I tested the DA* Lenses!

How excited it was when I was told the distributor had just received one copy each of the highly anticipated DA* lenses, i.e. DA* 16-50mm f/2.8 ED AL SDM, and DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 ED AL SDM. I tested it for about an hour, and initial impressive is very positive.

I cannot, however test on the SDM (Pentax’s version of Supersonic motor) as the K10D firmware has to be upgraded to version 1.3 before tha function is activated. Nevertheless, the AF speed is fast although the motor whining sound can be heard, much like all the other DA lenses.

Build Quality

How it feels in the hand? Well, it’s not of metal construction but high quality plastic and it feels very similar to Tamron SP Di lenses. It is therefore not heavy at all although the filter size on the DA* 16-50mm is 77mm, while the DA* 50-135mm is 67mm. It feels very balanced on the K10D. It is as you know, weather sealed, and both the zoom and focusing ring is very wide to hold.

Optical Quality

In this aspect, it delivers in flying colour, true to Pentax’s * lens tradition. I only tested the lenses at wide open aperture of f/2.8, and the sharpness (albeit the shallow DOF), color contrast is very high already.

Test Samples

For larger images, visit my DA* lens test gallery at Flickr.com

DA* 16-50mm 16mm f/2.8 37.3mm f/2.8 50mm

These images were taken at the minimal focusing distance, which is almost 1 ft, similar to the DA 16-45mm.

Bokeh is excellent! It’s creamy smooth, Zeiss-like quality. I’m a bokeh freak, and I truly admire that these lenses can produce.

Let’s move on to the DA* 50-135mm f/2.8 ED AL SDM:

f/2.8 50mm f/2.8 75mm f/2.8 135mm

These images were taken at the minimal focusing distance, which is almost 3.3 ft.

The DA* 50-135 has a angle of view of 75mm-202.5mm, which is just perfect for portraiture shots. I reckon is this a very wise move of Pentax, not to follow the trend of making another 70-200mm lens on a digital body. Again, hats off to Pentax for brilliant design consideration and thinking out of the box.

If you compare all the six images above, it is almost as if they were taken from one single lens. That’s the beauty of Pentax lenses, which has very similar optical quality and characteristics throughout the whole range of lenses. There’s not even a color shift unlike the N and C makes.

Availability & Price

Nothing is firmed, as least in Malaysia, but in the US it seems that they shall be available by mid August. I have to remain very tight lipped on the prices, but I can assure you that they are way cheaper by N and C equivalent by a significant sum of money!

If you are already waiting to get this lenses, it’s well worth the wait. This is as much as I would like to recommend to all Pentaxians. For me, I’ve yet to enjoy my DA lenses to the fullest, and am surely not in a hurry to get one. The forthcoming DA* 300mm f/2.8 may look more tempting to me right now.