Should Pentax bring back aperture rings and mechanical focus?
Best of Pentax Forums Newsletter December 10, 2025
Should Pentax bring back aperture rings and mechanical focus?
There’s no question that current lenses are marvels of modern manufacturing, fast and sharp and often quite light. What were once rare and expensive optics, such as Extra-low Dispersion and aspherical elements, are now widely available.
And yet some things have been lost. The aperture ring. Mechanical manual focus has been replaced by electric focus-by-wire systems that won’t focus on older cameras, while being at best mushy and frustratingly vague on new cameras. Quite a contrast to Pentax’s Super Takumar and A* lenses, those marvels of old school optical manufacturing with silky smooth focusing.
So what say you? Should Pentax bring back the aperture ring? Mechanical manual focusing? Or should all that be dropped by the wayside in favor of PLM lenses? Vote in this week’s poll, and let us know why you do what you do in the comments!
Elsewhere in this week’s newsletter, Veteran Member pquirk asks what’s your IMGP0001.JPG-the very first picture you ever took with a digital Pentax camera? New Member Asherax reviews the SMC/S-M-C/Super-/Auto-/Takumar 55mm F1.8; and Junior Member Paultee performs surgery on a SMC Pentax-FA 77mm F1.8 Limited
If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, please take a moment to join the more than 1,500 Pentaxians who have subscribed to our free curated compendium of the hundreds of great images and post shared each week in our Pentax community. Please let us know your thoughts here in the comments and on our Pentax Forums, and have a perfect Pentaxian week!
Threads of the Week:
December 2, 2025 • Pentax DSLR Discussion • 43 replies • 1257 views
pquirk said — What is the very first picture you ever took with a digital Pentax camera? You know, the one that is named IMGP0001.JPG. Mine was on August 16, 2010 with my Pentax K-x, using the 18-55mm kit lens at 55mm. Read more »
December 6, 2025 • Pentax SLR Lens Discussion • 10 replies • 678 views
Paultee said — I had the good fortune of coming across a mess of a broken MIJ 77mm 1.8 Limited—loose everything; broken focus in M and AF, non-functional aperture, and an expectation that modern lenses are more chips and plastic than gears and metal. Read more »
December 4, 2025 • General Talk • 23 replies • 345 views
Tonytee said — Greetings all, Been away for a while. On November 10, 2025 I suffered what is known as a: “Massive Heart Attack” and was rushed by ambulance to Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland, Oregon. They ran a line up into my right arm and into my heart, removing a large clot. Then they had to install two stints in order to keep the artery open. Five days in the hospital and then five more days in Rehab., and finally back home on the range. Been visited by Home Health Care checking my vitals and so far, thank goodness, everything seems to be exactly where it should be. Read more »
Pentaxian User Reviews
Pentax Lenses
SMC/S-M-C/Super-/Auto-/Takumar 55mm F1.8
Reviewed by New Member Asherax
Review Date: December 4, 2025 Recommended | Rating: 10
Pros: Everything Cons: Nothing
Sharpness: 10 Aberrations: 9 Bokeh: 10 Handling: 10 Value: 10 Camera Used: E-M1
What can I say? This is probably my favourite lens, and I have had a few over the years. I started with a Spotmatic II back in the mid 70’s, and was fortunate enough to have a 50mm F1.4 (8 bladed) attached when I bought it.... yes it was a great combo, BUT... to my eye, the 55 is just better. I know that is a personal preference, but I came to that conclusion after many years of using the 50, and recently acquiring the 55mm for M43. There has to be the obvious caveat here, that M43 is not full frame and digital is not film, but In recent years I have been shooting almost exclusively Micro Four Thirds, and the 55mm gives me a 110mm equivalent, which has always been my preferred Portrait focal length. I bought the Sigma 56mm F1.4 specifically because of it, and of course that is an exceptional lens, BUT it is often TOO sharp... and when taking Portraits, that can be unflattering, and also detract from the character of the person or image you are shooting.
To this end I bought this lens, for peanuts, in superb condition and BOY does it deliver! I don’t tend to post my portraiture, as that is between me and the subject I am shooting, but let me say this lens is literally a sable paint brush, where as the Sigma is like an electron Microscope, and I mean that as a compliment. They both have their uses and strengths, but If I am shooting images in which I need to capture the character of the person, the Tak wins every time.
What a lens!
Yes, shooting wide open, in colour, even with Olympus colour science you cannot escape the vintage Chroma and Loca, but that can actually work in your favour also if you know how to use it.
I love this lens... what more is there to say that a picture will not emphasize.
Wide Open, Chroma and all...
Third-Party Pentax Lenses
Sigma EX DC 30mm F1.4
Reviewed by New Member F5000Man
Review Date: December 5, 2025 Recommended | Price: $112.60 | Rating: 9
Pros: Sharp. Great 45mm f1.4 ‘Standard’ with APS-C cameras. Cons: None
Sharpness: 9 Aberrations: 8 Bokeh: 8 Handling: 9 Value: 9 Camera Used: Pentax K-3 New Or Used: Used Autofocus: 8
After contemplating buying a Sigma EX DC 30mm F1.4 for some months, I finally took the plunge when I recently spotted one on EBay, listed by a seller in Japan, at the absolute bargain price of $112.59/£88.58 inclusive of shipping. It shipped extremely quickly from Japan to England with FedEx and proved to be in way better condition than the Japanese seller’s very conservative ‘80% Good Condition’ rating.
The lens is very sharp from f2.8, which is perfectly adequate for my purposes; there being very few circumstance where I’d imagine myself using a f1.4 aperture, the main benefit of a f1.4 maximum aperture for me being mainly the bright viewfinder image. Colour rendition is good (to my eyes) with this lens, and I’m particularly impressed with it’s performance in producing black and white images.
I can definitely see this lens regularly complimenting my Pentax DA 40mm f2.8 as a ‘walkabout’ and informal portrait lens with my K-3. It as a 45mm ‘Standard’, the 40mm DA as a 60mm ‘Long Standard’. I can equally see it getting similar use with my K-5lls. Although I’ve yet to try it, I understand from at least one other reviewer that this lens works well as a 30mm ‘wideangle’ with the full-frame K-1 when set to 1x1 crop setting. 90% of the time I use my K-1 on this setting, so it may well serve as a useful ‘wideangle’ addition to my K-1’s lens armoury
Several reviewers are critical of the lens’ autofocus performance. I generally always have my K-3 set to ‘spot’ autofocus and can’t say I’ve had any major focusing issues.
I definitely think I bought myself a real bargain!
Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Oreston 50mm F1.8
Review Date: December 4, 2025 Recommended | Price: $30.00 | Rating: 10
Pros: Dreamy bokeh, MFD, price Cons: Stop down button
Sharpness: 8 Aberrations: 7 Bokeh: 10 Handling: 8 Value: 10 Camera Used: Sony A7 IV
My copy is Pentacon branded zebra version. The lens has dreamy bokeh wide open with a lot of spherical aberrations and glow effect as a result. Considering MFD = 0.33m you can get nice close-up shots. The only one flaw - stop down button, but for wide open shots this is not a big deal.
Comment of the Week:
Pentaxian Dartmoor Dave on Would you buy a K-1 EVF? The Best of Pentax Forums Dec 3 Poll: Bring back the aperture ring-Heck, yes! I’d say “Hell, yes!” but that would probably be breaking a rule. Even though what I actually want to say is “F. . .I hope next week’s poll is: “Should Pentax bring back the aperture ring?” Yes, they should.
Editor’s Note: Not a DJ, but we take requests! Here’s this week’s poll:
Should Pentax bring back the aperture ring?
The Best of Pentax Forums December 10 Poll
There’s no question that current lenses are marvels of modern manufacturing, fast and sharp and often quite light. What were once rare and expensive optics, such as Extra-low Dispersion and aspherical elements, are now widely available.
And yet some things have been lost.
A great example is the HD Pentax DA 55-300mm F4.5–6.3 ED PLM WR RE, which is an absolute beast on the Pentax K-3 III Colour and Monochrome. Autofocus is lightning fast; the lens is as sharp as a tack; it’s weather sealed and relatively inexpensive. It’s always in my bag.
And yet…
There’s no aperture ring; it will only work on cameras less than a decade old. The electric focus-by-wire system means the lens won’t focus on cameras older than the Pentax K100D, even manually. And even when manual focusing works it is at best mushy and frustratingly vague.
The things that have been lost are especially painful for Pentaxians who generally have at least a few Super Takumar and A* lenses in their bags, those marvels of old school optical manufacturing with silky smooth focusing.
So what say you? Should Pentax bring back the aperture ring? Mechanical manual focusing? Or should all that be dropped by the wayside in favor of PLM lenses? Vote in this week’s poll, and let us know why you do what you do in the comments!
This poll closes Dec. 16
And here's this week's PentaxForums YouTube video:
And here are the results of last week’s poll:
Weekly Photo Challenges
Project 52-13-50: Happy Holidays, 12/7 - 12/14 (Sunday): Here comes Happy Holidays, that magical stretch where twinkly lights go up, cookies mysteriously disappear, and the run-up to Christmas is—let’s be honest—always better than the day itself. Capture the sparkle, the warmth, the chaos, the quiet moments, or whatever “holiday spirit” means in your corner of the world. Big scenes or tiny details, anything festive goes. And most of all, have fun!
And here’s the entry from Site Supporter ramseybuckeye: Sunday night we went to the Wilmington Christmas Parade. I decide to go with a full frame camera (Canon R6II) and 24-105 zoom, I know the street the parade goes on is not very wide and I wanted to be able to go pretty wide and a little longer if needed. I struggled with deciding not to use my Pentax 20-40, but I thought I’ve got the full frame, why not try it for this. It didn’t work out too bad and it was a fun parade. 1/60, F4.5, ISO 10000 (plus noise reduction in Lightroom)
A Walk Down Memory Lane
The thread with the second most posts in the Welcomes and Introduction forum with 107 replies and 5,896 views is My name isn’t Vanya… Loyal Site Supporter UncleVanya kicked it off April 3, 2025: My name isn’t Vanya… What’s your name and Why did you pick your handle here? I go by UncleVanya here. I’m not new. But I just wanted to welcome everyone new and old. I really love this place. I use a lot of different gear, not just the gear that this is focused on; but This is by far my happiest place for camera discussions.
PentaxForum Front page stories December 3-9:
Pentax K-1, K-1 II, KF, and K-70 Firmware Updates Released
Improvements to Type 2 astrotracer performance
By PF Staff in Firmware Updates on Dec 8, 2025
On December 5th, Ricoh released firmware update version 2.51 for the Pentax K-1 and K-1 II, version 1.33 for the Pentax KF, and version 1.16 for the Pentax K-70.