DA 14mm Tryout

Just a couple of days ago I was at the office of Shriro, the local Pentax agent here in Singapore. The friendly folks there offered to let me try out the DA 14mm f/2.8 wide angle for a couple of days. Since I let go of my DA 16-45mm f/4 a few months back, I don't have a rectilinear wide angle that goes wider than the DA 18-55mm II. So I welcomed the opportunity to satisfy my curiousity and get acquainted with this lens.





In making a choice between the current crop of Pentax wide angle lenses, it's a toss-up between the DA 14mm prime and the DA 12-24mm f/4 that Pentax jointly developed with Tokina. The prime has the edge in maximum aperture while the zoom has the versatility of having a range of focal lengths and it also goes wider. It is also more expensive than the DA 14mm.



Looking at specifications alone isn't enough as wide angles offer a dramatic perspective that one needs to appreciate first hand at the viewfinder. I opted to try out the DA 14mm. My reasons were threefold: to see if the f/2.8 really made a big difference, to find out if the angle of view was wide enough and to see if the lens was IR friendly (no hot spots). The answers to all three questions were a resounding yes.



I'm sure I would like the DA 12-24mm for the focal length versatility, but I've been told it hot spots when taking IR images, which is unfortunate to say the least. The DA 14mm is very solidly made, is optically sharp to my estimation, controls flare quite well and focuses very fast. I've enjoyed my brief tryout with it and this will certainly be one lens that I'll definitely be on the lookout in the near future.



Here I've taken a few images using my IR modified Pentax *ist DL2 at a reservoir near my home. I've managed to enjoy the camera more and have gotten the hang of fine tuning the post processing the IR images. Post processing was done with Photoshop.