rate vs the other major brands ?

The giant HD 85/1.4 probably stands above.

The very-difficult-to-get FA200 Macro

whats Pentax "thing" ?????

Supposed to be Bokeh?

 

[robgendreau]

bought the monochrome on a whim and know nothing about Pentax lens.

I do know quite a bit about other brands lens ,,,, I know about character ....optical charts ....lens design .... manufacturing process ,,, etc

so far I have been most impressed with the Nikon Z series using their large mirrorless mount

the only Pentax lens I have is their nifty fifty which really impresses me for its sharpness

but overall were do Pentax lens rate vs the other major brands ?

what are the real standout lens in the brand ?

example : Canon makes amazing tilt shift lens ....... Fuji has the 35 f1.4 sonnar style magic lens ....... Nikon makes amazing Z series primes ....... Olympus makes a "killer" small 300 mm bird in flight lens ....... Canikon has professional sports lens ..... Sony has special portrait lens .....

whats Pentax "thing" ?????

Since you can use K mount lenses going far back, tough to say. Some older macro 50mm lenses eg are still fantastic, even if they don't have current coatings. If you look at the listings on pentaxforums.com you'll see what I think is a pretty fair assessment of the lenses. And note that lots of other camera users still use these Pentax lenses adapted to their mirrorless cameras. Even on medium format.

Overall, I'd say Pentax is best at traditional film focal length lenses. I agree the 15-450 is a great lens, and the 300mm *, but the strength is in the middle.

For the K-3iii I'd look hard at the 31, 43, and 77mm limiteds. Folks LOVE those. https://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/english/products/limited_lens/fa_limited/

https://www.pentaxforums.com/articles/hands-on-reviews/comparing-3-pentax-fa-limited-lenses.html

 

[Sjak]

For the K-3iii I'd look hard at the 31, 43, and 77mm limiteds. Folks LOVE those. https://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/english/products/limited_lens/fa_limited/

https://www.pentaxforums.com/articles/hands-on-reviews/comparing-3-pentax-fa-limited-lenses.html

Don't forget the DA Ltds... I mean, the DA 70 Ktd, a pancake-TELE :-D And it's an excellent lens.

The 15 Ltd, although not without flaws, is one of the smallest autofocus SLR-wide-angles I know.

I haven't used the 21&40 DA Ltd, but those who do usually are very enthusiastic about those too.

 

[klimbkat]

In addition to the FA Limiteds, DA Limited primes, and * lenses, do consider the DA Ltd 20-40. It is light, WR, and has the rendition of the DA limiteds throughout it's range. It would sit very handsomely on a K3iiiM (and deliver the goods) as well).

 

[DougOB]

As others have said the Pentax "thing" is the FA and DA limited lenses (almost all prime).

Another thought is that you bought the K-3iii Monochrome. One advantage of this camera over simply doing a BW conversion from a normal colour camera is the extra resolution you get. If you want to maximize this then some lenses to look at are:

Prime:

• DFA 21/f2.4 Ltd
• FA 31/f1.8 Ltd
• DFA* 50/f1.4 SDM
• DFA* 85/f1.4 SDM
• DFA 100/f2.8 Macro
• DA* 300/f4 SDM

Zoom:

• DA* 11-18/f2.8
• DA* 16-50/f2.8 PLM
• DFA* 70-200/f2.8

Some of these are costly, some are big & heavy.

Doug

p.s., FWIW I have 3 of the 9 lenses listed above, but I have 6 DA Ltd and 3 FA Ltd lenses

 

[James O'Neill]

bought the monochrome on a whim and know nothing about Pentax lens.

I do know quite a bit about other brands lens ,,,, I know about character ....optical charts ....lens design .... manufacturing process ,,, etc

so far I have been most impressed with the Nikon Z series using their large mirrorless mount

the only Pentax lens I have is their nifty fifty which really impresses me for its sharpness

but overall were do Pentax lens rate vs the other major brands ?

what are the real standout lens in the brand ?

example : Canon makes amazing tilt shift lens ....... Fuji has the 35 f1.4 sonnar style magic lens ....... Nikon makes amazing Z series primes ....... Olympus makes a "killer" small 300 mm bird in flight lens ....... Canikon has professional sports lens ..... Sony has special portrait lens .....

whats Pentax "thing" ?????

Pentax has the worldwide best af 1.4 85 and it's the second best 1.4 85 of all.

One of the best 1.4 50

The best 16~50 2.8

The very best super wide with 2.8

A high recommended 2.8 70~200

A very high grade tele zoom 150~450

I think a lot for the smallest company in this class.

The DFA* 85 is - I can say from owning one - an absolutely superb lens. It's big, heavy, expensive - but not massively so - and optically fantastic.

If the full frame world - if "super wide with 2.8" means the the DFA 21 Ltd, (which I also own) this too is an absolutely first class lens. But as a one of the "limited" designated lenses there's a character to it as well which goes beyond test bench numbers. It's a lens which makes me want to go out and take pictures.

And there are the FA limited lenses 77, 43 and 31. Late 20th century designs, which don't actually turn in fantastic numbers on the test bench but have some magic to them which nothing else seems to have. I compare the 77 with the big Citroen I used to own and loved, and the 85 with the Mercedes E class whose engineering one could only admire. The 77 is another lens which makes me want to go and shoot pictures.

To the original comment Canon has a market share which allows them to make niche lenses like Tilt/shift which no-one else would make for one mount. I don't think Nikon's primes are particularly special, Olympus can do things which a smaller sensor gathering less light can work well in certain circumstances. Haven't heard about a "special" portrait lens form Sony, they have a good 85 but so do a lot of others.

More of the Pentax lenses are weather proof than most brands.

I look over the fence at Sony where the cameras can do things which my Pentax can't and I think those cameras were designed by genius engineers, who had never met a photographer. Pentax stuff feels like it's made by engineers who would rather be shooting pictures.

 

[RBIV]

I look over the fence at Sony where the cameras can do things which my Pentax can't and I think those cameras were designed by genius engineers, who had never met a photographer. Pentax stuff feels like it's made by engineers who would rather be shooting pictures.

Beautiful. :-D

 

[flektogon]

I look over the fence at Sony where the cameras can do things which my Pentax can't and I think those cameras were designed by genius engineers, who had never met a photographer. Pentax stuff feels like it's made by engineers who would rather be shooting pictures.

Beautiful. :-D

Yes, a perfect description of the Sony/Pentax differences.

 

[Mark Ransom]

Pentax stuff feels like it's made by engineers who would rather be shooting pictures.

That has always been Pentax's great strength.

 

[RBIV]

Pentax stuff feels like it's made by engineers who would rather be shooting pictures.

That has always been Pentax's great strength.

Yeah, but they need to come back to work now. Because, you know.....

 

[Conjure]

The original reason for my decision to dive into the K system were reviews of the K-5, the lenses DA*60-250mm and DA 100mm Macro. And additionally some reviews and opinons on lenstip.com ("Pentax is one of few companies which treats the smaller sensor seriously.")

The DA20-40 is no diva, but it reliably delivers good results:











My favorite photos with "special rendering" were taken with DA*55 and FA77ltd:















Cheers
Anton

 

[flektogon]

Yes Anton. And beautiful pictures to support it!

 

[Dino26323]

Exactly my thinking too Klimbkat.

The 20to40 is my choice to try out ( cough if I bought one Cough . ) I have that lens too. It is often very contrasty but you can dial that down. With the impressive detail in the mono camera that really behaves like Pixel Shift on every shot well that 20 to 40 is my pick to try out with it plus the focus drifting perfectly out due to the depth of field. That would be great to pixel peep and a joy to shoot with. Looks fantastic as well. I have it in silver. It is very beautiful lens too but I may be biased

Regards Dino26323