Pentax SMC-DA 16-45mm f/4 ED AL wide angle DSLR zoom lens for sale.
Good used condition, everything works as it should. This lens has good reviews, and the 16mm widest angle is incredibly useful for anything from landscapes to indoor shots compared to 18mm or even 17mm. The Chromatic Aberration is noticeable at some settings in high contrast, but photo editing software CA adjustment clears it up perfectly with just a simple move of a slider. Has been my favourite lens.
The lens was professionally serviced recently, hence the two small holes in the sticker on the front element (see photo - receipt available if required). Has been stored with silica gel. Happy to post at cost.
Also selling my Pentax SMC DA 17-70mm f/4 AL [IF] SDM and Pentax smc DA 55-300mm f/4.0-5.8 ED (see my other listings) - will bundle 2 or all 3 lenses if anyone's interested.
Any questions, please ask.
Thanks for looking! :-)
Here's Photozone's review:"Introduction
The Pentax SMC-DA 16-45mm f/4 ED AL is something like a "consensus" lens in the Pentax community. It is affordable enough for starters yet interesting enough for enthusiasts. Its field-of-view is equivalent to 24.5-67.5mm in the 35mm format - a pretty attractive range specifically for those with a preference for wide angles. On the downside a 3x zoom ratio isn't all that impressive anymore these days. Typical for all Pentax DA lenses it is compatible to APS-C DSLRs only.
The build quality of the lens is fine although you shouldn't really expect much of an increase in perceived quality compared to the much cheaper DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL. The outer body is made of a combination of plastic and metal parts assembled with comparatively tight tolerances. Both the zoom and focus ring operate quite smooth. As you can see above the lens extends towards the WIDE end of the zoom range which is unusual although not unprecedented (e.g. the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 USM L does the same). The front element does not rotate so using a polarizer is no problem. Some users complain about its comparatively "chunky" size but its relatively fast max. aperture (for a standard zoom) comes at the expense of (comparatively) large glass elements.
The lens has no internal AF motor and relies on a slotted drive screw operated by the camera. As a result AF operation will generate a moderate degree of noise. The AF speed is extremely fast and accurate on the K10D. Thanks to a "Quick-Shift Focus System" manual focusing is instantly possible once the AF has achieved focus - this works very well and noiseless.
Specifications
Equiv. focal length 24-67.5 mm (full format equivalent)
Equiv. aperture f/6 (full format equivalent, in terms of depth-of-field)
Optical construction 13 elements in 10 groups inc. 1 ED and 2 aspherical elements
Number of aperture blades 8
min. focus distance 0.28 m (max. magnification ratio 1:4)
Dimensions 72 x 92 mm
Weight 365 g
Filter size 67 mm (non-rotating)
Hood petal shaped (supplied)
Distortion
Typical for many standard zoom the Pentax lens produces a pronounced degree of barrel distortion at 16mm (~2.5%) changing to slight pincushion distortion when zooming towards 45mm (~0.7%). This is comparatively good for such a wide standard zoom.
Vignetting
Standard-zoom lenses with a reduced image circle tend to vignette quite a bit specifically towards the wide end of the zoom range. This is also true for the Pentax SMC DA 16-45mm f/4 ED AL. At 16mm the vignetting is pronounced with ~1.2EV at f/4 but stopping down reduces the problem to a manageable degree. At 24mm and more so at 45mm the vignetting is well controlled for a lens in this class.
MTF (resolution)
The Pentax SMC-DA 16-45mm f/4 ED AL produced very good resolution figures in the MTF lab. At 16mm the center performance is superb straight from the max. aperture. The borders are good to very good. Stopping down improves the image contrast, less so the resolution on the focus plane (although the perceived sharpness improves due to the bigger depth-of-field). This behavior is also quite typical for the rest of the zoom range. The sweet spot of the lens is at 24mm where the center quality is excellent followed by very good borders. There's a slight drop in quality at 45mm which is most obvious in the image center whereas the border quality remains high. At f/11 diffraction affects the quality at all focal lengths.
A welcome aspect of the DA 16-45mm is its very flat focus field (low field curvature). As a resukt extreme borders have a lesser (later) tendency to loose focus compared to other standard zoom lenses.
Chromatic Aberrations (CAs)
So far it looked good but the 16-45mm f/4 has also a dark soul - lateral chromatic aberrations (color shadows at harsh contrast transitions). At 16mm and 24mm CAs can be quite extreme with an average pixel width around 2.5px at the image borders. This is plain bad although the issue can be corrected via imaging tools thanks to its very symmetrical characteristic (see the 100% sample crop below). To be fair the CAs are of the less hostile blue-yellow type (rather than red-cyan). In sharp contrast to the wide end CAs are almost negligible at the 45mm setting.
Verdict
The Pentax SMC-DA 16-45mm f/4 ED AL is an impressive standard zoom ... with a bug. The resolution figures indicate a very good resolution characteristic throughout the zoom range. Distortions and vignetting are quite typical for a good APS-C standard zoom. The only real problem are very pronounced CAs (color shadows) towards the wide end of the zoom range. For users not willing to do manual post-processing this may be a show stopper although the issue is correctable. The build quality of the lens is about in line to the rest of the gang. Both AF speed and accuracy are very good on the K10D. All-in-all a lens with a good price/performance ratio."
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