Pentax SMC P-DA Fish-Eye 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 ED Lens Review

Pentax SMC P-DA Fish-Eye 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 ED (IF) Handling and Features

Build quality is very good indeed with high quality plastics used for the construction of the lens barrel and a metal lens mount. The lens is compact, being only 71.5mm long and only weighs around 320g. As a result balances well with the Pentax K-5 IIs body used for testing.

Focusing is performed internally, so the lens barrel does not extend during focusing. Being a fisheye lens, with such a wide field of view, it is impossible to mount filters on the front of the lens. A petal shaped hood is built into the front of the lens which helps to protect the front element from bumps and scrapes, if nothing else.



The manual focusing ring rotates during auto-focus, so care may need to be taken to avoid it catching your fingers as it moves back and forth. Manual focusing action is smooth although there is little resistance from the focus ring, which can make applying fine adjustments troublesome. The Pentax 'Quick Shift' focusing system has been implemented on this lens, which means manual adjustments can be applied once the lens has focused automatically. Auto focus is screw-driven, so it generates more noise than newer silent focusing lenses do. Focusing is swift, as you might expect from such a short focal length lens.

The minimum focus distance of 14cm is typical for a lens of this type and it is close enough for really making the most the distorted perspective produced by fisheye lenses used at close quarters.

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