35mm DA-Limited Macro

Hi, I've noticed this lens going for quite a reasonable price as lenses go. I've read mostly excellent reviews of it but I was wondering I anyone on here has any first hand experience with this lens. I like the fact that it's Macro, and could also be used as a general purpose lens.

Although I'm not sure whther it would really be general purpose for me, since I tend to use the wideangle of my 18-55 more regularly than any other. Thought I might try sticking at 35mm on it and seeing what it's like trying to do photography with the reduced viewing angle.

But any general comments about this lens would be very helpful, thankyou. It's still quite a lot of money.

Pentaxke, who occasionally posts here, has (had?)one, and is (was)very happy with it as far as I know. He is now more interested in his Fuji, and is contemplating buying an Olympus I believe so I'm not sure whether he will revisit here or not. You could try sending him a PM.

Hi IFR,

I have one of these lenses (see the gerbera in my portfolio). They are tack sharp and the build quality superb. The manual focussing is a silky smooth and has the advantage of quick focussing. has a built in hood and takes the popular 49mm size filters. I would like the 21mm and the 77mm to complement it.
The field of view is about what the human eye sees, more or less 50mm in 35mm terms. I am still amazed at the sharpness and I have some very sharp lenses in my collection.

Martin

I also have one of these and I think it is great.

Initially I thought it was a little soft at infinity focus with it only coming sharp at and above f4.5. However this turned out to be a back-focusing issue on my K10D which was easily fixed. On my new K20D it is a cracking lens.

It is small, light, very well built and a joy to use. I find that I'm using it in preference to my FA50. Particularly as it has the quick-shift focus.

Bear in mind that it is a macro lens and will have been optimised for this function. As a macro it is a bit short and you can end up getting rather close to some small subjects. This can be a worry for things that bite or sting.

The focus adjustment movement is around 120 degrees but there is only about 10 degrees of movement between the last marked distance values (of 2 feet and 0.5 metres) to infinity. I guess that this makes this lens very sensitive to camera focus accuracy at this end of the focus range.

All in all I think it is a fantastic lens and as a limited lens is extremely good value for money.

Glyn

A couple of months ago I needed to chose between the DA 40mm ltd and the DA 35mm ltd. At first I wanted to buy the 35mm but since that is a macro you got a lot more features then you need since I didn't need a macro, also macros are desgined to do good at the short focus range instead of the normall focus range. This review putt me on to that link
so I ended up buying the DA 40mm it is sharper across the frame and wide open shorter focus range, I think it has the fastest focus out there also the bokeh is good and it's cheaper.

This was a nice discussion about the 35mm Macro. Certainly tempting me too.

http://photo.net/columns/mjohnston/pentax-35mm-lens/optical-discussion/


Dan

My 31mm Ltd is close enough to the focal length of the 35mm Macro for my needs, but the macro capability of the 35 is, IMHO, lacking. I prefer something with a bit more reach and opted for the FA 100 Macro and Sigma 180mm EX DG Macro instead.

CameraWorld has a refurb one at their London store for 200 pounds...strike while the iron is hot...

I suppose I was tempted by the lens because of it's sharpness. It's actually aharper than a lot of other longer focal length macro lenses, but has the added bonus of being a good focal length for normal photography. Whereas I'm unlikely to use a 100mm macro as a standard lens because it would only really be good for portraits.

In terms of working distance; it says that the minimum focus distance is 13cm, is that from the tip of the lens to the subject, or is the working distance less than the stated focus distance.

Because before I got my K20D, I had a bridge camera with macro function that let you focus at ten centimetres, although obviously with very poor magnification in comparrison to a proper macro lens. However I managed to get pretty good picture of bees etc. despite having to chase them around to get the lens 10cms away from them.

Since the macro lens has much greater magnification I don't see there being a problem with working distance.

Also, I know that people keep saying that 35mm gives about the same perspective as the human eye. The level of magnification means it looks about the same but obviously you get a much shorter viewing angle. Meaning you'd have to be at least twice the distance away from your subject in order to see it all. Like I said i'll have to try sticking to 35mm on my 18-55 and see if it actually does become a burden.

I also looked at wideanlge primes for Pentax but none of them have macro, or are anywhere near as good in terms of sharpness or distortion control etc.

If you are wanting to photograph bees you need a macro lens longer that 35mm, I have a 50mm and much prefer my 100mm for insects as they are just too skittish at short distances.

The focus distance is always the distance from the subject to the sensor, so the distance to the end of the lens will be considerably less than this.

For what it's worth, I already have a 1:1 macro (the D-FA100) and I'm thinking of adding the DA35 to my armoury in addition - it looks a great lens and I think a lot more useful than the longer macros for still life, copy stand and product photography. Plus being a "normal" focal length makes for a good walk-around everyday lens too.

Go back and read the link in Dan's post (above) again and then just go buy one!

I have this lens and it's my favourite walk about objective.Build,size,weight,and tack sharp, plus the macro function(albeit on non moving subjects)is just quality,at a very reasonable price.The only thing is cashback(£25) has just ended.! Tony

I have the Sigma 105 macro which is great outdoors but a bit of a pain indoors.

Using it indoors, much of the time you cannot get far enough away from the object you are photographing.

I think that the DA 35 macro would probably be the perfect companion lens for it.

Thank you all very much for the feedback. Just one thing I was wondering about. Is the stated viewing angle also affected by that 1.5x difference between APS-C and 35mm format. It's just the older FA 35mm has an angle of 66 degrees, whilst the DA states 44. But obviously 44 x 1.5 is 66. Just wondering if that's the case or if the two lenses actually do have different viewing angles.

The field of view is different because the APS-C sensor only sees an area of 23.4x15.6mm whereas a 35mm film frame would see 36x24mm. This means the APS-C sensor only sees the centre of the field of view, in other words a reduced field of view.

This is what the 1.5x is all about. The focal length doesn;t change, but a 50mm lens on a K20D gives a field of view that would be given by a 75mm on a film camera. But it doesn't become a 75mm lens just because it's on a DSLR, it is always a 50mm lens.