If you watched my 2020 year-end recap video on my current Pentax lens lineup, you would’ve noticed the lack of zooms. I don’t have anything against zoom lenses. In fact, in the past I was perfectly content shooting with just one zoom lens, the Pentax 18-135mm. But for whatever reason I have strayed away from them recently. That is, until the Pentax-M 35-70mm f2.8-f3.5 lens walked in the door.
Pentax-M 35-70mm Build
The Pentax-M 35-70mm lens is heavy. At just about a pound, or 470g, it is twice the weight of the plastic zoom lenses that followed it. It also feels ridiculously large for what it is. Using the push pull zoom design (my least favorite) you have to extend the lens to its bulkiest format to achieve the wide 35mm end of the range. Once you do, also get in the habit of taking a few steps back to achieve the minimum focusing distance of 100cm (over three feet!)
Now that we have all the ugly out of the way, I can get to the good stuff. Why might you consider picking up the Pentax-M 35-70 f2.8-3.5, despite these flaws?
I’ll start with a picture. My first picture with the lens that convinced me to take another.
Like most lenses, I took the Pentax-M 35-70mm f2.8-3.5 lens out to the backyard shortly after unboxing it. I threw it on my trusty Pentax K-1 which has a way of making vintage lenses shine. The first thing I noticed was the three foot minimum focusing distance. No small flowers for this lens. Next I tried the backlit leaves of my tree. Still too far to make out those fine details. I backed up to the closest point where I could focus on the tree and snapped the picture, wide-open, at 35mm.
You can see why I was drawn in. Wide-open, the lens shows fairly heavy vignetting, adding some interesting character. The out-of-focus areas have an interesting look typical of vintage lenses. Coming to the center of the frame you can see it is respectably sharp all things considered. Color looks great in this straight out of camera JPEG. Intrigued, I decided to see how it handled portraits.
Pentax-M 35-70mm f2.8-3.5 Lens For Portraits
One of my kids is still at the age where I can sit him up and he doesn’t move. Perfect for trying out a new lens. The first shot I tried was zoomed out at 35mm and wide open at F2.8 on the Pentax K-1.
Once again this image is taken straight out of camera without fixing any flaws. For such a wide angle, it once again surprised me how far back I had to squat to get this shot. I almost ran out of room in the house. Colors look nice, bokeh looks pretty good. The vignetting adds to the portrait shot pretty naturally.
Next is a shot taken right after zoomed in to 70mm and at that focal lengths widest aperture of F3.5. Again, straight out of camera JPEG.
A little bit underexposed, but I was pushing the ISO pretty high to compensate for the indoor lighting and relatively slow F3.5 aperture. The bokeh seems less attractive to me in this zoomed in stage. You can see weird blotchy bits in the highlights coming through the window. Still, perfectly usable, and with perhaps a less busy background it would work well.
Closing Thoughts
What do you think of the rendering of the Pentax-M 35-70mm? So far, I am digging it for what it is. That is, a free lens I got attached to a film body that I get to play around with. I think the look of the images is unique enough to warrant a few more shots. I wouldn’t go as far as to recommend it whole-heartedly, though. The size, weight, push-pull zooming and terrible minimum focusing distance make it pretty unpractical. Still, if you’re like me and love quirky camera gear, it might be worth keeping an eye out for a cheap one.
Until next time, happy snappin’
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Just curious, how’s the vignette on a DX sensor camera?
I haven’t tried yet 😁 I’ll throw it on my K10D sometime before making a video about it. Usually I like these vintage lenses a lot more on FF. Not always. But I think because they were designed for FF it really lets them shine.