jcolwell
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I have the SMC Pentax 28/3.5, and it's as good as my Contax Carl Zeiss Distagon 28/2.8, but not as easy to focus, as it's not as fast. I mention this, as the SMCP 28/3.5 is one of the best Pentax 28's. You can read many people's opinions of all Pentax 28's (and other lenses) at
http://stans-photography.info/
Until a few years ago, you could read another set of Pentax lens opinions & reviews at Alex's BOA Gallery: http://home.att.net/~alnem/html/equipment_review.html, but it's offline, so I'll attach the section on 28mm and 30mm focal lengths, from the file that I downloaded in 1999.
/begin{quotation} ! BOA Gallery
28mm
Rare K28/2 is an excellent performer. Its resolution and uniformity of image quality in all over the frames are very impressive at f/8 or f/11. (Yoshihiko Takinami)
Keep away from M/A/F series 28mm lenses because of their "relatively" poor performance when comparing them to their f3.5 relatives. FA28/2.8 performs only marginally better than its predecessors.
Yoshihiko Takinami has indicated that the best 28mm from Pentax, in terms of its optical performance, is the old K28/3.5. The only two defects in K28/3.5 is its size and weight and some light fall-off towards the corners, which seems better than M28/3.5 or FA28/2.8AL in comparison, but it does exist.
M28/3.5 is also an excellent performer and is compact in size. Go for K28/3.5 when your concern is performance, and go for M28/3.5, or FA28/2.8AL, when your concern is size and weight besides performance. If you are concerned about distortion, go for the K28/3.5 or M. Distortion is under 0.5% for both. Otherwise, the M(or A)28/2.8 is quite nice in terms of weight and dimensions. The FA 2.8/28 is far better, though, but not 100% distortion-free either.
Note: FWIW, there were two versions of the M 28/2.8. The earlier one, with the silver ring on front, was said to be 'slightly' superior. The later version is the 'upgraded' Takumar Bayonet 2.8/28, which now features multicoating. Either one is not as sharp or as contrasty as M 50/1.7 or the M 135/3.5, or the 20-35/4 zoom.
28/3.5 shift lens features good sharpness (a bit less sharp than the K35/2.8), excellent flare control (unless the sun is at the edge of the image), and almost no distortion, although at full shift, there is some slight pincushion distortion barely discernable at the edge.
For additional information about tilt and shift lenses, you might want to take a look at this page.
30mm
K30/2.8 "is excellent optically; it has well-corrected aberrations, very few distortion, very high actual/visual resolution, good color rendition. K30/2.8 is far better than M28/2 [or] M28/2.8 Look here for more info. "[Yoshihiko Takinami]
/end{quotation} ! BOA Gallery
Cheers, Jim
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