desertphoto's reviews

Pentax 16-45mm f/4 ED AL SMC P-DA

I bought this lens on eBAY noting it was supposed to have been used only a couple of times. When received, it was in like new condition. I have only had this lens for a couple of weeks at this writing and so far I like it very well. Like many users have noted, I have also found the fact that the barrel extends fully to reach widest coverage, backwards of many designs, to be a slight hinderance. In doing so, the built in flash on the K10D is obscured at the wide end of the lense's coverage, creating a dark shadow in the foreground of the image. Since this is actually a 'J' lense, there is no aperture ring so this lense cannot be used in a manual setting mode.

The images produced by the DA16-45 are of very nice quality and appear sharp in the samples I have shot so far. I also have the DA18-55 kit lense and the DA16-45 is much better than it. I have not noticed any of the CA fringing reported by others but so far as I haven't shot any scenes where it is reported to occur.

The hood is massive and fills the slot in my camera bag fully so keep that in mind if your bag is smallish. The feel of the operation is smooth and the overall size and weight of the DA16-45 complements the K10D very nicely I think.

If it were not for the reversed barrel extension on the wide end and lack of an aperture ring for manual settings, I would have probably rated this lense a 10 overall.

Gene Brewer
Ridgecrest, CA