HD PENTAX-DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro Limited Lens Review

HD PENTAX-DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro Limited Performance

As far as sharpness is concerned, this is a belting good lens. At maximum aperture, sharpness in the centre is outstanding and very good towards the edges of the frame. Peak sharpness is achieved at f/4, where clarity is outstanding across the frame. Diffraction reduces sharpness to very good levels by f/16 and fairly good levels by f/22, which is typical for a lens of this type.

MTF  @ 35mm

How to read our charts The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on a Pentax K-5 IIs using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations are very well controlled at wider apertures, with levels of fringing increasing towards the edge of the frame to noticeable levels as the aperture is stopped down to f/16 or beyond.

CA @ 35mm

How to read our charts Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Pentax K-5 IIs using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination is well controlled for a lens with a maximum aperture of f/2.8. At f/2.8 the corners of the frame are 1.05 stops darker than the image centre and visually uniform illumination is achieved with the lens stopped down to f/5.6 or beyond.

Distortion is also very well controlled. Imatest could only detect 0.46% barrel distortion, which isn't much at all and will be very hard to spot.

This lens is quite resistant to flare and contrast levels remain good when shooting into the light. A circular hood is built into the lens, which retracts into the lens barrel when not required.

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