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Pentax SMCP-FA 50mm f/1.4 Lens | 
 enlarge | Brand: Pentax
Category: Photography
List Price: $330.99
Buy New: $199.00
You Save: $131.99 (40%)
New (1) Used (1) from $190.00
Rating:  47 reviews
Media: Electronics
Maximum Focal Length: 50
Minimum Focal Length: 50
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 3.9 x 3.6 x 3.4
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: 20817
Model: 20817
UPC: 027075030534
EAN: 0027075030534
ASIN: B00005ABC5
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Only 1.5 inches and 7.8 ounces | | • | 47 degree angle of view | | • | Fixed 50mm focal length | | • | Fully automatic diaphragm | | • | Lens construction of 6 elements in 5 groups |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The Pentax interchangeable lens system provides a complete line of high-quality lenses to satisfy your every creative need. Offering a wide range of focal lengths, functions and effects for different formats, Pentax lenses are designed to maximize each camera's capabilities.
Amazon.com Product Description
The Pentax SMCP-FA 50mm f1.4 lens has a fully automatic diaphragm. At 1.5 inches long and weighing just 7.8 ounces, you can take this 50mm fixed focal length lens with you everywhere. You can use this lens with all Pentax SLR cameras, but the AF system only works with Pentax AF cameras.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
Great solid lens January 1, 2009
With the Pentax K10D sensor the equivalent 35mm focal length is about 75mm. Coupled with the fast f1.4 aperture of this lens, this is a great low light short telephoto lens...very good for indoor personal shots. The low f also allows autofocus and metering to work well in low light conditions.
Wide open (f1.4) this lens is soft, but sharpens quickly (noticeable difference from f1.4 to 1.8).
Nice small lens. The downsides are: (1) elements are spherical, so the lens is a little heavier than it could be with aspherical elements, (2) focus ring is locked to autofocus on body...you can't turn the focus ring when the body is set to autofocus, (3) a little soft wide open.
The upsides are: (1) even with spherical elements, the lens is small, (2) feels like a good precision instrument, (3) it's nice to have a very well defined "soft" focus region.
All in all I really like this lens. It just feels good in the hand, its small, its fast, its sharp, it works well in low light, and the price is great.
Must have for all Pentaxians. January 1, 2009
I bought this lens when I first got the K10D one year ago and I've never regretted it! First of all, the build quality feels superb for the price. The focusing ring is super smooth and has a rubbery texture. When mounted on the K10D it feels very solid and fits perfectly in your hand; not too small, not too large.
As far as image quality goes, f1.4 - f2.4 are a bit soft, but can easily be used in a pinch to get a couple extra stops of light. Once you hit 2.8 though, things really change. Images are sharp all across the frame and the bokeh at 2.8 is truly toast worthy (buttery). The sweet spot seems to kick in around f5.6, where the images are going to be packed with detail. The image distortion is virtually non-existent. If you're not careful in harsh sunlight you could easily be caught out with some fringing and aberrations, but this can be corrected in PS.
50mm is a great prime to have, especially if you may be doing some portraits. I just did a sitting of my daughter with her grandparents and the images produced are nothing less than professional looking. All in all a great lens to have and well worth the price.
 Good, but has limitations opened beyond f2.8 December 12, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I don't to duplicate everything that dpreview did for this lens. They have an excellent review with detailed analysis of this lens.
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/pentax_50_1p4_p15/
Some quoted highlights:
Pros:
* Excellent image quality when stopped down to F2 and smaller
* Very low lateral chromatic aberration
* Almost no rectilinear distortion
Cons:
* Very soft wide open
* Extremely 'busy' rendition of out-of-focus backgrounds at wider apertures (larger than F2.8)
* Bokeh chromatic aberration, most visible at wide apertures (F1.4-F2.8)
Short is that this is a very good lens, but if you want the best pictures you will want to not use it higher then f2.8. The sigma 50mm F1.4 HSM for pentax would give you better wide aperature performance, but you will pay for that as well.
Versatile lens December 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This lens is soft at F1.4, but sharp at F2. And it can handle low light. These I think, everyone knows already. But F1.4 is not totally useless. If you like experimenting with wafer-thin depth of fields, you can get plenty of interesting special effect shots. That is versatility for me.
Good for portraits, indoors without flash November 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This lens is ideal if you are in an indoor setting and don't want to disturb others with a flash. Allows more candid shots to be taken as well since there is no flash. I noticed shooting wide open really narrows your field of focus, it's best to go to f2.0
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