PENTAX Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL Lens

Good performance with a few limitations; excellent value for the money

This was the kit lens packed with the first Pentax DSLR I bought new, the *istDL, some 13 years ago. I quickly sold the lens and bought a Pentax DA 16-45 for two reasons. The 18-55 suffers from barrel distortion at the edges of the image when at 18mm and wide apertures. And the 18-55 suffers from flare at wide apertures when the light source is close to the front of the lens. Today I shoot with a K-30 and a K-3 and fixed focal length, manual focus legacy glass exclusively. I bought a used 18-55 for those rare occasions when I need an ultra-wide angle indoor shot, made on a tripod with available light and at apertures of f8 or f11. The 18-55 does a fine job in such situations, and at less than 1/5 the cost of a dedicated 15mm DA lens (or of a legacy 21mm Takumar). Construction of the 18-55 is okay; when buying one try to get an earlier model with a metal bayonet. The front section of the lens seems to wobble a wee bit -- but so did the front section of the higher-dollar 16-45 DA, and there's no visible effect on focus accuracy nor on sharpness.Read full review

Verified purchase:  Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: robertscamera

Good aps-c lens.

More of a lens that you need if you want an affordable wide for your pentax. Other lenses are better and faster but this is a crop sensor lens, built to gove you 28-80mm regular length. Does exactly that. Handy footage scale on the large-ish manual focus ring. Probably the best 18-55mm user lens because of the metal mount, focus scale and anytime manual focus (no switch).Read full review

Verified purchase:  Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: robertscamera

Great lens!!

This lens if great for portrait shooting indoors or out. It's lightweight and the zoom range 18-55 mm is just right. The pictures are sharp and you can use auto or manual focus. It's not the fastest in f stop range, but it does the job very nicely. Overall, I would recommend it for non professional shooters.Read full review

Verified purchase:  Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: robertscamera

Pentax Lens for SLR cameras

I have been a fan of Pentax cameras and lens for over 40 years. This 18-55mm lens does not disappoint. I bought is used on eBay. It works perfectly on a Pentax K-3 I recently bought. I like this lens a lot for shooting everyday, mostly landscape photos. It does an excellent job in low light situation. It being an auto focus lens it always does its job, giving good clean focus pictures both near and far away. This is my main lens.Read full review

Verified purchase:  Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: ch6462

Good kit lens for the price.

I bought this lens to create a camera that I thought would be used by a person just starting out in photography. I have had all the version of this lens. In my opinion the DA 18-55mm II is just a little better in the area of sharpness than all other version of this lens, even the newer WR version. Pentax has produce a very good lens for their kit lens. The lens is pretty sharp when you stopped down to f/8. For the price in my opinion it would be hard to find a better kit lens as far as the built and optics in any brand of camera available.Read full review

Verified purchase:  Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: robertscamera

The best starter lens for digital

Very sharp and bright kit lens. A nice feature is the petal lens hood, which thoughtfully includes a little cut-out for your finger so you can use filters with the lens hood, too.

Great feature: You can adjust focus manually even in auto-focus mode. As kit lenses go, this is a full-featured and sharp starter lens.Read full review

Verified purchase:  Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: mphotoplus

Pentax DA 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 AL Lens

This product was shipped promptly and well packed, and works very well
with my K-30 camera. The used price was excellent, appears as new.

Verified purchase:  Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: nationalcameraexch

a good lens

I normally shoot in manual mode, this lens gives me what I needed, focusing is very easy, with my pentax K100d super that I usually hang around with, the results are good for my purposes. A worth lens to have.Read full review

Verified purchase:  Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: camera555japan

Amazing value

This is one of the best of the older kit lenses. To be able to get an AF zoom lens that takes sharp, contrasty photos at such a low price is great.

It's compact, lightweight......and has the quick shift capability. The construction is outstanding, esp. for a kit lens. Hold this lens, and then hold similar lenses from Canon or Nikon.....there is no comparison in the solidness of build. And the optical quality is very good as these lenses go.....takes photos that rival the more expensive ones.

Yes, the newer WR version is sharper yet, but you have to pay more. For those not concerned with weather sealing, this is one of the best bargains out there.Read full review

Verified purchase:  Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: robertscamera

Buying this lens used was the best decision I made! Image quality is about what you'd expect from a kit lens. I love that it's a metal mount!

Verified purchase:  Yes • Condition: pre-owned • Sold by: robertscamera