SMC Pentax-DA 1 Review: 1.8 50mm

According provided by SMC Pentax-DA 1: 1.8 50mm lens huge thanks to Petr Lewandovich.

SMC Pentax-DA 1 Review: 1.8 50mm

SMC Pentax-DA 1 Review: 1.8 50mm

SMC Pentax-DA 1: 1.8 50mm - excellent fast fifty dollars for Pentax cameras. The prefix 'DA' in the lens name means the lens is designed for Pentax APS-C 'cropped' cameras. In fact, the lens can work on full-format cameras, for example, on Pentax film SLRs.

SMC Pentax-DA 1: 1.8 50mm rear view and diaphragm view

SMC Pentax-DA 1: 1.8 50mm rear view and diaphragm view

Progress has taken away from the Pentax-DA 50 / 1,8 all the charm of high-quality lenses - on the Pentax-DA 1: 1.8 50mm you will not find either the aperture control ring, or the focusing distance scale, or the depth-of-field scale, and no useful marks at all. But on the side there is the inscription SMC Pentax DA, the letters DA are made in the form of a hologram, like on cheap Chinese crafts that try to impress the buyer with the excellent quality of the goods with a hologram.

Bokeh lens

Bokeh lens

But the absence of various scales and marks when used on modern digital cameras will not cause problems. Hopefully, manufacturers are keeping everything out of the way by focusing on the image quality of the lens. The bayonet of the Pentax-DA 50 / 1,8 is made of plastic, and the plastic focusing ring. Anyway, the entire lens barrel is made of plastic in Vietnam.

SMC lens enlightenment

SMC lens enlightenment

Pentax-DA 50 / 1,8 no built-in motor focusing. Focus is very noisy, as it is carried out by the 'screwdriver' of the camera, while the lens emits a heartbreaking piercing sound, similar to a pig squeak. Auto focus speed is above average, but still not very fast. When focusing, the entire lens unit of the lens moves, and the front lens of the lens moves inside the barrel of the body. When mounted on a lens safety filter, then we can conditionally say that focusing is internal. The same focusing, without lengthening the trunk of the lens, have Nikon fifty - Nikon 50mm f / 1.8G AF-S Nikkor и Nikon 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S Nikkor... The minimum focusing distance is 45cm. The focus ring rotates 180 degrees in manual mode, and it is quite convenient to focus with such a large focusing ring pitch. When I used the lens on my camera Pentax K-5, then often such a bunch was wrong with focusing. The lens has a standard front filter diameter of 52mm. The aperture has 7 blades and can be closed up to f / 22.

View of the Central Hall

View of the Central Hall

Pentax-DA 50 / 1,8 turned out to be very light (about 120 g) and a small lens. The lens is better to touch than Canon Lens EF 50mm 1: 1.8 IIbut worse Nikon 50mm 1: 1.8D Nikkor. Optically, the Pentax-DA 50 / 1,8 is noticeably better than the specified counterparts from Nikon and Canon, but it also costs significantly more:


All prices on SMC Pentax-DA 1: 1.8 50mm

Despite the unpretentious body design, the Pentax-DA 50 / 1,8 boasts good optical performance. I was surprised how this lightweight lens was able to deliver good image quality. If I had a Pentax camera, I would definitely take such fifty kopecks to my service :) Pentax-DA 50 / 1,8 - very sharp, with minimal vignetting at F / 1.8, very little distortion. The lens holds back and side light well, but still suffers from chromatic aberrations, which is not surprising for such aperture.

The parameters of the photo in the review:
Everything is filmed on Pentax K5 without further modification. On Pentax K5 EGF is 75mm (to be precise, 76.5mm). On-camera JPEG, 16M, 4 stars with Shake Redutcion enabled. Functions: distortion correction, correction. chromium. increased, noise suppression at high sensitivity, suppressed. noise at slow shutter speeds, compensation. illumination, compensation shadows were turned off. used white balance: 'Auto', 'Daylight', 'Shade' and 'Cloudy'. The size of the photos has been reduced to 3 MP. This is a review with cats :)

Catalog of modern Pentax lenses can look at this link.

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Conclusions:

The SMC Pentax-DA 1: 1.8 50mm is a nice little fifty with excellent image quality. It would be nice if the price was more democratic for a plastic budget fifty dollar.

Material prepared Arkady Shapoval.

Add a comment: Vitaly

 

 

Comments: 38, on the topic: SMC Pentax-DA 1 review: 1.8 50mm

  • Petro

    Thanks for the review. Six months I use no complaints :))
    Are there “screwdrivers” on all Pentax cameras?

    • Vitaly

      Yes, screwdrivers are available on all Pentax SLR cameras, even on the most budget ones.

  • Madness Scif

    right now I’ll blurt it off topic, but the new d5300 came out. where is the world going ??? waiting for d7200)))

    • Yaroslav

      But it weighed :-) I bought my Nikon d7000 18-105 for $ 1050 and here is a surprise, prices almost fell by $ 100: -D politics damn it :-)

      • Madness Scif

        I was also furious when I took my d7000 at the end of December 2012, and then the d7100 came out in March 13. Arkady, quarrel over divorced holivar

    • Arkady Shapoval

      I'm still in the group yesterday http://vk.com/radojuva posted this news. The good news is that the sequel to the legendary Noct was released

      • Dmitriy

        Well, there are transition rings from system to system, and this lens can be used with almost any mount

    • Alexey

      YES You don’t look where it rolls ...)) 5100 is still better. Do you need these 24 vugs? wifi and gps? What else is there that is useful that was not there before? )))

      • Igor

        Of the really useful, only 39 focus points, although in 99 cases 11 on the D5100 is enough.

    • Sashko

      Well, since there was a lot of discussion of new products, then є one NIKKOR 58mm f / 1.4GN AF-S http://nikon.ua/uk_UA/press_room/press_releases_main.page?ID=templatedata%5Cuk_UA%5Cnews_article%5Cdata%5CBV_PR_WWA17102013_NIKKOR_58mm

      • Igor

        The price of $ 1700 is especially "happy" ... Well, the fixed price cannot be, no matter what lenses are there. I am sure that in most cases his photo will be indistinguishable from the Nikkor 50mm f / 1.8D AF. I also understand to put such a price on super-telephoto lenses - there are more lenses and the optical system is more complicated, but here what?

        • Sashko

          and hiba already skipped the price here? The price cannot be that much, for the Nikkor 85mm f / 1.4GN AF-S version is only $ 1700, but it is also of the same class.

          I think it’s not really Nikki’s Nikkor 50mm f / 1.8G AF-S, but Nikkor 50mm f / 1.8G AF-S (I’m singing according to the characteristics of my close Nik Nikor 50mm f / 1.4G AF-S)

        • Vitaly

          50 1,8D heavily soft on open up to 2.8
          He is up to Noct as to the border in Plastunsky.

  • Georgy

    Thanks Arkady! But I wonder how much this NOCT will cost? all the same, it's N-ka! And even more interesting when it appears on sale in Ukraine?!?! Likes put regularly. Thank you for your work, Arkady. When I visit your site, it is tempting to go buy some kind of unseen, and send it for review

  • Nath

    Very beautiful cover photo, bright yellow against a red background - gorgeous !!!!

  • Madness Scif

    about KOTIZM: 19th photo in the review - the cat is harsh, probably it was not fed?)

  • Vadim

    Sorry for the offtopic, you need to talk :)
    Engineers invented cool 4-core processors, super-fashionable video cards, hundred gigabytes of memory ... 36 megapixel full-frame cameras, one better than the other. And I still click on my old calculator (my first laptop was bought for my own money) and it is the best for me, tk. 100% copes with the conceptions that I require from him.
    And my Nikon D80 has already exceeded 200 thousand ... but how nice it is to pick it up again and again, to hear the biting sound of the shutter ... and even more pleasant to take pictures from the darkroom, once again load the film into Zenith (I will never part with it). No, I'm lying - the best thing is to see the smiles of my parents, leafing through the photo album and looking at my little ones, who are getting a little older with each page.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Yes, I have the most smiley photos and the fond memories were shot on phones :)

      • Alexander

        Curtain ))

  • Alexander

    Namesake, why the curtain? The phone is always with me, by the way, lately, I have been using the camera in my phone very hard, though not for artistic photography, but for technical photography, it is much easier to shoot something on it than to record it, and you can immediately send it by soap ... progress

    • Arkady Shapoval

      There is such a type of shooting, documentary - fixing what happened, without too much thought in the technical and artistic component, so a mobile device is just right for this.

  • Arnet

    Hello Arkady. As I understand it, K5 is at your fingertips. But he is the flagship of 2010. Please review K5. Thanks.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Ok, let's do it)

  • Alex

    The lens pattern is similar to mine tokina 28-70 2.8 AT-X 72mm.

    • Sashko

      hiba is even longer, only two photographs have swayed the similarity, resolved to radically rise.

  • Arye

    And how often is autofocus wrong?
    I am just choosing from SMC Pentax-DA 1: 1.8 50mm and SMC Pentax-DA 1: 2.4 35mm AL ...

  • Nick

    And one of the 3 cats is very severe !!

  • Igor

    Guys, which one is better to take a lens: this or 70 mm limited? Is it worth overpaying and buying 70 mm, if finances allow?

    • Denis

      70 Lim of course, take it - you won't have to regret it. In terms of its characteristics, it is very good - both structurally and optically, a very pleasant picture, will not disappoint. Sharp, with excellent enlightenment (+ folding hood), nice drawing and compact size (it is less than half a line from competitors).

  • Michael

    70 lim is a cool lens, you will definitely not regret it. Sharp with an open one, it seems that the background is not “rubbish”, but the picture is three-dimensional. For half-length portraits it is the most (in my opinion). Just decide what kind of focal point you need: 50 and 70 are still the difference.

  • Carrot juice

    To be honest I was a little confused by this proposal. ”On the Pentax K5, the EGF is 75mm (76.5mm to be exact). "
    Isn’t this fifty dollars for crop and EGF on Pentax digital SLRs with crop factor 1.5 not equal to 50mm?

    • Arkady Shapoval

      Do not be embarrassed, learn. The focal length does not depend on the camera used, is a physical parameter and is recalculated for all lenses mounted on cropped cameras. Or believe the truth that, for example, an 18-55 whale lens gives an ultra-wide angle of 18 mm :)

  • Cart

    I am a novice amateur and your independent reviews greatly help with the choice of optics. Acquired several lenses based on your reviews. I have not yet found a full-fledged alternative to your work. Many thanks.

  • Andrey

    How will this lens behave on the x-t100 fuji through an adapter?

    • B. R. P.

      You cannot control the diaphragm. Manual focus.

  • Valery

    Many thanks to Arkady for the work done.
    Considering that he also needs to work, where he finds time ...
    Stroking at the number of cats that he photographed, Kuklachev seems to be his neighbor.

  • spitzer

    glass is extremely boring judging by the pictures

  • Mark

    That is, despite the DA in the name, the lens covers the full frame?
    I wonder how he has sharpness at the edges of the full frame and vignetting at the open?

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