Name: Pentax SMCP-DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5(IF) Auto Focus Fisheye Zoom Lens
Brand: Pentax
SKU: PX1017AFD
Price: 446.95 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 4.6 (15 reviews)

Pentax SMCP-DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5(IF) Auto Focus Fisheye Zoom Lens

Pentax 10-17mm

Pentax

Pentax SMCP-DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5 (IF) Lens

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Pentax 10-17mm 

Top Rated Gear: Pentax SMCP-DA 10-17mm f/3.5-4.5(IF) Auto Focus Fisheye Zoom Lens Color: Black

I would heartily recommend this lens, especially for the hobbyist. Great for use on DSLR Pentax body. I am slowly rebuilding my lens suite to compare to or equal what I used to have. I have always considered a Fisheye Lens as being essential. Great for interesting landscspes. Also great for the home sellor who wants full room shots.

Very nice lens!

Initially, from pictures I had seen in magazines I thought this was a cheap plastic lens. To my surprise it is very well built / a solid feeling (aluminum?) body, a very hi quality rubber coating around the zoom dial.  I simply love the lens cap, which is also a hi quality metal which slips on and off with just the right resistance.  And using this lens is just a blast!!!

Loving this lens!

Nice compact wide angle to fisheye lens.  Great for candid shots in tight crowded situations, parties, street photography etc.  Also enables one to be creative in landscape photos.  Interesting night photography effects.

Always in my bag

Although this lens can be used as a wide-angle lens at the longer photo lengths, it is really for creating artistic effects as a fisheye lens.  It can do things only a fish-eye lens can do, such as take a picture of an entire room from just a few feet away.  Objects in the middle of the frame will look normal but the top, bottom and edges will curve, creating interesting effects.  

I did have some significant purple fringing in pictures of tree limbs but was able to remove some of it in photoshop (but not completely).

It is a fun lens and on a recent trip there were several instances where I pulled out the lens for the wide angle of view or a special effect of the fish eye.

The lens is lightweight, compact and seems solid.

Nice Specialty Lens

I orginally wanted a wide angle and rented this lens since the wide angle was unavailable. The lens is a great fun lens and you can do a lot of creative shots. Great for night photography if you have a subject that has a lot of curvature. I am glad I chose this lens over the wide angle since it is able to be less of a fish eye on the 17mm lens.

Great, fun lens!

I've used this lens for closeups and some landscapes and does such a great job. This is the first time I have tried this type of lens and I love it!

Well Built~Great Lens

Truly fish eye lens. Beware of your feet as it cover 180*. It's fun to play & give different perspectives. Never leave my bag.

Fun lens

I had this lens last year and sold it, at the time it felt TOO wide.  Well, I then purchased a sigma 10-20mm, and as nice as that was as well, i couldn't get around the rectilinear distortion.  I absolutely love the fisheye, it has great color and contrast, at 17mm there is barely any fisheye effect, and when you go wide the 10mm is amazing.  if you put the horizon and any vertical lines through the center it greatly minimizes the fisheye distortion.  Overall a wonderful lens for adding some dramatic photos to your collection.

Sold it once, never again!

Great lens still getting used to it but in all good lens

Here fishy fishy

This is a great lens, especially for getting creative shots of often-photographed things, or if a great change of pace to "normal" lenses.

I listed the Distortion as a con simply to warn people looking for a "normal" superwide that this isn't it. You'll get lots of distortion, but that's the point of a fisheye.  It's awesome getting a full 180 degree view.  Lots of CA with this lens, but nothing that can't be corrected in post processing.

The thing has the most solid build of all the lenses I currently have. I love it, it hasn't left the camera since I got it nearly a month ago.

Great distortion to spark creativity

It is what it is...a fisheye. The zoom range does give you some flexibility, and images do look good. But oddly I found that when I worked with the distorted images they made me feel seasick. I'm sure this is not a widespread phenomenon, but there ya go. This isn't an indictment of this lens, but for me, fisheye distortion is not something that I can deal with on a regular basis.

Also, the "look" seem dated to me. Very 80's. I suppose that'll come back in fashion but it isn't for me. Even at 17mm there is noticeable distortion. So again, if you're into it, you'll love the lens. It is well build and is pretty crisp across the board. Just isn't my cup of tea.

good for what it is

For the money a great lens 180* and fisheye 100* and fisheye nearly gone. Not seen a better lens with the angle of view.

good

This is just a fun lens!  If you have the change to spare, it's one to add.  It makes the signiture fisheye look, but can also zoom, for added versitility and the ability to decrease the effect.  At f3.5-4.5 it's pretty decent for low light too!