Pentax SMC-A 135mm f/1.8 Reviews

Very sharp lens.

PF in low contrast below F4. Also in High contrast below F8.

Smooth focussing and very sharp lens. Rendering of the background very smooth and creamy. Purple fringing is an issue with this lens though and can be visible up to F8 in high contrast areas. With the current software for digital images this can be easily corrected though. Although some say it's not that sharp when used wide open, I would argue that it is already very usefull at F1.8. A beautifull build lens and a joy to shoot with.

bought this lens over 15 years ago....after testing it against my angenieux 70-210 f3,5. i got rid of the 135 f1.8 lens....absolutely terrible at f1.8 full apperture, even at f2.8, corners and edges suffered, when i did test prints in monochrome size 16"x12".and shown them to our camera club members, they all agreed the prints were not sitisfactory....at f5.6 the lens got a lot better.....but for a star lens, whats the point of having a very fast lens. when it's only useable around the f5.6 apperture, for good prints.

I have bought this lens 2nd hand from a pro who changed to Nikon.
He was satisfied with it.
I was using it for indoor sports and portrait work.
Wide opened at 1.8 it's too soft for my finding (but far better than the Porst 1.8/135!). It's becoming good at f 2.8 and very good from 5.6.
Very nice bokeh!
With the Pentax helicoid macro ring it produced phantastic macros! (due to the fixed rear element)
For my sport and portrait work the old K 2.5/135 was same quality so the 1.8 left my home but the K 2.5 is still in use.