FA J lens opinions

In an earlier thread I asked about lens reviews and a number of people pointed me to some great sites. However these cover only older lenses and I am looking for reviews now of the FA J series of lenses.

The smc FA J 18-35mm F4.5.6 AL has it's own thread below - and general opinion seems to be that it has some minor problems - but these are minimised when used on the *Ist D beacuse of it's smaller sensor size.

What about the other two in the range, the smc FA J 28-80mm F3.5/5.6 AL and the smc FA J 75-300mm F4.5/5.8 AL? does anyone have any opinions - or can point me to a review?

Many thanks,

Andrew

Previously, I had used a Pentax FA 28-80 F3.5/4.7. It may have been me, but I always felt this lense came up short on meeting my expectations.

If you're shopping for lenses, I would recommend you include the Tamron SP AF 28-75 F2.8 XR Di as part of your research.

I have recently purchased the Tamron lense as a replacement for the Pentax and feel that the I am getting a better performance from my camera than ever before.

At the photo shop, the Tamron lense was was initially demonstated on an *ist and I found the focus fairly quick and accurate. From a physical perspective, I was very comfortable with the feel and handling of this lense, although it is dimensionally larger that the older Pentax.

To date, I haven't been disappointed with any of the results using the Tamron lense.

Good luck!

The Pentax FA 28-80 F3.5/4.7 was not one of Pentax's better lenses . I always felt it was very much for the budget market. This may be why it has effectively been replaced by the FA 28-80/3.5-5.6 AL. Certainly the FA 24-90/3.5-4.5 AL is a much better lens (with a price tag to match). My son has just got one of the J models with his *ist. Whilst it is too early to give a positive recommendation, early results would put it on a par with the FA 28-90/3.5-5.6 which I have found to be no problems. If you don't need the A setting, the J is certainly a very compact lens and a pleasure to lose. If you want quality, I would go for the 24-90, If not the 28-80 seems a reasonable buy. Sorry can't help with the 75-300. However, I can't see it being much worse than the 80-320 and that was covered in another thread.

I must admit, I am not a fan of most of the indepedent lenses. Generally, I have found the Pentax ones to give better results on an equivalent match. The Tamron SP AF 28-75 F2.8 XR Di is in a different league to the budget Pentax's. However at this price bracket and quality, I would go for the Sigma 28 - 70 EX. Personally, I will stick with my FA* 28-70/2.8 AL - apart from the size,it leaves all the others miles behind.
Regards
Kim

The concept of the "budget lens" does seem to be a relatively new one - in the days on M and A series lenses there were no real distinctions between the performance levels of the lenses in a range - I suppose the first "budget" Pentaxes were the bayonet Takumar series.

I can vouch for the 24-90mm, which is a cut above the basic zooms in the range. I have also tried the 28-70mm f4 AL, which is pretty good as well. Of course, KIm, your 28-70mm f2.8 is a different kind of beast! If I could justify the cost of that, then that would indeed be a lens of choice.

Independent lenses have always been a disappointment either mechanically or optically and although there will no doubt be good ones I tend to avoid them. In any event, they tend to focus or have aperture rings that turn the wrong way and that causes confusion in practice.

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Best regards, John

There is quite a lively discussion of FA-J (and other) lenses on the DPReview site. Look for the Pentax forum.

http://forums.dpreview.com/