The 35mm f/2.8 SMC Pentax-A is one of my favorite workhorse lenses.
I have any number of terrific 50mm lenses for the three SLR systems I use (Pentax, Nikon, and Olympus). For my Pentax SLRs in particular, my 50mm f/1.7 SMC Pentax-M lens is superb. But when I’m on the street photographing the built environment, as I’m wont to do, 50mm is often too constraining. I usually have to stand in the street to put my subject fully in the frame. Sometimes the building behind me blocks me from backing up enough.
This looks like a job for a wide-angle lens!
First I tried the 28mm f/2.8 SMC Pentax-M lens that came with one of the old SLRs I bought along the way. It’s optically very good, and it let me fill the frame with my subject in most cases. But the exaggerated perspective inherent in any wide-angle lens was sometimes too much, making my subjects look strange, even grotesque.
I bought this 35mm f/2.8 SMC Pentax-A to see if it would ease the perspective exaggeration while still fitting enough in the frame. The SMC Pentax-M version of this lens would have been a good choice, too — it is optically identical. None my Pentax bodies support the program and shutter-priority modes that the A lenses enable anyway. I just happened to find this SMC Pentax-A version first at a price I was willing to pay.
With six elements in six groups, this lens is wonderfully sharp and free from distortion. It’s also incredibly compact — almost, but not quite, a pancake lens. Paired with a small SLR body like my Pentax ME, this lens makes a light and easy-to-handle kit.
Not long ago I extolled the virtues of a compact short zoom for built-environment photography. I stand by those words! Unfortunately, Pentax never made such a lens. Their most compact short zoom was the 35-70mm f/4 SMC Pentax-A, but it’s nowhere near as small or light as similar offerings of the day from Nikon or Canon. I own one but use it only occasionally.
The reasons I use this lens put me in daylight most of the time, so its f/2.8 maximum aperture is fine. For those who need extra aperture margin, Pentax also made a 35mm f/2 lens in the SMC Pentax-A and -M series. It’s a less compact than this 35mm f/2.8, but there’s always a tradeoff, isn’t there?
These images show this lens’s good optical qualities. I applied some perspective correction on the first image to correct keystoning created when I pointed the camera up a little to fit the brutalist building in the frame. Otherwise, my post-processing was limited to color and contrast adjustments.
I love it that I can move in reasonably close to details with this lens and if I get any perspective distortion, it’s minimal. A 28mm lens yields results up close that remind me of a funhouse mirror.
It’s easy to create a little drama with wider apertures. This 35mm f/2.8 SMC Pentax-A lens is no exception.
This lens delivers a smooth blurred background when aperture and shutter speed are right. I’ve never pushed it to the limit to see if I get little hexagons or circles in the background light, but when I want to do that I’m reaching for a nifty fifty anyway.
I’ve used this lens for casual portraits, too. When I mean to make portraits I reach for my long lenses. But when this 35mm lens is on the camera and I want to make a portrait, it works well enough.
These are the reasons why the 35mm f/2.8 SMC Pentax-A lens is my choice when I’m doing my usual documentary work with one of my Pentax SLR bodies. It lets me travel light while always delivering terrific results.
To get Down the Road in your inbox or reader six days a week, click here to subscribe!
To get my newsletter with previews of what I’m working on, click here to subscribe!
