A "quick" comparison of some 28's

Mainly for my own interest and to help choose which 28's to keep, I recently did a quick comparison. In some PM's another member said he would be interested in the results so here they are. For all the lenses, the first pic is the photo reduced in size to 20%. The second is a full size crop of the flower. All taken on the K1 and at F2 to provide a "fair" comparison.

First not a 28 but the 31 Ltd as it's so close






Next is the SMC 28/2 or "Hollywood"





And it's "brother", the Zeiss ZK 28/2





Finally the Pentax 28/2 A

I see no real difference, you'll have to keep all.
So centre performance is incredibly similar, you'll have to do some city-scapes and landscapes to compare them across the frame to try and sort the wheat from the chaff.

The differences in these examples are more in the o.o.f. background rendering, although the last two do have some slight softening glow around the petals. Having used the 3 Pentax models I would say that they are all superb lenses and personal preference is probably the major factor here. If I were to choose (from my own experiences) then the K28/2.0 edges it for me, but I'm happy to take any of these on a landscape outing

I think Nigel used the wrong phrase - it should have been "sort the nuggets from the gold dust"

The FA31 stands out in terms of sharpness (guess the stopping down helps) but the Zeiss and K28 have a special rendering of the colour too. Lots of contrast.

A bit more up-market than my collection of 28mm primes... I don't think either of my versions of the Vivitar 28mm f/2 could compete with these wide open.

As you say, all good.
The 31 will be a keeper not least because it is AF but also the character.

It was a !quick check" mainly for my interest. Whilst it would be nice to keep all, there are other lenses I would like which I might use more so the SMC 28/2 is likely to be off to a new home soon.

Looks to me like:

1. The Ltd has the most pleasing out of focus areas, to my eye, and the least purple fringing

2. The SMC has less pop in the colours (although perhaps the clouds came over on this one?) but is otherwise excellent

3. The other two have vivid colours but lots of fringing.

Thanks for sharing!