FA 28-105mm F3.2-4.5

Does anyone have experience of using this lens , the opinions are mixed in the Forums in the American website.

Regards

I've just finished doing a review of the lens, so hopefully that will be published here and on EPZ very soon.

I'll look forward that John. I've had it for two days now and still getting to know it.

So what is your first impression?

I am struggling to get really sharp photos with this lens on landscape and general views but managed a couple of acceptable ones at close-up so it's probably me. Nice blurred background though. One of the comments was that it's ok for a 'cheap' lens - at £529.00 I don't think so! I opted for this as a general walk-around lens on the K-1 in preference to the much heavier 24-70mm and I do find the combination very manageable.

A couple of examples that didn't get into the review.

K1 and D-FA28-105 @ ISO 3200:



K1 and D-FA28-105 @ ISO 12800:



Full exif in the pics.

Quick question as I can't find the answer, are we still limited to 1000 x 1000pix image size for posting in forums and the gallery?

To my eyes only John's first photo looks very sharp, this is the only one I have which I am happy with in terms of sharpness. The more distant the subject, the less good it gets.

I find this lens pretty sharp if stopped down a bit and provided no filters are used. I have a Jacobs UV filter which I used for protection and a polariser. I have found that both seem to degrade the image - the polariser seemed to affect the focus - I tried to photograph a small flower this morning and could not get a correctly focused image but when I removed the polariser it was tack sharp. The photo of Leith Hill tower has simply been very slightly adjusted in the shadows but has not been sharpened.

I am a little confused (happens more and more these days)

Are we discussing the new lens (D FA 3.5-f5.6) or the old FA 28-105 (f3.2-4.5)??

davek

Good question. I was discussing the new D-FA lens, but now I'm not so sure!

Erm, my comments are about the new lens so apologies to theonenadeem if that's not the one he is interested in. Maybe we should split this into two discussions?
.

The title indicates the aperture range as F3.2-4.5 ..... And indeed I've seen that lens listed in the database, an FA zoom designated AL (IF).

Quite right, we seem to have got our wires crossed. I've just finished a very intense 10 days or so looking at four new Pentax lenses (28-105, 24-70, 15-30, 70-200) so the new 28-105mm was pretty much on my mind. That's my excuse anyway, so sorry to the OP if we got it wrong.

As I said before, pictures such as the goose and 'Flying Scotsman' in particular fail to give me confidence that the K1 and/or new lens tracking autofocus performance is up to scratch (though I do note that Scotsman was visiting the Fife Circle well into the evening when light levels were declining).