Kit Lens 18-55mm Mk2 at 50mm -v- Pentax_A 50mm f/1.7
Both at f/8
Pentax K-5 200ISO
Poor light drizzle on/off

I was that surprised by the results of this test that I did
it again and got the same results.

Both shots are the best of 4. The Kit Lens blows away the
Pentax_A 50mm f/1.7 ..... and it's the same right across
the frame.

I have had this Pentax_A 50mm f/1.7 from new and have compared it
with about 10 other 50mm lenses over the years and it is the best
50mm I have ever had. In the film days I tested the resolution and
it was off the scale over 140 lpmm on Pan F.

TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER OF FRAMES ONLY

LEFT: Pentax_A 50mm f/1.7 ---------------- RIGHT: Kit Lens 18-55mm Mk2



-

Looks mint. Good price and a very sharp lens on digital.

The photos of the lens are very good....
45mm f/4.5 at 1/40th 400ISO K20D
What lens have you used?

I was just demonstrating that the myth that the Kit Lens
is soft at the edges is absolute nonsense and that it is
actually better than a lot of the older primes 24mm, 28mm
and 35mm. I can see no point in keeping these when the
kit lens is better right across the frame.

The 43mm was included just out of curiosity being probably
the best lens I've got apart from the A series 50mm's. I
also wanted to see if the Kit lens just had a sweet spot
at 24mm - 35mm. I now know it's OK at 43mm as well. I'll
have a look at how well it does at 50mm next

I know it preforms well in the centre and all MTF tests
on the web support that. I've also checked that on the
shots I've cropped the corners off and no problems there

I'm sure Ricoh make a better one?

Chris I think you have it more or less in a nutshell

A real torture test for any lens is to photograph a large lattice railway bridge square off from the side and then see if the rivets at the edges are as sharp as the ones in the middle and if both edges are the same.

Tougher still turn the camera so the bridge is on the diagonal and see if the centre and corners are sharp.

Having seen your work Andrew, it's obvious that your Mk1 is one of the good copies, similar to the one I had. There's no point in buying a Mk 2.. you won't see any difference.... I couldn't

This one:

http://www.flickriver.com/search/35mm+flektogon/

which as you can see is an Excellent lens with a lot of
character and gorgeous bokeh. nice colours as well

One sold for £190 the other night on ebay.... not even
mint

Will: .... very wide angle lenses always look awful at 1:1. It's well known that the 16-45mm is better below 24mm than the 18-55m after that they are similar. You can see the PF on the 16-45 though. The 18-55mm doesn't look in focus ( look at the downspout )

John: You must have a very good 35 and a bad Mk2 Kit lens

These are 100% 1:1 crops and each pic is about 370 pixels wide. The K-5 frame is 4928 pixels wide so each pic is 4928/370 say 1/13th of the frame. On my monitor (19") each pic is 110mm wide so the full print would be 110mm x 13 = 1.460 meters wide. A3 is 420mm wide so what I'm looking at on the monitor is roughly 3 1/2 times as wide as A3

You wouldn't see any difference in A3 prints

Tozza27 has just posted a shot of a seagull in the Entries for fortnightly competition #71 WILDLIFE taken with the Kit Lens and it shows what it's like for bird shots.
-

Test done in very dull weather... rained 2 mins later.
The 43mm at f/8 is on the Left
The 18-55mm Mk2 Kit Lens is on the Right

Both 43mm focal length f/8 at 1/100th 200ISO K-5

The 43mm is just slightly better as would be expected, but
no sign of any soft corners on the Kit Lens. Now from
all tests 24mm to 43mm

Both lenses are excellent considering that this is right in the
corner of the frame. The centres are of course better than this
with the 43mm being a slightly noticeable best.



-