This is my favorite lens for Pentax. The first time I used this lens and reviewed the pictures at the end of the day, I was simply stunned. I feel that the Ephotozine review of the lens is accurate and my copy of the lens is ludicrously sharp. Also tested sharper than its Tokina 50-135 brethren. Excellent ambience, excellent sharpness, relatively light weight and very good af
The motors on my lens failed twice. 1st time was under the extended warranty. The 2nd time was about 8 years after I bought it. Thankfully I found out about the firmware hack.
Dude those jepgs looks amazing good job I am 100% pentax shooter k3 and k5iis almost switch to fuji but after playing with fuji xt1 camera wrrrr will never touch fuji again good job like your reviews..
I'm going to have to send mine in for repair. Motor is slow, two stops over exposure, and not sharp. Hope Precision repair does a good job like they did on your other lens!?
Which is sharper, the 50-135 at 135mm f2.8? or the 135 f2.5 at 2.5 (you reviewed it with the K-1), i was thinking of buying this les for AF but i don´t know if it will be sharper than my 135 f2.5 on aps-c. it would be pretty neat a vs video off those 2 lenses :)
I still wonder if Pentax has truly fixed that annoying SDM issue in AF system. If not this issue I could have this lense already but I'm afraid it will fail instantly :(
Photouniverse made a video about that. Ed described the issue from a Pentax insider. The problem is a capacitor which when you put the lens on, it receives energy and will get charged up. Now when you leave your lens off for a long time, the electricity dissipates from the capacitor. So the whole issue is the capacitor going bad and unable to deliver enough energy to the motor, giving sluggish af performance at the start, and improving as the charge is more stable. The good news is the capacitor is greatly improved and solved the problem. If you've got an older lens, then you should get it serviced and they will replace the capacitor.
I have this lens, purchased it cheap from eBay seller broken. Sent it to a pentax approved shop and it failed again 4 months later. In the mean time pentax switch to a different repair shop...I sent it again and this time it works. Why all the effort one would ask...? Because it produces WONDERFUL pics. 300mm DA* & 31mm are best, the Carl Zeiss f2 35mm Dist is AWESOME!
heavy vignetting till about 85mm, then some vignetinng at the edges, but very nice swirly effect on K1 :) generally great lens, sdm is not super fast but works very precise, great for moving object tracking, nice image rendering (a bit like on the magic side, maybe less sharp than tamron 70-200 but the colours and general impression is far better), sometimes i only regret why the da* hasn't bigger range (150mm? 180mm?) anyway i like it so much
Объектив для неспешных фото 😁 АФ тормоз конечно и никуда не годится для динамических сцен. Как пейзажник, портретник хорошо себя показывает. Да и не дорого. Купил б.у с рук и проверкой за 250$ для pentax k70
Great lens, lousy AF motor. Mine died in less than 8K exposures. Same with their 16-50mm DA 2.8. Shit motors. I went total Sigma EX/DG glass. I'll never buy ANY Pentax lenses again.
This is my favorite lens for Pentax. The first time I used this lens and reviewed the pictures at the end of the day, I was simply stunned. I feel that the Ephotozine review of the lens is accurate and my copy of the lens is ludicrously sharp. Also tested sharper than its Tokina 50-135 brethren. Excellent ambience, excellent sharpness, relatively light weight and very good af
The motors on my lens failed twice. 1st time was under the extended warranty. The 2nd time was about 8 years after I bought it. Thankfully I found out about the firmware hack.
Nice images Lee!
Bismillah
I wish this worked on the K1. I like this range and smaller size compared to a 70-200. Thanks great video
Nice review! Love those sample shots too
Dude those jepgs looks amazing good job I am 100% pentax shooter k3 and k5iis almost switch to fuji but after playing with fuji xt1 camera wrrrr will never touch fuji again good job like your reviews..
Good review and nice collection of glass behind you :)
I'm going to have to send mine in for repair. Motor is slow, two stops over exposure, and not sharp. Hope Precision repair does a good job like they did on your other lens!?
Nice review. Some of the shots are close-up, is that possible with this lens? thank you.
Which is sharper, the 50-135 at 135mm f2.8? or the 135 f2.5 at 2.5 (you reviewed it with the K-1), i was thinking of buying this les for AF but i don´t know if it will be sharper than my 135 f2.5 on aps-c. it would be pretty neat a vs video off those 2 lenses :)
lol. I actually have this on my list:) funny you should ask. I will try to get that vid up soon. thanks
+leehaze1 NEAT! I will wait for it! nice videos BTW!
thanks Lee - nice review
Any chance for a review of the 2016 55-300mm wr lense? Keep up the good work!
maybe if they have a deal with K-3 III when it comes out. Thanks for watching.
Nice review. How do you rate the bokeh on this baby?
I don't live in the US. But why is Amazon cheaper than BH especially on this 50-135? It's like a $200 price difference.
It is just not on a sale at B&H currently. It goes on and off sale quite frequently. I got mine used on ebay for $550.
I have a Pentax K-70 and was thinking of buying a ‘Pentax HD D-FA* 70-200mm F2.8ED DC AW’ lens… What are your thoughts about that…??
I'm also think to buy 70-200 to use it on K3 until I get K-1, any thoughts?
I still wonder if Pentax has truly fixed that annoying SDM issue in AF system. If not this issue I could have this lense already but I'm afraid it will fail instantly :(
Photouniverse made a video about that. Ed described the issue from a Pentax insider. The problem is a capacitor which when you put the lens on, it receives energy and will get charged up. Now when you leave your lens off for a long time, the electricity dissipates from the capacitor. So the whole issue is the capacitor going bad and unable to deliver enough energy to the motor, giving sluggish af performance at the start, and improving as the charge is more stable.
The good news is the capacitor is greatly improved and solved the problem. If you've got an older lens, then you should get it serviced and they will replace the capacitor.
Someone said that the construction itself leads the motor to go bad
I have this lens, purchased it cheap from eBay seller broken. Sent it to a pentax approved shop and it failed again 4 months later.
In the mean time pentax switch to a different repair shop...I sent it again and this time it works. Why all the effort one would ask...? Because it produces WONDERFUL pics.
300mm DA* & 31mm are best, the Carl Zeiss f2 35mm Dist is
AWESOME!
@@stevenjohnson4283 not that simple. I had my lens fixed 2 years ago but the AF stopped working again last November. I have to convert to screw drive
Thank you ! .
Would this lens work on the K-1 as well?
heavy vignetting till about 85mm, then some vignetinng at the edges, but very nice swirly effect on K1 :)
generally great lens, sdm is not super fast but works very precise, great for moving object tracking, nice image rendering (a bit like on the magic side, maybe less sharp than tamron 70-200 but the colours and general impression is far better), sometimes i only regret why the da* hasn't bigger range (150mm? 180mm?) anyway i like it so much
Объектив для неспешных фото 😁 АФ тормоз конечно и никуда не годится для динамических сцен.
Как пейзажник, портретник хорошо себя показывает. Да и не дорого. Купил б.у с рук и проверкой за 250$ для pentax k70
Great lens, lousy AF motor. Mine died in less than 8K exposures. Same with their 16-50mm DA 2.8. Shit motors. I went total Sigma EX/DG glass. I'll never buy ANY Pentax lenses again.
Do you know about the firmware hack?