Marco Aries

T he lens is made out of metal, it weights 180, it is 37 to 40mm long and it has an external diameter of 65mm, with a 62mm front thread. The iris had 5 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.8 to f22 plus auto. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 90 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 20cm. My copy comes on a Pentax K mount with a flange distance of 45,46mm. The lens is small and lightweight and it balances well even on smaller cameras. Wide open it is pretty soft and by f8 the center gets quite sharp, while the corners are still soft. Chromatic aberration is present, even up to f8, but it’s not too distracting. Colors are a bit cold and contrast and saturation are on the lower side. Specular highlights have some hard edges and backgrounds can feel busy. It produces big flares when shooting towards a bright source of light and it does suffer from ghosting. Vintage wide angles have a reputation of being not really that good, so my expectations

The lens is made out of metal, it weights 750g, it is 20,3cm long and it has an external diameter of 82mm, with a 72mm front thread. It has a built in sunhood lined with opaque material and when extended it brings the total length to 25,5cm The iris had 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f5.6 to f32 with half steps. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 130 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 4 meters. My copy comes on a Pentax K mount with a flange distance of 45,46mm. At this point I would usually mention how the lens balances on the camera, but in this case it is the camera that balances on the lens. Thankfully it has a tripod mount on the collar, which also allows the lens to spin, so you can change the orientation of the camera while on sticks. The focusing ring is jut in the right position to use it even when hand holding the system. Wide open images are pretty soft all over the frame and you have to stop it down to f11 to get good sharpness

Long time viewers will know that I’ve been slowly putting together a set of Asahi Pentax-m lenses, but I was still lacking something on the wide end, until I managed to get my hands on this 28mm. The lens is made out of metal, it weights 170g, it is 36 to 40mm long and it has an external diameter of 63mm, with a 49mm front thread. The iris had 5 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.5 to f22 with half steps. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 110 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 30cm. Flange distance for the Pentax K mount is 45,46mm.   The focusing ring is smooth but still has enough resistance to not be knocked around, while the aperture needs just a bit more force. The lens feels solid, it is short and lightweight and it doesn’t really throw off the balance of your camera. Sharpness wide open is great in the center, but it gets softer towards the edges.  By f8 there is just a bit of fuzziness in the corners.  Chromatic aberration is almost ab