PENTAX D FA MACRO 100mm F2.8 WR

[Kym]

http://pentaxdslrs.blogspot.com/2009/12/pentax-announces-new-100mm-f28-macro-wr.html


PENTAX Imaging Company has announced the smc PENTAX D FA MACRO 100mm F2.8 WR lens designed for use with PENTAX digital SLR cameras. Combining a high-quality exterior finish with PENTAX-original weather-resistant construction, this new macro lens is especially useful for the demands of outdoor photography.

This PENTAX macro lens features a high-grade, aluminum barrel with the high-quality, exclusive exterior design and finish unique to the PENTAX D FA series lenses. Further, the entire mechanism of the focus ring has been reviewed and upgraded to assure flawless manual-focus operation. For improved performance, the PENTAX D FA MACRO 100mm F2.8 WR is the first PENTAX interchangeable macro lens featuring a completely rounded diaphragm blade to create a natural, beautiful bokeh at wide apertures, while minimizing the streaking effect of point light sources.

PENTAX WR lenses feature simplified weather-resistant construction to repel water and moisture. Combined with a PENTAX weather-resistant K-7, K20D, K200D or K10D digital SLR camera body, the lens performs well in damp, inclement outdoor conditions including rain, mist, water spray and splashes.

[I @ M]

Surely the fact that they keep on producing full frame compatible lenses must mean that they have a full frame sensor DSLR on the burner somewhere --------- :)

[mongo]

Yeh, what Andrew said.

Also, Mongo is fascinated by the idea of a fully rounded diaphragm. Great idea but why did it take so long for anyone to come up with a working version of it ?

It all sounds good and nice to see. However, Mongo is a bit of a believer in some older lenses still being as good as or better than some newer lenses. So, the question in Mongo’s mind is, “will this be measurably better than the old Pentax 100 f2.8 AF “F” lens which is largely agreed to be the best of the Pentax macros (except for the Pentax 200mm “star” lens) ? We shall see.

Thanks for the head-up Kym.

[Kym]

Surely the fact that they keep on producing full frame compatible lenses must mean that they have a full frame sensor DSLR on the burner somewhere --------- :)

There are still millions? of 35mm filum Pentax cameras out there.

Stated policy is APS-C and Medium format. But we can only hope.

[birdsrus]

Used my 100mm macro WR last weekend when it rained both days. Got great photos of wildflowers and a brown treecreeper in poor light. It usually has a sigma ring flash on the end. While it takes me seconds to line up plants and get my photos, all the other plant people spend minutes getting the wildflowers in focus. I origiannly wanted a sigma 150mm macro which has never been made for pentax (rumor new version will be) so I got the pentax 100mm WR macro and have not been disappointed. However my sigma 70mm macro has had little use since I got the pentax. The lower weight of the pentax 100mm means it will have priority in my camera bag.

[Othrelos]

As an owner of a the sigma 180mm f/3.5 EX DG APO and a Pentax FA*200mm f/4 ED [IF] macro lens I was pleasantly surprised by the high quality construction of the DA 100mm f/2.8 WR . It is a small lens compared to the Canon 100mm f/2.8L IS macro, less than half the weight of the canon lens. However I was a bit disappointed to note that the 100mm f/2.8 isn't an [IF] design, which means the front element extends when focusing closely. Another annoyance was the fact that the DA100mm WR also has no tripod collar, which makes changing from horizontal to vertical framing troublesome unless you have a camera bracket.