The much-despised kit lens; Pentax 28-80 f:3.5-4.5

[Farside]

This was a kit lens in film days...
http://www.pentaxforums.com/lensreviews/SMC-Pentax-F-28-80mm-F3.5-4.5-Macro-Zoom-Lens.html

Decidedly average on all counts, and gets 8/10 for value.
However, seeing as how the K20D of mine is a bit funny with MF and very rarely gets an AF shot wildly wrong, I decided to get a cheap walk-around zoom and I already liked the Tamron zoom of the same size, so went for that range.

First shot was horrible and I can see how kit zooms got their bad rep - get it a bit wonky and this thing will bite your ass off.

That was f:4.5 @ 1/90 sec. Man, that is minging. Perhaps, indoors, with a faded beauty on the sofa it might pass muster as a portrait lens, but she'd have to be desperate, I think.


Things got slightly better with the next shot but still crap...

This is f:4.5 @ 1/350th sec and 80mm. Still bloody awful and the lesson rapidly learned was to stay away from the wide open end and extremes of zoom and stick to the sweeter spots.


Things got a bit better though at 28mm, funnily enough...
f:4 @ 1/350th sec still...



From this point on I stuck to f:8 and a middling to wide zoom setting...










There's no doubt that this isn't a piece of Zeiss or specially selected Linhof glass; hell, it's not anywhere near most Tamron SPs and there are results from it that would make your hair curl. Conversely, for the greater part of its range it's reasonably ok, not fantastic but generally fine for something to swan around with down at the beach or a rougher part of town where you might have sand or rocks to contend with.

One thing I did find with it; it's a nicely fast focuser, faster than my Tamron AF and even the Pentax/Samsung factory digital 18-55 kit lens, and a useful range to have.