21977 DA 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 ED AL (IF) DC WR Lens for Pentax Digital SLR cameras,Black

A very, very useful lens. Surprisingly, 1/2" shorter than my already-compact Pentax 16-45 f/4! This one, with that 200mm-equiv zoom, is much more versatile. Came from 'Another Deal Site', fulfilled by Amazon... mentioning this because, unlike some older posts below, this lens came in a proper box, with Ricoh warranty cards, an instruction guide AND the lens hood. Exactly as shown on the Amazon page. If I were going on a trip, I would take this lens. Or as the best choice for a walkaround-town snapshot lens. Amazon calls it 'discontinued', which is confusing, since, as of today June 9 2015, it is also for sale on the Ricoh lens web page, though at $500. It is well-made, works perfectly and immediately with my K-5 IIs, and my older K-01. Does it take good pictures? Sure. Tell you a secret though... ANY modern lens takes great pictures... re sharpness and color rendition. What we are really buying is ergonomics... how easy it is to use the lens for a hurried once-in-a-lifetime snapshot. And that gets you over to the camera... and Pentax DSLRs... all of them... have excellent autofocus if there is any light at all in the scene, any contrasting area you can use as a focus point. This 18-135 WR also lets you focus manually with a lens ring, without having to turn off autofocus. Best of both worlds. Lastly, the WR means Weather Resistant. No, you can't take it surfing, or in a pool. But it is rainproof, and dustproof, and sandproof... particularly if you are using it on a recent Pentax weather-resistant DSLR, like the K-3s, K-5s, K-30, K-50, etc, etc. So few photos are taken in the rain... but you can!

This is the Swiss-Army Knife of Pentax lenses. When you can't bring the whole toolbox, this one you want. It can do almost anything well - or at least, well enough for the person who is only bringing along one camera body. It has the greatest zoom range of any weather-resistant lens by Pentax, so when don't want to miss a shot, but don't want to ruin your camera by changing WR lenses in the kinds of weather that necessitates them - this is the lens to have. It's not a "macro" lens, but with it on my old K-5 I have taken shots of a fly so clear I can see the hairs on its back. It's not a "super" zoom with 15x, but it IS a true WR lens, with seals where they make a difference. I have taken shots in the snow - as it came down. I have taken shots in the spray of water. It can take wide angle shots and then zoom in 7.5x and get a close-up. The "softness" in the corners is primarily at the longest end of the zoom range, so I use the normal-wide settings for landscapes, and that works perfectly. But if you're taking a people-picture, when you zoom in it is still very sharp in the center where the person's face will be - and so the "softness" in the corners is like a lovely bokeh treatment of a large aperture (expensive) lens. And if I'm using it instead of a 200mm lens to capture something far away, I'm going to crop out the corners anyway and keep the sharp center portion. The focus is reasonably quick and delightfully quiet. The build is quite solid, yet light. If you take photos at the beach, in the snow, in the damp, where the wind is kicking up dust and debris, water is dripping or children knocking over large tumblers of sugary beverage next to your camera gear - this is your lens, especially if you want to take landscapes, portraits, zooms and macros all with the same lens. There will be times you are very glad you brought this one along instead of a bag full of the expensive, Limited-use limited lenses to ruin in the weather.

Versatile focal range with sharp imaging—great for everyday shooting.

I bought this lens to use on my K-5 at Burning Man 2011. The Weather sealed combo served me well out there on the Playa. The range is extremely useful. I have a DA* 50-135, but really needed an all in one zoom because of the nature of Burning Man, and changing lenses is too risky and time consuming. Auto Focus is suburb even in extremely low light (with the help of the K-5's AF assist beam) and the Build Quality is rock solid. It really does have a good heft to it. It balances extremely well on my K-5 with Battery Grip. I can live with out the 2.8, and uber duber image quality...at least for what I was intending to use this lens for. The contrast is a bit lacking compared to the 50-135, but RAW files are kinda "flat" to begin with. The Distortion at 18mm is somewhat noticeable, but if you turn turn on lens correction in the camera it really is no problem. (at the cost of taking slightly longer to write to the memory card). The Lens Correction option in Lightroom or Photoshop would work very well, also. The Bokeh is nice, and I have gotten some pleasing portraits with this lens.

With Pentax, there are not a whole lot of choices in production for a modern Pentax lens, especially for an all-around zoom. This 18-135mm is pretty much your best bet. Luckily, it performs decently well for its price. I have this lens and the 35mm F2.4 for really nice, leight-weight travel combination. The focal length of 18-135mm covers about 27 to 200mm 35mm film equivalent range, which is pretty good and covers many types of photos (landscape, portraits, group shots, and mild telephoto for wildlife). Plus the 1:4x magnification ratio means that you can also do product photography and close up of flowers. This lens has a little above average distortion at wide angle, so architecture photos are not going to be straight unless you post-process the image. The modern Pentax cameras can fix distortion in-camera too, but its slow. Vignetting, dark shaded corners, is about average..nothing I would concern myself with. Contrast is great a couple stops down from wide open. The color reponse of the lens is fantastic and typical of good Pentax glass. Its not too warm like vintage glass but great and vibrant nonetheless. Sharpness. This is the subject everyone looks at. Pentax seemed to attempt keeping the longer focal length as sharp as possible. I feel they succeeded for the most part, at all focal length the lens performs very good a couple stops down from wide open. The CON is that the corners are very soft and blurry. I took a test shot of my carpet, pointing the camera straight down (using a bubble leveler to make sure), and at all focal lengths the corners are soft. Now, before one jumps ship, it is recommended that one read the Ken Rockwell article on the importance of sharpness. Most of the time your subjects are not at the borders of the picture, leaving the rest defocused anyway with bokeh, so most of the time when I compose my shots they are still very pleasing to my eye. And thats what matters. Only when you do critical work like close-up photography does a sharp flat plane work in your benefit. For your money you get a lot of lens. Its lightweight because it doesnt need added elements for optical stabilization. It's weather sealed meaning it can handle mild rain with no problem (I wouldn't say torrential rain however). A feathered petal-hood is included and can be inverted backwards on the lens for storage. The focus ring is dampaned and quick-shift, meaning you can focus even with the autofocus switch on. Its located behind the zoom ring and has "soft" stops. The 62mm filter diameter is not so large that you must get expensive filters. The autofocus speed is not up to par to Canon's USM but it is about the same league as Pentax's SDM. Accuracy depends on what camera you have, but mine did well on my k-x. No back or front bias focus on my sample. All in all, if you are looking for a one lens do-it-all, then this might be your best bet. If the longer focal length is not of concern, the older Sigma 17-70mm might tickle your fancy, plus its cheaper. Compared to the Pentax 18-55mm kit lens, though, it is way better and a good upgade. As with Pentax, if you want the best, you might want to look at their prime lenses.

OK if you need one lens to use, for a variety of tasks, this may well be the perfect lens. With the K-1 and K1 II you get a 50% increase in effective focal length, making this more of a 24-200mm lens, which is very good for almost any situation. The sharpness is excellent, and speed of focus is superb. I added some pictures that show the color and quality of the coating - excellent optics. The flowers is at 18mm, almost a macro, very little crop. The candle is at ISO 3200 with 48mm and very little crop as well. It's relatively light weight and balances well with the K-3II. The quality is solid and it feels like it will hold up for the long run. I used it for some flower shots this past weekend and was not disappointed. While not a macro, it is able to focus down to about a foot. Telephoto is great. Recommended!

Another stunner Lens from Pentax. A higher range to DA, DA and DA-AL II, Brilliant economical alternative to DA* series with almost identical features and a ditto same build. Very quick and stealthy auto-focus. Although sharpness is an issue in high aperture and very less noticeable lens aberration, it gets a perfect ten for zoom. A 11/10 FOR weather sealed extremely brilliant and reliable build, being sound-dust-moisture-snow-water-acceptable level heat proof. Highly suitable for landscape and family/wedding pictures too. what it lacks in sharpness is compensated for quality. Overall, worth the value, highly recommended over its other counterparts.

Outstanding lens. Very sharp. Has about the same macro capability as the Pentax 18-55mm lens, or at least there is not enough difference to mention. But it doesn't have an extreme macro capability. You can get close enough to be useful. (Roughly 1 foot away at 135 mm.) It has a good working length range. It can be used from scenics to portraits. Wide angle for scenics. Telephoto for good compression in your portraits. Plus there is enough telephoto power for some decent wildlife and nature shots, or some sports shots. (For the nature shots and the sports shots, you are going to find yourself wanting a longer lens. But this lens will cover the basics.) The only downside to this lens, and most zoom lenses, are that zoom lenses are not fast lenses. If you need a really fast lens or a lens with really limited depth of field, then you need a Prime lens. But this is a great lens to simply put on your Pentax DSLR camera for normal usage. It is fast enough and has focal length which is long enough to be useful.