New D/FA 100mm Macro

[pez]

Can't believe I've bought yet another version of this lens, lol. Nice, though.

 

[Dale H. Cook]

I bought mine after the most recent cicada brood had emerged and I found that I could not get the shots of them that I wanted because I lacked a macro. The 100mm f/2.8 has worked very well for me.

 

[smoke665]

I have it in black. It's a great lens, but surprisingly it doesn't get as much use as I thought it would.

 

[Dale H. Cook]

I have it in black. It's a great lens, but surprisingly it doesn't get as much use as I thought it would.

Mine is in black as well. All three of the Pentax lenses that I bought for my K-70 body are black. My Rokinon 650Z 650-1300mm f/8-16 zoom is white. It had been sitting in my local camera shop for years. They had originally stocked two, the other in black which sold fairly quickly. After an initial markdown of the white Rokinon one shopper expressed interest, but declined to buy it because it wasn't black. I was not color fussy and so bought it after additional markdowns.

Like you I don't use it much, but I always have it in the camera bag for when nothing else will do.

 

[smoke665]

@Dale H. Cook I shoot a lot portraits so the FA 50 mm 1.4, and 70-200 f2.8 get the most use. However I have an old legacy 135 f1.8 that I use occasionally because of how it renders background. The 100mm macro is close on Bokeh, and creamy OOF. One with the 100mm

 

[pez]

With previous versions of this lens, I've always had issues with the infinity focus when using it for something other than macros, and also CA. I'm happy to report that both of these issues seem to have disappeared! This shot from a few days ago was wide open and I boosted the DeHaze, Clarity, and other stuff in LR (to give the colors some drama). But there was no CA or PF that I can see, and it's tack sharp! Pretty happy with this latest version, plus it's AW now.

 

[smoke665]

With previous versions of this lens, I've always had issues with the infinity focus w

I find all of the Pentax screw drive glass to have some hunting issues in low light.

As to the CA, the latest version now incorporates one ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass optical element and two Anomalous Dispersion glass optical elements to compensate for various aberrations and minimize the generation of the unwanted purple fringe effect. The lens coating has been upgraded to HD, which significantly reduces average reflectance in the visible ray spectrum. (Per Pentax literature).

 

[RAZKY]

I find all of the Pentax screw drive glass to have some hunting issues in low light.

Interesting. Never heard of a lens hunting for focus. Some cameras do, of course.