Pentax FA 28-80 F3.5-4.7

By Steve Graham

Focal Length min 28mm, max 80mm
Aperture - max F3.5-4.7, min F22-32
Close Focus 0.4m
Weight 0.38kg

Build

With it's plastic shell and wobbly front element, this lens does not immediately inspire confidence in it's construction. However having owned the lens for some 4 or 5 years and subjected it to some pretty hard times it's survived with flying colours.
58mm filters are required.

Optical

A 8 group, 8 this used to be the standard beginners lens for the (P)Z range of Pentax AF cameras. As such it's not at all bad, capable of reasonably sharp results with good colour rendition - although stopping down will help. There is visible distortion at the wide end so keep straight lines away from the edges. Flare resistence seems quite decent for a lens of this type - although it would be better if a hood were supplied as standard.

Handling

This is one of the Pentax PowerZoom lenses - meaning that it's a two touch design with a two-position zoom ring. In the power position it acts very like a camcorder zoom - turn to the right and it zooms out, turn to the left and it zooms in. The further you turn it the faster it zooms. In the manual position it works as a normal zoom ring - although with rather a "dead" feel. The thin rubber focus ring is at the front of the barrel, and is unsable but not particularily pleasant. AF performance is adequate if nothing special, however the front element revolves - making the use of graduate and polarising filters somewhat of a pain.
There are several PowerZoom functions available - image size tracking, focal length memory, zoom-burst etc. Personally I've never used them, and they seem no more than gimmicks.

Compatibility

As you would expect no compatability problems are evident, although not all the PowerZoom functions are available on all AF bodies - only the (P)Z range. Extensive use of the powerzoom will drain the camera batteries somewhat faster than usual though.

Price

I bought this lens in a package with my first ever SLR - a Z50p 4 or 5 years ago and I can't remember what I paid for it.

Conculsion

This was my first ever lens, for my first ever SLR, and as such had a large part to play in my development as a photographer. At the time it was probably the best beginners lens for Pentax AF, but that mantle has now passed on the the FA 28-200 and FA 28-70 F4 lenses.

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