Mamiya 28/2.8 sx vs Pentacon 29/2.8

subba · Joined: 08 Dec 2020 Posts: 1

Hi, I am looking for buying a wide-normal lens around 24-30mm to shoot a documentary. I can get Mamiya for 40usd and Pentacon for 5usd cheaper.

Does anyone have experience with these lenses? Which one would you recommend considering image quality, especially sharpness, coating, colors etc?

caspert79 · Joined: 31 Oct 2010 Posts: 3193 Location: The Netherlands

Remember the Mamiya SX lens has two protruding pins. Once adapted, one of the pins has to be pressed in to control the aperture, and the other pin has to be removed. It's a good lens though: quite sharp and nice colors. Quite prone to flare however. I used to have the Pentacon; it didn't strike me as particularly good, but I haven't tested it extensively.

D1N0 · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 2532

I Have the Pentacon. It is nice for close up/Bokeh and has distinctive colours. The Mamiya is probably the better lens for 28mm purposes. Better overall sharpness The build quality/qc of the Pentacon is poor. My copy is decentered as are many. My Mamiya lenses (I have a 50/1.8 and 2.0) are stiff focussers though.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

The Pentacon has quite a bit of field curvature resulting in poor corners at large apertures, this is worth bearing in mind if you are using a 35mm sized sensor as it is clearly noticeable.

papasito · Joined: 09 Jan 2015 Posts: 1661

First.

My experience with pentacon was three copies descentered.
Nothing special, but nice colours.

Mamiya 28 mm lens has good colours too.
Sharp at the center but the corners.......
Said that I must admit that all 28 mm I tried have so so corners, except the zeiss or pentax Hollywood.
And if you use FF......

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

The design of the Pentacon is poor in that the rear optical group is prone to becoming decentred. They can be repaired if you have the right equipment, but who does have the equipment these days?