Customer Reviews

Pentax DA 12-24mm f/4 ED AL (IF) Lens for Pentax and Samsung Digital SLR's

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The main problem with the APS-C sensor is the fact that to get a very wide angle of view, you need a special lens. My old 20mm lens, which has served me for many, many, years, is just a moderate wide on the digital sensors.

With a few doubts, I sprang for this super-wide zoom.

WHAT A SURPRISE! This lens is AMAZING!

Low or no distortion (you can get away without correcting for distortion in Photoshop - quite a feat - unless you have a fanatical lunatic architectural client). CA hard to see. Very sharp, sharper wide open than any zoom has a right to be!!

Flare is so well controlled, I shot right into th sun and did NOT get the usual string of circles, just one ghost. How do they DO that???

The constant aperture is a blessing (I still refuse to buy a zoom with a variable aperture).

All modern lenses are polycarbonate. Supposedly, it's more dimensionally stable than metal under temperature extremes. Maybe so, but I still have some of the older K and M lenses and some Limited lenses. I guess I'm just old fashioned.

But with the APS-C sensor, you need a VERY wide lens. This is the one that will save your hide on any assignment where you need ultra-wide angle of view.

Penatx has always been known for their glass. With this lens, they continue to impress those who know that the glass is what counts!

Pop Photo (Apr-06) praised this lens as a "Wide Winner" for spectacular performance on bench testing: excellent image sharpness and contrast; imperceptible distortion ["best of breed"]; and barely notable vignetting at the short end. I can add breathtaking color, crisp contrast and ruler-straight linearity to that list. At first glance, a 2X zoom doesn't sound impressive these days - until you realize that this parafocal zoom sweeps an incredible 100 to 60 degree viewing range, that's just perfect for cramped interiors, group pictures or landscapes. This zoom is a landmark of stellar engineering: combining extra-dispersion glass and aspheric lens elements into flagship "great glass".

But a finely-tuned optical engine performs optimally only if all cylinders fire in unison ... at daylight trial, I noted a hideous 'purple fringing' [chromatic aberration] of trees and power lines outlined against an overcast sky -- something was badly remiss. Rather than returning the lens, I packed it up for warranty service so as to alert the manufacturer to quality control slippage. Irreparable misalignment [probably from rough shipping/handling] was acknowledged; replacement with a brand-new lens was hassle-free as well as timely.

Should you detect distortion (run some test shots before starting a formal shoot!), fear not -- Pentax service was knowledgeable, courteous, and helpful. To their great credit, exchange was virtually painless, and the new replacement lens at last performs flawlessly. Although the initial unit turned out to be a glass lemon, Pentax made good (try that with a new car!); I have nothing but praise for the fair and decisive warranty follow-through.

Tip: the bulbous cyclops snout of the forward element is close to the surface, begging for scratches and smudges. Protecting the front end with a haze or UV filter in essence adds an unproven 14th glass element to a balanced optical design -- buy the high quality multi-coated filter (mounted in a thin WA ring) this star performer deserves to minimize glare, internal reflection and corner vignetting.

This lens covers a handy range of focal lengths. At 24mm (equivalent to 35mm on a 35mm film camera) it replicates the popular moderate wide angle that is handy for car shows, architecture, landscapes and group shots.

Go down to 12mm, and you get a very wide view, great depth of field, and essentially no barrel distortion.

Although there is some overlap in the focal length of the Pentax 10-17mm lens, that one has the pronounced "fisheye" distortion (though not too much at 17mm), while the 12-24 maintains straight lines (it's "rectilinear") though if you are tilted up (or down), your subject will lean in (or out).

More expensive than some lenses but less than others, I say it is worth it. Its constant f4 maximum aperture is part of the cost (and weight).

It is a little bulky, not lightweight, and has a rather large lens hood, so you might have to rearrange your bag divider...

This lens is savvier, more perfect than I expected. I don't need to say about pros because lots of people already say about that in review. But this lens' weight is quite heavier compared with other Pentax lens.

This lens is amazing. If I had a choice of one lens to leave on my camera forever, this would be it. Its sharp, contrasty, and the angle of view at 12mm is AMAZING. The distortion is minimal to my eyes though I have not measured it. I'm just very happy with the results I consistently get with it.

Its very flare resistant and though the lens is mostly plastic, its feels very solid and well made. Not a whole lot of slop to any of its movements. Its very lightweight, so its not a burden to carry it around. I just wish it was a tad shorter, but this is not a complaint.

The range is very good for a walking around lens, the 24mm upper end gives about a 36mm angle of view equivalent for a 35mm standard film camera.

Just add a 50-135 2.8 and you have a great range for just about everything.

I originally had a 24mm FA* F2.0 lens. With the sensor, it becomes a 36mm and therefore loses it's wide angle advantage. Once I bought this lens, I never even touched my older 24mm F2.0 lens. Having the wider field of view made this more desireable than my standard 24mm F2.0 lens. So I sold it when I bought this lens. Wow, having that 18mm view has been a life saver. Granted, because of the super wide nature of this lens, wou will get the occasional barrel distortion of some buildings or landscape that you photograph. There is the occasional chromatic aberation as well, which is why it's nice to have the auto correction feature for this built in to the K-5. The zoom ring turns smoothly and having the constant aperture is nice, as compared to the other ultra wide zooms available in this mount. The colors are accurate and the contrast is beautiful. Now at $800 for this lens, yes the Simga and the Tamron are cheaper, but both of those are not constant apertures, but you get more at the wide end since those lenses start at 10mm. But on the other end, this lens also tested sharper, based on reports from Digital Photograprhy Review. I for one love this lens and think any one shooting with Pentax will enjoy it as well.

Revision: Pentax repaired my lens. Its infinity setting was slightly off (i.e., shorter than infinity), causing autofocus to "hunt". Repair cost $95 and took 13 days including shipping. Had I known this I would have asked for a repair during warranty. Lesson learned: if something is amiss, don't assume it's a feature common to all units; instead consider the possibility of a defective unit.

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Instead of duplicating other folks' reviews, I'll briefly add a few points that are minor or major depending on your view.

First, my Pentax 12-24 mm lens (attached to a Pentax K100D) takes nice pictures when it lets me. With this lens, the K100D hunts for autofocus, and often gives up. I've become so exasperated that I have 3 pieces of masking tape attached on the focusing ring of the lens so that I'm shooting manual focus fixed at infinity. It works for most sightseeing shots outdoors. When it doesn't, I need to loosen the masking tape, and suffer the skittish autofocus or focus manually. The autofocus problem can happen in broad daylight, with only a UV protective filter attached to the lens. My other lenses are not this bad.

Second, the big hood makes it devilishly difficult to rotate my polarizing filter. So much so that I don't use the hood. But I get good shots anyway.

Third, although I also have the Pentax 10-17 mm diagonal fisheye zoom (wonderful lens), the Pentax 12-24 mm gives me great panorama shots, too. I use PTGUI to stitch multiple photos, and PANO2VR to create QuickTime and Flash movies.

Fourth, the lens is a bit slow, and the filter diameter is a bit wide. Meaning you need good light, and if you want a polarizing filter, the price will be steep.

* Did a lot of research before buying this lens and it is everything I was hoping for. My favorite lenses in the 35mm film range were 24 and 28mm. This lens covers that range with some left on both sides with very little distortion, and the edge to edge sharpness I would expect from a fixed focus. So far I have not noticed any major "purple fringing" problems that others have in high contrast areas. Since I do all my processing in PS, I am prepared to deal with those as they pop up. I manual focus only so did not test the auto focus aspect of the lens. I personally do not mind the size of the lens hood as long as it does the job it was intended to do. Someday I will buy that 15mm LTD, but I like the ability to zoom instead of switching lenses out the the dust, dirt and sand I find myself shooting in many times. Maybe Pentax will come out with a weather sealed version of this great lens???

This is a great lens and was exactly what I was looking for to shoot large objects in tight spaces

Very useful zoom range for digital. Very little distortion. Very sharp, except in the very corner. Excellent color rendition. Bad purple fringing but very easy to fix in pp. 5 stars because pf is so easy to fix.