Web Analytics RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: Recent Pentax Tests with Full Samples (HD Limiteds and K-3)

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Recent Pentax Tests with Full Samples (HD Limiteds and K-3)

After years of inactivity, Photodo has lately done more lens tests and here are some recent tests with the "new" HD Limited lenses of 70/2.4, 35/2.8 and 15/4:

http://www.photodo.com/topic_1126.html?page_num=0

http://www.photodo.com/topic_1127.html?page_num=0

http://www.photodo.com/topic_1128.html?page_num=0

Some high resolution full samples are also posted per test, the body used was a K-5IIs.

Btw, the new colour scheme and look of the lenses are really ugly! All the marks and scales are now in white "colour" only and the markings and fonts look cheap indeed, reflecting completely bad taste of the Ricoh guys!

Besides, DPR have published their first sample gallery for photos taken with the K-3 and mostly with a much better looking DA18-135 of the ex-Pentax. Just go figure yourself if you like the samples or not. Of course, for the sake of measurbation, full samples are always available at DPR. :-)

http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/reviewsamples/albums/pentax-k-3-samples-gallery

If you are impressed, just go buy the green ring Pentax lenses as far as they are still available of which a red ring variant with all white printings will replace them sooner or later, nonetheless! >:-(

Comments (50)

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The new lens design looks better. You may not like it, but do not act like your opinion is a given fact. It is not. Some of us like the black-red scheme better than cheap looking ant not traditional green. But after all, it is just a color. I find myself not to be gay enaugh to rage all around internet for a colour I dislike:-D
8 replies · active 590 weeks ago
Sample photos are altered by Adobe Photoshop CS3, couldn't these guys just give us the real thing straight out of the cam ?
3 replies · active 590 weeks ago
Ricehigh, I really love your blog, but recently this becomes ridiculous. Things do change - that´s a fact we all have to accept. Whether green or red, Pentax or Ricoh, it doesn´t matter as long as it´s got a K-mount and I can use it on my cams.

BTW, I just looked up: My first Pentax from 1981 doesn´t say "Pentax" on the rear, it says "Ashai Optical". So what´s the difference to nowadays, when the front says "Pentax" and on the rear you can see "Ricoh"?
2 replies · active 590 weeks ago
Dan Johnson's avatar

Dan Johnson · 590 weeks ago

If the Ricoh Fan-Boys are done chastising us (optic green is easy on the eyes, while red produces eye strain) than they can go back to giving the thumbs down to the links I posted so Pentaxians can buy good MicroUSB-3 cables as well as MicroHDMI cables for around $6 that Ricoh doesn't include with the K-3.
Thanks for posting the tests Rice, evan though thear's little differance in the tests it reaffirms that my Pentax 100mm WR Macro I better for me than the 35mm, don't know why the HD Macro ain't got no focus limiter or why no HD has the new silent focus but I really expect to get WR without it taking a bite out of my wallet. I' m also willing to buy the slightly larger prime they could make giving us a brighter ((85mm, (55,50,45,35) and 24mm)) as well as a bright WR Zoom to compete with Sigma's 24-70mm f/2.0 HSM.
7 replies · active 590 weeks ago
A7R kills k-3's avatar

A7R kills k-3 · 590 weeks ago

It does not matter. What idiot would dump $$$ into cropped lenses? I am moving on to FF, without Pentax. I plan to hang my Pentax glass on a A7R. I would have liked a Pentax FF but pentax does not want to sell me the camera, I manual focus most of the time anyway so no big loss. AR7 absolutely cutting edge camera. K-3 ho hum the only thing it has going for it is that it is not just another REHASHED K-5. Pentax folks now have two more rehashed k-3 released to look forwards to over the next several years if history serves
2 replies · active 589 weeks ago
May be instead of talking about the color of the lens, just talk about the colors out of the lens?

The only true comparison I saw was by someone on Pentaxforum where the HD version performed worse than the SMC.Why Ricoh does not invest in reducing the sample variation in lenses? and produce an FF camera with good colors out of its jpeg engine?

I would rather prefer having a kind of FF K5, and not the improvement of resolution we saw with the II/IIs (at the expense of colors) and now the K3.

By the way, with some friends, we tested the K3 vs K5 AF in normal light. May be a small improvement? not sure. Then compared with the Sony A7r: K3 seemed better. Then compared to 70D and Nikon Df. K3 was obviously much slower.
2 replies · active 590 weeks ago
Dan Johnson's avatar

Dan Johnson · 590 weeks ago

Congratulations, you're the first one on this thread to mention the performance of the K-3 and lenses.
Madaboutpix's avatar

Madaboutpix · 590 weeks ago

Here we go again: Photography is about ring colours! Well, it's not. Now, this may be my personal taste, but if anything the updated colour scheme makes the HD Limiteds look a little fresher and classier.

Nice to see the links to the tests, but these are actually tests performed by ePHOTOzine.com, reprinted without source aknowledgement (?), as is quite obvious from the final verdict badges. It must have been kind of depressing for you that the tests showed these lenses to be pretty solid performers, huh? ;)
1 reply · active 590 weeks ago
A7R kills k-3's avatar

A7R kills k-3 · 590 weeks ago

What is the future of Cropped sensor DLSR market? Is there one? Does Pentax have a future? Should money be dumped into lenses with no or a limited future? I had pulled my head out of the sand a while ago.
Pentax is a brand that had made some great glass in the past but currently they are a second tier producer at best with nothing of note to sell, Again what do you think the future holds for pentax in this very competitive market. Just looking at it with my eyes open.
4 replies · active 590 weeks ago
A7R kills k-3's avatar

A7R kills k-3 · 590 weeks ago

The k-3 was Pentax's last chance. Pentax failed. My A7R has been pre-ordered. No money will go to pentax.
On the positive side those who remain will be in a more exclusive group as time passes.
6 replies · active 590 weeks ago
Bukaja, stop putting that in the lens mount!
Roy. Huang's avatar

Roy. Huang · 590 weeks ago

Rice, are you gonna get a K3?
3 replies · active 590 weeks ago

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