7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Turn your Pentax DSLR into a take with you everyday camera
Date of Review: Mar 31, 2007
The Bottom Line: Excellent optics and build quality and thus value for the money, will own it for a very long time. Possible future Pentax cult lense.
About Pentax
The company has been around since dirt, and has come out with some amazing optics over the years. Just as impressive is that Pentax doesn't feel compelled to change their mount every few years, meaning lenses are swapable, digital to film, film to digital, larger format with converters to smaller format. This means VALUE folks!
SMC DA 40mm f2.8
SMC stands for the coating Pentax puts on their lens. Every manufacturer has a different formula for lens coating, the qualities affect the color, contrast, optical qualities of the image being viewed. Pentax SMC coating goes way back, and Pentax lenses with SMC, I have found, have excellent optical performance.
DA
DA lenses are made to fit onto digital cameras with smaller (non-full frame) sensors. They have been optically altered to take advantage of how a digital sensor "sees" vs. how film "sees." This doesn't mean that you cannot used DA lenses on Pentax film cameras or that you can't use Pentax lenses designed for film on digital. It's just that the optical formula is different and maximized for digital. This lense will fit onto ALL Pentax digital SLR cameras. And due to Pentax's foresight, will actually fit onto all Pentax film camera mounts as well!
40mm
40mm on a cropped (meaning not a full frame digital sensor)looks like 60mm. A "normal" lens length is considered 50mm because it's considered comperable to how humans normally see. So this lens is just slightly longer than normal. This means it's great for people shots and street photography, great for everyday shooting. Not too telephoto (long), but not too wide so that distortion happens. Nice.
f2.8
The f2.8 refers to the aperture, or opening of the lense. How wide or big it gets. The smaller the number, the larger the opening and thus the more light that is allowed to go through to hit the film or in this case the sensor. F2.8 isn't as fast as the 50mm f1.4. But it's sufficiently fast that except for extreme low light situations you can get the shot without having to worry about lots of digital noise. F2.8 is too slow to work in extreme low light without the use of a flash or having to deal with digital noise. The aperture range goes from F2.8 up to f22. With your aperature set to f22 means you can also get shots with a good depth of field.
Build Factor
Robust. Metal, I think aluminum but doesn't feel cheap. If it were bigger I'd guess it would be a heavy lens. But it's not. It feels solid like old-fashioned lenses used to, but not hefty. It comes with a tiny lens hood! Be careful it's so small I almost tossed it. If you like to use filters on your lenses, this one uses 49mm size.
Optics
I feel safe in saying this could end up being a Pentax owners cult lense known for a mix of excellent optics and perfect size. What the lens does it does very well. No more, no less. Color balance is pleasing. A nice balance between excellent color saturation but not overly so. Color balance is neutral, not too cool or warm. In terms of distortion, I don't see any. In terms of edge to edge sharpness, it does well wide open. Ever so slight sharpness drop off on edges at 2.8. Nevertheless you won't be disappointed as it handles edge to edge sharpness very well. Don't worry about it not being sharp. It has good but not too must contrast, so you won't have to worry about images looking cartoonlike. It has 9 aperture blades, and in the f2.8-4 range I particularly like the bokeh. (Bokeh is a Japanese word used to describe the out of focus areas in a photo. Some lenses have bad or disturbing bokeh so they detract from what's supposed to be the subject matter of the shot). I used the Pentax 40mm pancake for shooting portraits, photos buildings and landscapes and it was excellent for all.
Autofocus
I'm not a big fan of AF, but use it sometimes. The AF on this sucka is FAST. Not like a hunting zoom. It seems faster than other primes I've used, I'm not sure, it might be because it's so small there's less to move. In any event though, if you like like lenses that you can basically focus like your eyes (meaning almost immediate), this is definitely one to consider.
Convenience
I can't say enough about this. The lens is thin, .6 inches in length. That's why they call it a pancake. At JUST OVER 3 OUNCES, it adds no real weight to your camera. It's basically flat so there's no bulk. In other words you can take your camera with you in a purse or briefcase or fannypack and you always are ready for a shot.
Cons
I really can't think of any other than it might be hard to find for purchase, they aren't always in stock. If you use Manual focus, since the lense is so thin, the focus ring is thin to. So guys with big paws might have to practice delicate focusing techniques. Cost is in keeping for what you'd expect for a quality lense though I'm sure for people used to cheap knockoff zooms they might consider it expensive.
Summary
If you are someone who likes carrying a camera around, this is definitely the lens for you. The AF is fast, optics excellent, built robust, weight next to nothing. It's a perfect companion for people who want to integrate photography into their day-to-day lives.
Adorama
