LensTip.com

• Very solid and well-done casing,
• Sensational image quality in the frame centre,
• Moderate chromatic aberration,
• Low distortion for such an angle of view,
• Negligible astigmatism,
• Very fast and efficient autofocus.

Cons:

• Weak image quality on the edge of the frame,
• Distinct coma.

The summary of this lens’s test can be written in several different ways. Certainly you can praise the unquestionable advantages – good workmanship, compact dimensions, and a really sensational image quality in the frame centre. Taking all this into account you wouldn’t be very justified if you complained about the undoubtedly steep price. Nowadays for a well-done device, made of good quality materials, you have to pay a lot.

On the other hand you can’t forget about the flaws of this lens – a weak image quality on the edge of the frame and a high level of coma. For such a price we would like to avoid such flaws.

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What’s interesting, there is even a third side of this issue: what’s the point of existence of such a lens on the market ? In the same Pentax line-up we have such devices as the 16-50 mm f/2.8, the 16-45 mm f/4.0 or the 17-70 mm f/4.0. You can add to them the offer of independent producers. There are really plenty of zoom lenses which focal lengths start at 16-17 mm and the aperture ranges from f/2.8 to f/4.0. Most of them cost less than the Pentax 4/15. Does fighting for these 1-2 mm of wide angle more really make sense? Especially that the image quality, provided by the Limited on the edge of the frame, is closer to that of zooms than that of “primes”. We are not able to answer such a question – let us only mention that there is another problem appearing on the horizon. Its name is the Pentax DA 14 mm f/2.8 ED IF. If dimensions aren’t a crucial feature to you, you can buy that one and get a better fastness, a bid wider angle of view and some money is left in your wallet for a filter or other gadget. That’s not the end of it. You can find ultra wide angle zooms on the market which don’t feature worse fastness than the “prime”, tested here.

Sample shots

Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/4.0, exp. 1/800 s, ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 9.03 MB	Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/4.5, exp. 1/1000 s, ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 10.15 MB	Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/640 s, ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 10.16 MB
Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/250 s, ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 10.9 MB	Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/4.0, exp. 1/200 s, ISO 200 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 10.31 MB	Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/800 s, ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 9.87 MB
Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/4.0, exp. 1/800 s, ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 8.95 MB	Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/8.0, exp. 1/320 s, ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 7.87 MB	Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/5.0, exp. 1/800 s, ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 8.95 MB
Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/5.6, exp. 1/400 s, ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 10.91 MB	Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/9.0, exp. 1/250 s, ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 10.35 MB	Camera: Pentax K-5 Parameters: 15 mm, f/6.3, exp. 1/400 s, ISO 100 File: JPEG, 4928×3264 pix, 11.46 MB