Digital Cameras Ratings: PENTAX DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 ED (IF) Fish-Eye Lens for Pentax Digital SLR Review

PENTAX DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 ED Fish-Eye Lens for Pentax Digital SLR

Average Reviews:
4.7 out of 5 stars

(More customer reviews)Sometimes you just need to go to the extreme - in this case it is really wide angle. In my old Canon film-camera days, I had the 15mm 2.8 fisheye which was an even bigger chunk of glass because of its speed.

Now that I have gone to the Pentax K100D camera, I was pleasantly surprised to see this 10-17mm lens was available. I was even happier because unlike the Canon lens, the Pentax is a zoom, so that not every shot has to be the distorted wide angle that you think of when you hear "fisheye". The lens goes out to the equivalent of about 26mm on a 35mm format, which is a very useful focal length as well.

The lens also allows manually tweaking the focus while in the auto-focus mode - something my 2 Sigma lenses warn against.

The only drawbacks to the lens that I see are that you can not mount a filter and the curved front element is exposed (same for the Canon). So, just use a little caution. And, unlike the old Canon, there are no rear filters either. Finally, for those who like to manually adjust the aperture ring - there isn't one. It's all set through the camera :-)

I could go on about the lens, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I've posted a few photos in the Amazon collection.

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Product Description:
Capture fisheye imagery with a 180-degree angle of view with the Pentax DA 10-17mm fisheye lens. Designed for the Pentax *ist series of digital SLR cameras, the lens creates images with an expanded perspective, including images with a creatively deformed outlook and a sharp pan focus that extends throughout the entire frame. The image circle in DA series lenses, meanwhile, is designed to perfectly match the 23.5 x 15.7mm size of the CCD used in Pentax digital SLRs to optimize camera performance. Plus, the new design contributes to a drastic reduction in size, weight, and production cost compared to 35mm counterparts with similar specifications. Additional features include a 35mm equivalent focal length of 15-26mm; new water- and oil-repellant super-protective (SP) lens coatings for easy cleaning; extra-low-dispersion (ED) glass for superior sharpness and color correction; and a responsive Quick Shift Focus System for switching instantly from autofocus (AF) to manual focus (MF).

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