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Pentax SMC DA* 200mm f/2.8 ED [IF] SDM - Review / Test Report - Analysis |
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Lens Reviews -
Pentax
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Page 2 of 3
Distortion
Typical a medium tele fix-focal lens the level of distortion is absolutely negligible and nothing
to worry about in field conditions.
Vignetting
The DA* 200mm f/2.8 is a full format lens thus enjoying the usual sweet spot advantage when
used on APS-C DSLRs. At f/2.8 the lens exhibits only slight vignetting (0.54EV) which is usually
not field relevant anymore. From f/4 & up the issue is absolutely negligible.
MTF (resolution)
The Pentax lens produced pretty impressive resolution figures in the MTF lab. At f/2.8 the quality
is already very good(+) and exceptionally uniform across the frame. The peak performance is reached
around f/5.6. Beyond diffraction is the limiting factor.
Please note that the MTF results are not directly comparable across the different systems!
Below is a simplified summary of the formal findings. The chart shows line widths per picture height (LW/PH) which can be taken as a measure for sharpness.
If you want to know more about the MTF50 figures you may check out the corresponding Imatest Explanations
Chromatic Aberrations (CAs)
Lateral chromatic aberrations (color shadows at harsh contrast transitions) are generally well
controlled (around 0.6px at the image borders) and usually nothing to worry about.
Purple Fringing
Unfortunately the DA* 200mm f/2.8 has quite a problem regarding purple fringing. Purple fringing
is a blooming effect that occurs at extreme contrast transitions. The camera sensor has surely
a few stakes in here but the effect is also dependent on the lens. Here's a 100% crop showing
a particularly bad scenario. You will find others in the sample image section although with a lesser
severity.
Typical for purple fringing the problem is worst at wide-open aperture so in critical scenes it
makes sense to stop down a little.
Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations (LoCA)
LoCAs (non-coinciding focal planes of the various colors) are a further aspect. LoCAs show
up as magenta colored halos in front the focus point and green beyond. Regarding its 2 large
ED elements it is a bit disappointing the the DA* 200mm f/2.8 shows fairly strong LoCAs at f/2.8.
The problem eases when stopping down but it's still visible at f/4 and (less so) at f/5.6.
Note: please ignore the false colors around the horizontal lines WITHIN the focus zones. These
are moirees caused by the extremely weak vertical AA filter of the K10D.
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Move the mouse cursor over the f-stop marks below to observe the respective LoCAs
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| f/2.8 |
f/4 |
f/5.6 |
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Bokeh
The bokeh (the quality of the out-of-focus blur) is a major aspect for all tele lenses because
it is often an essential part of a scene. The Pentax DA* lens does a very good job here. The
out-of-focus highlights are perfectly circular and very uniform at f/2.8. At f/4 the aspect
remains pretty much intact whereas the circular shape deteriorates somewhat more at f/5.6.
The general quality of the blur is good but a tiny bit bit nervous at f/2.8 and very smooth beyond.
As already mentioned above you will also find a rather significant amount of longitudinal chromatic
aberrations (LoCA) in this test scene.
Here're some full size samples taken at f/2.8, f/4 and f/5.6.
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