PENTAX DA* 50-135 F/2.8 ED [IF] SDM lens. My thoughts. 

One of my all time favorite Pentax lenses. Incredibly sharp. If the SDM motor had not been a point of failure, it would have been a serious contender for my best lens of all time award...

I have this lens for many years, I originally purchased it when I started photographing my first outdoor event, the Memorial day event at the correctional facility that I worked at. At the time Pentax DSLR's were the only camera that I owned and I used a two camera body set up one had a Sigma 17-50mm f 2.8 and the second body had the 50-135 f2.8. They worked well in tandem to cover all the focal lengths required to cover this event, today I use it for distant landscape photography and lighthouses where I have to photograph them along a beach on Cape Cod Massachusetts.

I am going to buy this lens. B&H have this used in great condition.

Thanks for the review! I have this lens for one year now and I love the quality mounted on my K5. Perfect for portrait work and bigger wildlife. Focus is somewhat slow, but it does not hunt.

A beautiful lens! Amazing detail! And also Kobie at it's best. Great overview!

Thanks for the review definitely on my list to grab. Any SDM issues or has that be resolved with newer builds?

I never had the 50-135, but of my three SDM lenses the autofocus motor failed on two of them: the DA* 300mm f4 and the DA* 16-50mm f2.8 (my DA* 60-250mm f4 is still working fine). I had the 300mm repaired, but I never bothered with the 16-50 as it wasn't a particularly sharp lens. The Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 was a better lens. I could get the 16-50 to focus using the camera's screw drive by hacking it (there are several videos on how to do this), and I might get round to doing that one day.

An excellent lens indeed. The looks of it makes people turn at me haha. Even more impressive with the hood on :) It's very sharp, the color captured in photos are wonderful too. I've used it for portraits, events and sports in heavy rain. This one and my Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 are my work horses.

CORRECTION....DA 16-50mm f2.8 was the wide angle to short telephoto pro compliment to the DA 50-135 f.2.8.

Very sharp and not too heavy , but if you buy one consider an extended warranty. Has a reputation for focus motor failure and sure enough, mine failed and I got it replaced. Pentaxforums has an article on reprogramming the lens to work on camera body screw driven focus if it fails after warranty.

With a focal range of 50 to 135mm this translates to roughly 75 to 200mm full frame. This lens is a perfect "church" lens for a wedding photographer. It performs very well wide open with the focus fall off that would make it great for no flash wedding shots in a church. The lens would be perfect for portraits. As an outdoor walk around lens, I'm not so sure. For a walk around lens the 18-135mm (28-200mm full frame) fits that bill perfectly.

Nice review! Finally someone has properly reviewed this lens, it is my favorite Pentax lens. I have the DA* 16-50mm 2.8 paired with it and it too is awesome, however it definitely can produce some nasty purple fringing in certain circumstances, other times in the same circumstances there isn't a problem and I put it down to the in-camera CA correction not working at times. If you like this 50-135mm 2.8, you will wet your pants over the DA* 200mm 2.8, that thing takes sharpness to another level, just make sure you get a good copy, some had CA issues according to some owner reviews on Pentax Forums. I don't own the DA*300mm 2.8 but people are wetting their pants over that one even more so than the 200mm. Check out the review of the DA* 200mm 2.8 on Ephotozine its off the chart sharp, well ahead of its era. Ephotozine have some good reviews there on Pentax lenses. Optical limits (formerly Photozone) has fudged the numbers for sure. Another stellar lens is the DA 12-24mm f4.

Yea, the other half of the pro series lenses back in the day; 70-200 full frame equivalent....the 16-55/f2.8 was the wide angle. I’ll get both of these to compliment my APS-C camera and shoot and kick ass!

I agree the 50-135 rendering is top draw. But I have to say the AF is slow in my opinion, I've said for a long time if Pentax could somehow put a PLM motor into the 50-135 it would be my perfect lens full stop.

I too have this lens, along with the DA*55, and enjoy them both. My only complaint is in low light situations, the focus is slow and not as accurate. I wanted to use it inside a church building, which has poor lighting (no flash allowed). I end up using either the DA35 or FA 50, both of which are macro lenses and focus fine inside the building.

My Super Takumar 55 f1.8 was recently lost in a move....😢

was my favorite lens paired with my k-50 but when i changed to kp, i felt it so unbalance, so i sold it, i think kp is not good with big lenses at lest if you got the battery grip, nice video~

The 50-135 DA* lens is my favorite lens. It's very light for a big lens. Nice colours and contrasts in your sample photos. I'm interested in your thoughts about the 60-250 DA* compared to this lens.

I own it for about a month and its a great lens. Razor sharp, pretty good af, great bokeh, 2.8. What else could I ask for? Combine it with a tamron 17-50 and I pretty much dont need anything else for my everyday use (also have a rokkinon 10mm and a pentax K 200mm in my bag for certain needs). Cross my fingers for that sdm though.

Kobie Looks like a great lens it would be better if it was wider like my 35-105 3.5 A Pentax len's I bought in 1985 it's only downside is manual focus and heavy it too shoots stunning pictures and has great bokeh for a old lens. Pentax should bring it back as a star lens as I feel it has a more useful focal length than 50mm to 135 mm as it is a range i do a lot of my photography in.

One of my favorite lenses. Poor mans 70-200 imitation

Great review. It sucks that it's SDM. SDM is such a deal breaker for me. Pentax seems to have these internal zoom lenses down as well. 70-200 full frame is also internal zoom and sharp all over the focal range.