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FA* lenses are Pentaxes premier 35mm offerings, sort of equivalent to the Canon L range. The lens reviewed here is primarily aimed at portrait use, and comes with a heavy price tag.
This is very solidly built, confidence inspiring lens, with a large bayonet mounting hood supplied as standard. The lens is quite short but it's wide construction and weighty (it tips the scales at a not insubstantial 0.55kg) feel give the impression of a "barrel of glass". It takes 67mm filters and is supplied complete with a soft case.
While in Singapore I dropped mine from a height of about 4 feet onto a marble pavement, where it landed front element down with a horrible bang. The lens cap popped of and the filter ring now sports a big dent, but apart from not being able to mount filters it functions as normal. If I'd had the hood fitted at the time I'm sure the lens would have escaped damage.
I bought this 7 element 6 group lens primarily for studio and available light portraiture and for low light use, purposes for which it excels. Results are very sharp, with a nice feel to the out of focus areas, probably helped by a nicely round nine-bladed aperture. I don't use it for landscapes but I've seen comments that performance is not great at infinity focus, leading to the belief that Pentax tuned this for best performance at near focus. When I have used the lens outdoors I've seen no sign of flare, perhaps due to the lenses relatively simple construction and deep hood.
Pentax's flagship FA* lenses make use of a "de-clutching" mechanism to switch between manual and auto-focus. This improves the handling as the focus ring doesn't revolve when in the AF position. When in the manual focus position the lens provides a better feel than most other AF lenses I've tried . Internal focusing is used so the front element doesn't revolve - helpful with graduate or polarising filters. The only minor annoyance (shared with many other lenses) is that it is impossible to take the lens cap on or off while the hood is fitted, and it's also very difficult to use polarisers due to the lack of access again due to the hood. Close focusing is marginal for a portrait lens - fine for frame filling portraits of adults, but not quite good enough to do the same with small children.
I've used the FA* 85mm F1.4 on all three of my AF Pentax SLR's (Z1p, MZ5 & Z50p) and as you would expect I've experienced no compatability problems at all.
I paid around 6000 HK dollars (about 770USD or 475 pounds sterling) in late 1997 for this lens, which is rather e a lot for a short telephoto prime.
Quite simply superb - for portraiture and low light photography it's the best lens I've ever used.
The SMC-FA 85 is stocked by Adorama, a retailer that pays photo.net a referral fee for each customer, which helps keep this site in operation. For additional retailer information, see our recommended retailers page and the user recommendations section.
Copyright 1998 Steve Graham
The picture at the top of this review is a grab shot of my daughter, Alison, in normal early morning grumpy "get me my Coco-Pops" mode. It was taken using a Pentax Z50p, SMC-FA* 85mm F1.4 at F1.4 and something like 1/90s handheld (honest I do own a tripod). The Ilford Delta 400 film had been in the camera for about a year (it was my first SLR, since replaced in my affections by more upmaket models), and was developed in Rodinal - resulting in a particularily pleasant grain pattern don't you think?
Article created 1998
Wayne Chiu , October 26, 2000; 09:17 A.M.
Kwen Wan , June 12, 2002; 08:49 P.M.
ronald loui , July 10, 2004; 05:04 P.M.
