Pentax SMCP 67 90mm f/2.8

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Model Reviewed:
SMCP 67 90mm f/2.8

Summary:
This is a very nice availble-light/reportage lens with a beautiful out-of-focus behaviour, especially foreground unsharpness is SO nice ! I use it all the time at F4 and F5.6 Nicer unsharpness then the 105mm, the latter also having curvature of field. Too bad, however, that microcontrast is not quite up to the standard of the general image contrast. Still, a very NICE lens. It the the lens Mario Testino uses on his Pentax 67.(Vogue USA/UK, the last years).

Strengths:
Out of focus behaviour. Flat plain of focus. Short minimum focus distance.. Uniform, high contrast over the entire image, especially at infinity. Wide-open image contrast excellent. Very little annoying abberrations like coma or astigmatism. IMO good focal length for reportage-like (fashion) shooting. In all these areas I prefer the 90mm over the 105mm, wich I have also owned.. Good usebility in terms of sharpness at F2.8, very good at F4. very good/exc. at F5.6, improving slightly at F8 and very slightly at F11, wich is the best F-stop in terms of sharpness. General image-contrast already maximal at F5,6.

Weaknesses:
Centre micro-contrast/sharpness is very good, but lower than the general image contrast,wich is very high. The resolving power is there, but the sharpness-impression is not extremely high. The 105mm is in this respect better, especially in the centre and at close-ups at F2.8/4.Alltough the 100mm macro maybe has slighly lower resolving power, it seems to have less difference between imagecontrast and micro/detailcontrast and so gives a slightly sharper impression.(IMO). Sharpness edges and corners at smaller distances.not as high as in centre, however this is barely visible under normal circumstances, as contrast remains high over the entire image area. F16/22 maybe not so sharp (I am not sure, have not used it much at these F-stops.

Similar Products Used:
105mm 100mm macro

Customer Service:
Needed once. New TTL-prism was off by 2/3 stop. Quikly adjusted under warrenty. (Pentax-Netherlands).

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Model Reviewed:
SMCP 67 90mm f/2.8

Summary:
I moved up from 35mm and the negatives from this format (and this lense) are very, very sharp. With this lense, which is like a 45mm lense in 35mm format is great: you can count the strands of the models hair right on the negative. Very sharp, very fast too.

Strengths:
Razor sharp focus

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
Olympus 35mm outfit

Customer Service:
don't need it