The Pentax HD DA 35mm F2.8 Macro Limited ($499.95) is the lone macro entry in the company's line of compact Limited lenses. It's one of the rare standard-angle macro lenses that supports 1:1 magnification, and its sharpness does not disappoint. It's priced on the high side compared with similar macro lenses for other camera systems, and it doesn't feature a weather-sealed design to match Pentax's camera lineup. But it earns Editors' Choice marks due to its compact size, sturdy build, and exceptional optical performance. If you want more distance between camera and subject, consider a telephoto macro like the Pentax D FA 100mm F2.8 Macro WR. But if you're an APS-C Pentax shooter in want of macro with a standard-angle field of view, the HD DA 35mm F2.8 Macro Limited is an excellent choice.

Design

The 35mm Macro($446.95 at Amazon) measures just 1.8 by 2.5 inches (HD), uses relatively small 49mm front filters, features a built-in telescoping lens hood, and weighs 7.5 ounces. It's heavy for its size due to a metal barrel and the glass that's contained within. It comes in a black or silver finish, each with a red accent ring.

The metal barrel features a knurled manual focus ring. You can always override autofocus using the ring, without having to switch modes on your camera, thanks to the Pentax Quick Shift system. The ring itself is comfortable to turn, but does offer enough resistance to stay in place when not being manipulated.

The barrel extends when focused close, nearly doubling in length at the minimum 5.5-inch (0.14-meter) distance. The ring turns close to 180 degrees to move from infinity to 5.5 inches, which can result in some slower autofocus times. There's no focus limiter function, unfortunately. There are hard stops at each end of the range.

The focus scale is marked in feet, meters, and the magnification ratio, and there is a corresponding depth of field scale. It's a nice touch, but a purely ornamental one. Depth of field is so shallow, even at the marked f/11 and f/22 apertures, that zone focus is impractical. At the closest distance the lens captures images at 1:1, projecting them onto the image sensor at life-size.

Image Quality

I used Imatest to check the sharpness of the lens when paired with the K-3($1,085.95 at Adorama) DSLR. As you'd expect from a macro, there's no noticeable distortion, and the sharpness rating exceeds 1,800 lines per picture height at every tested aperture. At f/2.8 it scores 1,922 lines, although there is some softness toward the edges of the frame. Stopping down to f/4 improves performance all around, bringing the average score up to 2,160 lines, and it scores 2,300 lines at f/5.6 and 2,350 lines at f/8.

Corners are slightly dark, about -1.3EV dimmer than the center at f/2.8, but that's just outside of our -1EV tolerance range. At narrower apertures the difference is about -0.5EV—not noticeable in the real world. If you shoot in JPG format you can set the camera to automatically compensate for the corner dimness, so it becomes a nonissue. If you work in Raw format and use Lightroom, you can either add some brightness to the corner manually using the Vignette tool, or take advantage of the built-in lens profile to correct the issue with a single click.

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The HD DA 35mm is intended for use with APS-C cameras. But it actually pairs pretty well with the full-frame K-1 . At f/2.8 the corners are a little dim, and the vignette extends into the frame. But most of the image is sharp, with just the periphery appearing soft and murky. At worst you'll need to apply a slight crop to cut out the extreme corners and apply some illumination correction in Lightroom to get a useable image at f/2.8.

It does better at narrower apertures. Only the extreme corners are dark, and the edges sharpen to acceptable levels at f/4. The best performance is from f/5.6 through f/11, where the lens is sharp from edge to edge and scores better than 3,100 lines on the K-1's 36MP image sensor. Even though it's not designed for use with a full-frame camera, the HD DA 35mm is a lens that I wouldn't hesitate to use with the K-1 in full-frame mode, with the understanding that you might have to apply a slight drop to photos after capture in order to compensate for the darkness at the extreme corners of the frame.

Conclusions

The Pentax HD DA 35mm F2.8 Macro Limited is more expensive than a regular standard-angle lens. If you're not a close-focus fanatic you can opt for the $150 Pentax SMC DA 35mm F2.4 AL. But for those who like to capture the small details of the world, there's no substitute for close focus. It's a solid choice as an all-around lens, capturing images with a versatile standard-angle field of view on an APS-C camera, and locking on at very close distance to capture tiny details. If you prefer a bit more working distance with a macro, consider the Pentax D FA Macro 100mm F2.8 WR as an alternative—it's only a little more expensive, and is very sharp in its own right, with a weather-sealed design. But if you're a standard-angle Pentax shooter and don't mind a short working distance for macro work, this lens is superb, and earns our Editors' Choice award.

Artboard Created with Sketch. Pentax HD DA 35mm F2.8 Macro Limited 4.5 Editors' Choice See It $446.95 at Amazon MSRP $499.95 Pros Sharp.

1:1 magnification.

Compact.

Excellent build quality.

Built-in hood. View More Cons No weather sealing.

Omits focus limiter function. The Bottom Line The Pentax HD DA 35mm F2.8 Macro Limited lens is as well-built as it is sharp, housing crisp optics in a compact, premium all-metal barrel.

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