Amid the banality of daily life, some things stick out. A beautiful sunset, sunshine on your face after a storm, seeing an old friend, or in this case an old lens I have recently neglected. I recently spent nearly a month with my SMC Pentax 1:2.5 200mm lens attached to my full frame K1 mii taking pictures before and after work during my commute and occasionally on a drive in the mountains. I previously have used this lens on my crop sensor K5 and found it to be a good performer. But had not had it on my K1 much at all. The first few photos of this post are from right after I got my K1 in 2023 and just threw a few lenses on the body to see how they would perform. I am planning to do some 200mm focal length comparisons in a more controlled setting soon but right now this is purely a post to discuss this lens, in my hands, just goofing around.

First, any discussion of this lens needs to start with the construction, it is a large lens, it is a heavy lens, it does not require the battery grip to balance on the camera, but does benefit from it. Like all the K series lenses it is all metal, except for the rubber on the barrel for the generously sized focusing ring. The front element is quite large as befits a f2.5 telephoto lens, the lens cap is 77mm and the glass fills all that space so filters would be expensive. It is NOT a lightweight lens and I would not hike with it. In a bag/backpack it would be manageable, but over the shoulder with just the camera strap it gets to be a little awkward, I ended up carrying the lens by the barrel with the camera hanging off of the lens when I was wandring the sidewalks. For those of us who love a solid feel to a lens, that is a tactile delight, it is a beautiful thing!

Sorry about quick cell phone shots but sadly I just can't be bothered just for a size comparison when this is just a hobby.

That front element is... unsmall.  

The lens does come with a built in hood, that I don't use much, but which actually works quite well.  

Optically it is good to great depending on how you use it. At f2.5 it can be useable depending on the subject, though a bit soft, if you nail the focus just right though your subjects will pop into focus with amazing bokeh. The CA can be quite noticeable but can mostly be fixed in post, (See the fountain pictures later in the post) and it gets better stopping down, like most lenses of this era. I plan to put it up against my 70-210 and 150-450 on a tripod along with a few old 70-200 f4 zooms in a more controlled environment in the next little bit. I have been taking care of a back injury and have not been getting in the chair to sit in front of the computer much but I am improving daily so that should happen soon.

I find the 200mm focal length a good one for picking out details and compressing perspective and it was really fun to challenge my natural eye to find compositions at longer focal lengths. I plan to go back to my wide angle roots soon. The temptation is to always shoot at f2.5, which can be a lot of fun with the dreamy bokeh especially when you get closer to something. I shot most of these photos as f2.5 just to challenge the lens optically and draw out it's bad habits. After finishing this review, I would likely set the lens to f5.6 and just leave it there as that would improve the DOF and make the focusing a little easier. I have a fairly large number of photos with this post, as you will be able to tell, I had a lot of fun taking these photos.

I have a fair number of photos, I will comment sporadically just to highlight a specific feature of the photo or something interesting as to why I took the photo.

This is a part of the hospital most of you should never see, hopefully, right outside the ER entrance they store the backboards from the various ambulance services to pick up when they are there next. These were fairly clean, it used to be they would just chuck them out there without wiping them off and it was fairly disgusting.

The camera/lens combo does seem to front focus a little but, but stopping down a little helps, wide open the DOF can be frightfully thin and your postural sway can move your subject out of focus in a hurry.  

f2.5 gives you separation even at medium distances.  

Even in pre-dawn gloom ISO 1600 is plenty when the lens is wide open and you have reasonably steady hands.   

I think the infinity stop needs to be adjusted but at just short of infinity in this setting, it was plenty sharp.

  As you likely have seen, I do love my reflections!  

The aperture is 8 bladed, and you can see that here in the specular highlight, I believe this was f4.5 and it does make the bokeh a little more busy in this shot.

This is a favorite spot for me to sit while waiting for the bus and gives me some interesting compositions when I have a camera along. You can see some of the CA, especially the green fringing, rearing it's ugly head. I could easily removed it in post, which I have done in a few other photos, but I wanted you to see the bad habits to help you decide should you want one of your own.  

Architectural details are a strong suit of this lens. It really encourages you to look up as well as around.  

I had forgotten how much I like this photo. My 135mm f2.5 would have been a better focal length here, but the 200 did allow me to be less obtrusive and pulled the background closer which I like.  

This was at or near closest focus, while looking through the lens with the naked eye it seemed that there was a little swirlyness to the bokeh that did not show up in the photo. I may need to play with that at some point.  

Here I needed all 200mm to reach across the street while staying incognito. I like the shadows and light, this was stopped down to f5.6 or 8 and the sharpness is very good when you look at it at full resolution. 

One of the big advantages of this lens for me is it allows me to feel comfortable taking photos of people because I can hide some distance away and still fill the frame with the subject. This is a big plus for me! 

I have looked at this scene everyday, but never thought to take a photo of it as the composition was not right with a shorter focal length. It is no great photo, but still a fun shot for me to remember that spot. 

Again, the reach of this focal length affords some unique opportunities. These abstract reflections in rippling water would have been much harder with a different lens. 

I think this is the purest demonstration of the optical pop of this lens, the way it transitions from in focus to out of focus along with the colors. It is strong in this type of shot.  

I find this focal length to be either too short or too long for more landscape oriented photos. But this one looking south from my house turned out OK. I do think my lens may need to have infinity focus adjusted a smidge though, It seems to not get quite there.  

This pretty lady didn't mind me taking her picture. The fine hair shows off the textures the lens can capture.  

I would not shoot a photo like this at f2.5 normally, but showing off the DOF makes this a little more worth playing with it.  

I find this lens is capable of being carried around though not small per se. but long enough in focal length to use in my distance to subject comfort zone. This may be a new niche for me to play in. I am really not comfortable taking candid photos of people in general, this lens may work for that role for me.  

It really does shine in this role, picking out details from buildings.   

Not at closest focus, but wide open, you can see some green CA and purple at times as well. The next photo is as close as I could get to the same composition but with focus further away.  

These next two photos are the same photo the first with no correction of chromatic abberation and the second with it removed as best I can. Though it is annoying if you want to take things straight out of the camera and post them (where is the fun in that though?) it is a matter of moments and you can remove the problem.  

The color rendering is really quite good, I shoot everything on daylight WB in camera, and I am routinely pleased with the neutrality and colors it gives me.   

So... long winded conclusion:

Is this a worthwhile lens to own and use? Yes. It can give you really good subject isolation both close up at minimum focus distances, and at medium distances when shot wide open.

It is pin sharp wide open? No. Is it good enough unless you are printing really large prints? Yes.

Is it easily portable? Depends on you and what camera you attach it to. On my Pentax K1 which has amazing ergos it balances OK, and if I carry it by the lens barrel/focusing ring it balances reasonably well walking and when focusing it feels a little heavy in the hand turning the ring but I think that helps it to be steady. I do not have a mirrorless to mount it to but I would think that the lens adaptor would add length and maybe throw the overall balance off.

Is it for everyone? Heck no, you have to be a little retro weird to shoot a manual everything lens like this nowdays. BUT if you like the character this brings it can be a worthwhile piece of kit.

Hope you enjoyed, please leave comments!

Lloyd