| Specifications |
| Optical Formula |
elements in groups |
| Aperture Range |
f/4-5.6 ~ f/22-32 |
| Number of Aperture Blades |
6 |
| Minimum Focusing Distance |
0,50m |
| Maximum Magnification |
|
| Maximum Diameter |
68mm |
| Length |
74mm |
| Filter Size |
58mm |
| Weight |
|
| IF Internal focus |
| comes with front cap, rear cap, hood |
|
| Build |
| The build quality is really bad. There is no play or rattle in the focus and zoom mechanism, but
the outer plastic is so thin that you can deform it easily with two fingers the way that the focus ring
does not work. The focus ring is wide and with structure but with a loud "swirrel" sound. |
| Optical |
| The sharpness is quite good even wide open, stopping down improves it this only a bit. It is worst at the wide end at 28mm.
Contrast is bad wide open especially at 28mm but stopping down improves this much. At f8 it is acceptable through the complete
zoom range. Wide open vignetting is visible at all focal length, two stops down it disappear.
The lens has big barrel distortions at the short end and pincushion distortions at the long end.
The neutral zone is around 50mm. |
| Handling |
| The zoom ring works smooth but uneven. The lens changes the length heavily when zooming to 105mm.
When tilt downwards the lens sometimes zooms out by itself. The Manual focus feel is not so good, the focus ring is
wide and has structure but it works really easy and you have to turn it only a small way to get from 0.5m to infinity.
Auto focus speed is OK but you have the same "swirrel" sound like in MF. The lens hood has a snap mechanism which
works easy and fast and you can mount it in reverse when not used. |
| Compatibility |
| As you would expect I have not had any compatibility problems with the two cameras I've used it on so far. A Pentax MZ-5 and a Pentax MX. |
| Conclusion |
| A nice "one lens" combination but with some mechanical and optical limits.
For the money OK but far away from the outstanding test results in some magazines. |
| © 2000-2002 Andreas Busse |
