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Pentax-M 28mm f/2.8
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 1:41 am    Post subject: Pentax-M 28mm f/2.8 Reply with quote
I picked up a few of the "missing" members of the Pentax-m series to go with my original suite I had with the Pentax LX. Several of these are quite cheap, so why not. I now have the 24/2.8 (an old favorite),28/2.8,35/2.8,50/2, 50/1.4 (had it since the 1980s), 50/4 macro (also had one forever). The tele Pentax-m primes are, on the other hand, fairly expensive.



The standard PK line 28mm, an extremely common lens from the late 1970's through the mid 1980's.
Like the rest of the Pentax M's this was introduced with the MX/ME compact bodies.
As per Bojidar Dimitrov's Pentax K-Mount Page, this is the more common first version; the later version is supposed to be somewhat better and optically similar to the Pentax-A version.

If you are interested in Pentax and don't yet have Dimitrov's site on your favorites -

http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/index.html

Mine is in perfect operating order, and very clean. I find that quite a few Pentax-M's are in excellent shape, I suspect that's because they have had limited use, by amateurs and students, dating from the great days of Pentax when it was a market leader with its amateur-oriented cameras. They are usually not overused, and stored carefully.

This is an excellent example of the compact Pentax-M line. It is very simple, very small compared to earlier 28mm's, and every mechanical bit is tight, precise, smooth-functioning with excellent helical damping. There is nothing at all bad to say about this in any mechanical sense.

Optically and operationally I have no big faults to report. I am not properly equipped to do a proper objective comparison, all i can do is report subjective impressions. This is a sharp lens wide open on my Pentax K30, its corners are just fine (unlike many older 28's, which can show bad corners even on APS-C). Its a perfectly good choice as a 'normal' on APS-C, being just a bit wide. I like my old 24/28 for general use however.

The worst thing I saw is a case of tremendous flare, albeit under challenging conditions. No, there is no haze, no coating problem, I wonder why I got this result.













PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 8:45 am    Post subject: Re: Pentax-M 28mm f/2.8 Reply with quote
luisalegria wrote:
I picked up a few of the "missing" members of the Pentax-m series to go with my original suite I had with the Pentax LX. Several of these are quite cheap, so why not. I now have the 24/2.8 (an old favorite),28/2.8,35/2.8,50/2, 50/1.4 (had it since the 1980s), 50/4 macro (also had one forever).

I love Pentax-M series lenses. My first "serious" camera bought with my own money was a Pentax MX with a lovely Pentax-M 50/1.7. The camera and the lens are long gone, victims of the tropical climate, but I still regret the nice feel of the combo.

People usually consider Pentax-M lenses as an inferior breed, because there are faster (and reputedly with better optical quality) lenses in other series. For example, the Pentax-M 20/4 is considered as a so-so 20mm lens, while the Pentax-FA 20/2.8 is viewed as the better lens. I happen to have both and I much prefer the M lens! It's smaller and lighter (30mm long and 150g, almost a pancake lens) and has more punchy colors. The FA lens is one stop faster (not so important today), has somewhat better sharpness according to the optical bench tests (but photographing test targets is not my hobby), but it's also larger and heavier (43.5mm and 255g) and has a duller rendition with more subdued colors.

I think what Pentax wanted to achieve with the M series was a line of compact lenses with fewer elements, delivering powerful images (because they have less transmission losses due to reflections) with a lot of character, even if they are not the absolute sharpest lenses. Nowadays, almost every lens is sharp but not every lens is capable of delivering a nice picture!

luisalegria wrote:

Like 1 Laugh 1
Great pictures, Luis!

Cheers!

Abbazz


PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow, great results Luis! Congrats! Like 1 small


PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 4:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Very underrated lens mostly due to being overshadowed by the stellar SMC Pentax 28mm F2, and the high resolving SMC Pentax 28mm F3.5. Both much larger K series lenses. The M is so small by comparison. It really is a little jewel often overlooked. Thanks for your cool post...

PS. I think there are 2 versions of this lens. Does anyone know if one is better than the other?


PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 4:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Jeff Zen wrote:
Very underrated lens mostly due to being overshadowed by the stellar SMC Pentax 28mm F2, and the high resolving SMC Pentax 28mm F3.5. Both much larger K series lenses. The M is so small by comparison. It really is a little jewel often overlooked. Thanks for your cool post...

PS. I think there are 2 versions of this lens. Does anyone know if one is better than the other?


Perhaps http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/lenses/primes/wide-angle/M28f2.8-ii.html will give you some info.

[I have no personal info to add, since my only Pentax 28's are "the stellar SMC Pentax 28mm F2, and the high resolving SMC Pentax 28mm F3.5" - Smile .]
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