Pentax SMC DA 50mm f/1.8 Lens Review

Pentax SMC DA 50mm f/1.8 Handling and Features

The weight and dimensions of this lens are fairly typical for a lens of this specification. It weighs only 122g and protrudes 38.5mm from the lens mount. It makes a good lightweight companion for the Pentax K-5 body used for testing. Very high quality plastics have been used for the lens barrel, and the lens mount is plastic, which may put a few people off, especially if they change lenses very often.

Focusing is performed within the lens barrel with the entire group of elements moving back and forth inside. This design means that the lens does not extend during focusing and that the filter thread does not rotate, making it perfect for use with polarising and graduated filters. The 52mm is very common, so it shouldn't be too difficult to pick up accessories to fit. The manual focusing ring rotates during auto-focus, and isn't very well recessed, so care needs to be taken in use to ensure it doesn't catch your fingers. Manual focusing action is smooth, and well damped.

No distance scale is provided, or hyper-focal scale, which is a shame. The Pentax 'Quick Shift' focusing system has been implemented on this lens, which means manual adjustments can be applied once the lens has focused automatically.

Although focusing is screw-driven, it locks onto subjects very quickly. The older screw-driven system does generate more noise than newer silent focusing lenses do though. Despite the noise, focusing is swift and accurate, which makes the bright f/1.8 aperture very useable.

The minimum focus distance of 45cm is fairly typical for this kind of lens. A maximum magnification of 0.15x is possible, which may not be best suited for frame filling close ups images of small subjects.

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