PENTAX-07 Mount Shield Lens

My apologies for not posting in over a month.  It's been rather busy for me and I cold not post some of my work yet due to publishing schedules with clients.  What I can finally do is post about the new Pentax body cap lens I was able to try out.

The new Pentax-07 Mount Shield Lens is simply a body cap with a lens that communicates data to the body.  Not much to the specs either.  It is a focal length of 11.5mm, which offers the same field of view as a 135 format lens of 63.5mm on the Pentax Q and Q10 or 53mm on the new Q7.  The aperture is fixed at f/9, so that means you can only shoot at f/9 and need to adjust other settings to get the desired exposure.

The build quality is not bad at all.  It's all plastic down to the mount, but it feels very solid and well made.  It feels like it weights about the same as a normal body cap, so I can say it's as light as it looks.

As for picture quality...  It's not great, but it's not bad either.  The lens I tested was a pre-production sample, but I'm told it's final build.  There is no focus ability on the lens.  The only way to get something in focus is to move the camera to position the lens within the focus range of the subject, which is about 0.3m to 2.0m.

Here is a sample shot on the closer side of that range.

As you can see, it's not too bad at all.  The center is sharp enough for a nice A4 or smaller print, but the edges of the frame are as soft as they come.  It's somewhat like a lensbaby effect.

Here is a sample at the long end of the focus range.

The center is not nearly as sharp as when you are near the minimum focus, but it's still not too bad if you plan plan for small prints or web size images.  Again, the edges have zero detail.

My overall conclusion is while it's not a lens for capturing extreme detail in low light, it is fun to use in casual situations and does do a great job as a body cap with the added bonus of being able to take a photo.  Considering it should be priced very low, it's not a bad addition to your bag and might actually allow you to capture some fun and creative photographs.  After all, you could waste the money on a disappointing restaurant.  Just buy the lens and use it to photograph the ramen you'll eat in place of that bad dinner out.