Site Supporter Registered: October, 2008 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 8,089
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 24, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $470.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Fast, excellent optics, built-in filters and great handling & build. | | Cons: | Metal lens hood. | | Camera Used: Pentax film bodies (K1000, KM, KX, K2, K2DMD, ME, MX, LX, Super A/Program, P50)
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The A16/2.8 fish-eye was released in 1985 and remained in production until 2004. It was a direct replacement for the K17/4 fish-eye. The A16/2.8 is the last fish-eye prime lens that Pentax has made.
Optics:
Excellent optics and very good wide open. Of course there is distortion using the A16/2.8 on a FF camera, as this is not a rectilinear lens. I happen to like the “fish-eye” look sometimes and bought the A16/2.8 to use as a fish-eye lens only. I have no intentions of trying to use it as a wide-angle lens and defish my images, I have a K15/3.5 that is wide enough. I treat a fish-eye lens as a specialty tool, like a macro, shift or soft lens.
Focal Length:
On FF you get the whole 180 degree angle of view, which if you’ve never used a full frame fish-eye lens on a full frame camera is pretty impressive. I’ve never used an APS-C camera, so I can’t comment on what the FOV would be like using the A16/2.8. I would probably guess it’s a waste of money getting this fish-eye for a cropped sensor?
Build:
This is an elite “A” Series lens like the A*, so the build quality is excellent. The A16/2.8 is metal and built just like any K/M Series lens I own.
Usage/Handling:
The A16/2.8 is a nicely sized well balanced lens that is easy to handle. It’s not too small where you have to worry about getting your fingers in a shot, or too big to be a pain to carry in your camera bag as an extra lens for specialty shooting. I have no issues manually focusing the A16/2.8 or using the aperture ring. The A16/2.8 also has an excellent distance scale for hyper focal focus and size wise is a great lens to travel with. You don't need AF for a FF fish-eye in my books, as the DOF is so huge. Example if you shoot at f/11 and move the infinity mark to f/11 on the distance scale, the DOF is from about 0.45 meters/1.3 feet to infinity.
The A16/2.8 has a small metal built in hood and it does a decent job of reducing flare if you are shooting towards the sun, however since the FOV is so wide you will still get flare in some shots.
I also find when there is a lot of sky in your shot, I have to use some exposure compensation on my film cameras and add a stop. Otherwise the shot will be under exposed.
Filters are always an issue with fish-eye lenses, the A16/2.8 has the best possible solution and features three built-in ones. You have Y2 (Yellow), Skylight and O2 (Orange), as well as a rear mount gel filter holder. The A16/2.8 and the older K17/4 are the only K-Mount fish-eye lenses that I know of that have built-in filters. This is a huge plus for me being a film shooter and the most convenient, as you don't need to bother with gel filters or a dedicated filter set like with some older third-party fish-eyes.
The A16/2.8 uses the HD-100 hard or the S70-70 soft lens case. The metal slip on lens cap is a bit of a pain and easily falls off in your camera bag exposing the front element.  My solution was to get a Schneider Optics (the makers of B+W filters) 65mm soft plastic push-on lens cap. It fits nice and tight, so I will use it in place of the metal cap when I’m out shooting with the A16/2.8. Another negative about the metal cap is you can chip off paint on the built-in lens hood if you mount it crookedly. This was a dumb idea and a soft plastic push-on lens cap should have been standard.
Speed:
F/2.8 is pretty fast for a fish-eye lens and a huge improvement over the older K17/4, which was rather slow and limited in low lighting.
The A16/2.8 vs my other similar FL fish-eye primes:
I also own the K17/4 and the A16/2.8 is one stop faster with similar optics and build. However the K17/4 is too small and I’m frequently getting my fingers in shots, as well as its built-in lens hood is so tiny it’s basically useless. As a result I would give the edge to the A16/2.8. I rated the K17/4 a 9 and would give the A16/2.8 a perfect 10 as a fish-eye lens.
Summary:
The A16/2.8 is about as good as it's going to get for a full frame K-Mount fish-eye prime lens. It’s fast, has excellent optics & handling, has built-in filters, a solid metal build, an aperture ring with an “A“ setting and best of all it’s a Pentax! Overall a perfect fish-eye lens!
Price:
I bought my A16/2.8 on eBay and it's in excellent condition. It has a few marks on the built-in hood from the metal cap, but otherwise it’s excellent +.
Sample shots taken with the A16/2.8. Photos are medium resolution scans from original negatives or slides. Shot one & two were taken in Vancouver, Canada and shot three taken in Queens, NY.
Camera: P50 Film: Kodak Portra 400 ISO: 400
Camera: *ist Film: Ilford Delta 400 ISO: 400
Camera: ME Film: Fuji Provia 100F ISO: 100
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New Member Registered: December, 2010 Location: St. Paul, MN Posts: 7
1 user found this helpful
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Forum Member Registered: April, 2009 Location: Ha Noi Posts: 70
1 user found this helpful
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Administrator Registered: September, 2006 Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Posts: 4,408 | | Review Date: January 11, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $600.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Excellent optics, balances well on a K10D, build quality | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 8
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I have mainly used this lens on a dSLR for shooting indoors in available light when I needed a super wide angle. The fisheye effect isn't too pronounced on a DSLR and easily corrected in software. Build quality is excellent, and so is the optical quality.
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New Member Registered: December, 2008 Location: Scotland Posts: 21
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 4, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Sharp, excellent on a dSLR, outstanding on film camera. | | Cons: | Loose lens cap design | |
An excellent lens with great build quality. Definite fish-eye qualities on a film SLR, but a great wide angle on a dSLR. Fairly fast at 2.8 with great results at 5.6/8
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Veteran Member Registered: November, 2006 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 593 | | Review Date: January 8, 2007 | Recommended | Price: $650.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Superb build quality and very goood image quality | | Cons: | None realy | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 9
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The build quality of this lens is excellent and image quality is very good.
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Originally posted by Rock_Opera 
(rộng quá bị dính ngón tay) 
