Pentax 28-105mm f/3.2-4.5 AL IF SMC P-FA

 
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28-105mm $209
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(From Pentax lens literature) The Pentax SMC P-FA 28-105mm f/3.2-4.5 AL IF standard zoom lens is the perfect standard zoom lens for both beginning and advanced photographers. Compact and lightweight, it provides wide-to-telephoto zoom coverage and high-quality image reproduction. The incorporation of a hybrid aspherical lens element contributes to the improvement in image quality and the reduction of coma and spherical aberrations. An internal focusing system ensures faster and smoother focusing.

Pentax 28-105mm f/3.2-4.5 AL IF SMC P-FA

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Buy the Pentax 28-105mm f/3.2-4.5 AL IF SMC P-FA

Pentax 28-105mm f/3.2-4.5 AL IF SMC P-FA User Reviews

8.0/10 average of 2 review(s) Build Quality 7.0/10 Image Quality 8.5/10
  • 8 out of 10 points and recommended by cali4nia (12 reviews)
    'happy' colors, lightweight
    on the soft side

    It's a very small and light lens, rather fast for its size. It has typical SMC Pentax 'happy' contrasty colors. The lens is plastic but feels ok. Some lenses were made in Vietnam, some in Taiwan. I had three copies of this lens, two of which were silver and one black. Other than the color they were identical in design. The first copy from KEH was a complete disaster, soft and decentered. The other two copies had decent sharpeness wide open and very minimal decentering.
    Optically, it's a mixed bad. On APS-C crop the lens is on the soft side when fully open, especially on the long end. Compared to the 18-55 kit it's softer but not by much. It also shows some astigmatism and CA wide open. But stop it down one or better two stops and this lens turns superb.
    On the full frame the lens is much better than on crop sensor, it is very sharp in the center, somewhat soft towards the edges.

    reviewed May 20th, 2013
  • 8 out of 10 points and recommended by joekashi (7 reviews)
    Small, sharp, convenient, inexpensive full frame
    None significant given price range

    This lens is very convenient for the K10 or K20. It is a full frame lens and so the digital sensor is within its sweet spot. It is small and light given its focal length and sharpness is very good. My first copy was decentered but the vendor replaced it within days of notification and the replacement lens generally has more very good image quality. This is a very worthwhile purchase to complement my Pentax 16-45 DA and currently is the only Pentax lens in this useful normal to 3.75X focal length range. It seems to only come in silver - all black would be nicer but of course this does not affect optical quality.

    reviewed May 15th, 2008 (purchased for $209)