joekashi's reviews

  • Pentax 50mm f/1.4 SMC P-FA

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    Small, very sharp, cheap, good short portrait or tele lens, very compact and light
    None

    Build quality is more than adequate. This lens is a very nice addition to a Pentax bag. It's certainly a lot faster than the kit lens and also quite a bit sharper by F4.

    reviewed January 26th, 2008 (purchased for $194)

  • Pentax 16-45mm f/4 ED AL SMC P-DA

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    Very wide angle, quite sharp, especially at wide angle settings, reasonably priced
    a little chromatic abberation but not bad

    This is a significantly better lens compared to the Pentax 18-55 kit lens, which itself is pretty good for a kit lens. Quite good optically except for chromatic aberration correctable in Photoshop.

    reviewed January 26th, 2008 (purchased for $380)

  • Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2 AF

    8 out of 10 points and recommended
    Cheap, good image quality up to 200 mm or so, not very bulky
    image quality falls off past 200 mm

    Very good image quality for an inexpensive lens, better than the Nikon and Canon equivalents. Well worth using. Build quality better than you have a right to expect at this price point and image quality is pretty decent.

    reviewed January 26th, 2008 (purchased for $128)

  • Pentax 28-105mm f/3.2-4.5 AL IF SMC P-FA

    8 out of 10 points and recommended
    Small, sharp, convenient, inexpensive full frame
    None significant given price range

    This lens is very convenient for the K10 or K20. It is a full frame lens and so the digital sensor is within its sweet spot. It is small and light given its focal length and sharpness is very good. My first copy was decentered but the vendor replaced it within days of notification and the replacement lens generally has more very good image quality. This is a very worthwhile purchase to complement my Pentax 16-45 DA and currently is the only Pentax lens in this useful normal to 3.75X focal length range. It seems to only come in silver - all black would be nicer but of course this does not affect optical quality.

    reviewed May 15th, 2008 (purchased for $209)

  • Pentax 55-300mm f/4-5.8 ED SMC DA

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    sharp at most focal lengths

    This is an excellent lens for the money, generally sharp and contrasty at 200% at all tested focal lengths, including 300mm. I found it to be much sharper at longer focal lengths than the Pentax 50-200 and the Tamron 70-300 tele zooms that this lens replaced. It is small and light, given its reach. I did not give it a 9 for construction because, as expected, it is mostly good tight plastic. Plastic lens construction, no matter how good, is not in the same league as the traditional metal lens bodies of the 35mm era.

    reviewed September 4th, 2008 (purchased for $349)

  • Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 ASPH LEICA DG SUMMILUX

    10 out of 10 points and recommended
    Sharp, light, good feel and balance on E-P3
    none significant

    One of the best lenses that I've ever used.

    reviewed March 13th, 2012 (purchased for $569)

  • Pentax 20-40mm f/2.8-4 ED Limited DC WR HD DA

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    sharp, compact, weather-sealed, excellent build quality
    first copy was decentered, required exchange

    My first copy of this lens was very decentered but BH made a quick, no-fuss RMA exchange. The second copy was quite good, including at the 24-30mm range that others, including SLRGear, found wanting. I suspect that this is a quality control and assembly problem rather than a design deficiency. My first copy was terrible at focal lengths SLRGear's review showed to be good and good at the 24mm setting that was deficient here. My sense is that this design is capable of producing sharp images at all focal lengths, when stopped down to f/5.6 to f/7.1 but that misassembly can cause problems at a variety of focal lengths. Now that I have a good copy, I do like the lens and appreciate its compact, light design compared to the Sigma 18-35mm, my other possible option. The weather-sealing is appropriate for a K-3 or K-5.

    reviewed May 10th, 2014 (purchased for $997)