Marry in haste who ...

The DA18-135 is a much discussed lens made by Pentax. On the one hand there are some reviews that evaluate the lens very poor, in particular the resolution or sharpness at the edges of the telephoto range. Notorious is the test of Photo Zone. By contrast, the focus is often praised in the center. If one looks after the other hand testimonials from owners of DA18-135 eg. In forums such as DFN or Pentaxians.de, one finds also many satisfied users.

I myself am also ambivalent, but I kind of like this lens. In a review is written here of large differences in quality of different copies of DA18-135. This is also consistent with my own experience. My first copy of the kit with the K5 was visually a disaster, very badly decentered and also dimmed not to get really sharp. The lens was exchanged after 2 attempts to repair the service of Pentax. The second copy was really better, but I still was not satisfied. Then I bought one copy, and up to what one would expect from the lens well. Visually, no revelation, but practical and somehow "sympathetic". As for the issue of quality fluctuations, this seems to me to be a Pentax-typical problem also with other manufacturers to read again and again to problems and variations. Thus, it is not better, but perhaps more tolerable ("Shared pain ...").

Why do I want the DA 18-135 not to miss? Where does my "sympathy"? Is it because not only about image quality in assessing an objective?
- Practicable focal length range for a travel zoom, this compact yet
- "WR", ie sealed against dust and rain
- Very fast, silent auto focus (so far the only Pentax lens with DC Auto Focus)
- Very good sharpness in the center, toward the edge of 18mm to 70mm approx OK with larger telephoto but sloping (for "my" practice however, this is usually of little relevance). At 135mm significantly weaker than at medium focal length range and wide-angle.
- A really nice bokeh
- Vignetting, distortion and CAs are undeniable, particularly at maximum aperture. But all good to correct under and via software such as. Lightroom.

Conclusion: I like it. But who buys a DA18-135, it should immediately test well and seriously. This is true but actually for each lens.