Pentax-K 28/3.5: Learning to Love 28mm

Night talk at People’s Park, Chinatown. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7IV + K&F K-E adaptor.

If 40mm is the focal length I have irrational bias for, then 28mm would be the focal length I had irrational aversion to for all these years I have been shooting with interchangeable lens cameras. I said ‘irrational’, because I really had no good reason why I was so against a focal length that’s beloved by the best photojournalists and cinematographers across time. I think a random person online said that 28mm is the focal length for many phone cameras and baby photographer me somehow internalised that, and like a sullen teenager desperate to be cool and special, I developed that irrational hatred of 28mm.

At Kusu Island. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C with K&F K-E adaptor.

Despite my immature and embarrassing feeling about something as innocent as a focal length, I ended up getting my hands on the Pentax-K 28/3.5, a nifty little lens that had pretty good reputation online for being sharp enough to satisfy landscape photographers’ demands, while also being pretty gosh-darn affordable and lightweight (especially when compared to its legendary sibling, the SMC Pentax 28/2, “the Hollywood”).

At Sisters Island Marine Park. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

This lens isn’t like some of my other vintage or manual lenses that make me gasp in surprised delight when I view the photos they take—there’s no fancy swirly bokeh like the Helios 44-2; there’s no ‘oomph’ rendering like my beloved and prized Voigtländer Nokton 40/1.2; it’s not so sharp that it gives my eyeballs paper cut when I pixel-peep; its build and handling are not some kind of tactile delight that spark joy like your Voigtländer or Leica or even modern Sony GM lenses. It just works, simply, and humbly.

At Kusu Island. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

I mostly use this lens in ‘F8 and be there mode’. It took me a while to get used to 28mm—I don’t think I’m entirely used to it yet. To give you some context, 99% of my work is probably between 35mm and 150mm and when I play with wide angle, I usually just go crazy and go ULTRA wide angle below 24mm (such as 21mm or 16mm). It’s just a little bit wider than ‘normal’, not so wide that things start to look outlandishly out of whack, but still wide enough to distort perspective and proportion to keep me on my toes.

The first few times I took it out, I thought “yeah, these are just phone photos, they’re nothing special”. If you think “well, Intan, that’s clearly your problem as the photographer”, you’re absolutely right. It is my problem if I don’t know how to use a focal length and how to compose with it, and it’s neither here nor there if many phone cameras use the equivalent focal length.

At a small dog run at Mayfair Park, which is just off Rifle Range Nature Park and the Rail Corridor. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

The more I use the lens (which, apart from my 17-28/2.8 Tamron that I only use as my ‘just-in-case’ wide angle zoom stashed in my events bag, is my only 28mm lens), the more I understand why this focal length is so favoured by storytellers: photojournalists, street photographers, and cinematographers.

Crossing near Bukit Timah Plaza, Beauty World. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

If I have to guess why 28mm is so good at storytelling: the just-slightly-wide-ness makes pictures taken at this focal length feel like the pictorial representation of third-person narrative when it’s being used for environmental portraits. It’s still a plausible representation of the world as we are familiar with, but it feels like how our mind compresses and stitches together memories of people and places. The fact that many phone cameras have the equivalent focal length of 28mm probably also reinforces it as how many of us see the world and our memories.

Dad laughing. There’s strong vignetting wide open at F3.5 which adds to portraits. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

The 28mm is kinda mundane, I guess. It’s not zany and funky like ultra wide-angle lenses. It’s not introspective or flattering like telephoto lenses. It doesn’t have catchy labels like ‘nifty-fifty’ or ‘normal’ like the focal lengths that correspond closest to our human angle of view. And especially with the Pentax-K 28/3.5, I can’t hide behind shallow DOF or tilt/shift or swirly bokehs to reveal the truth that if I want to take good photos, I have to go back to the basics: tell good stories out of the boringness and sameness of everyday life.

Please why can’t people throw their rubbish into the rubbish bin, or better yet, recycle these plastic bottles! Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

Parked Anywheel Bicycle near Toh Guan Road. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

A Calathea Luthea leaf droops over a wall at Toh Tuck Road. This isn’t a native plant even though it’s incredibly popular in Singapore and is planted at local parks and by the roads. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

Apparently an oriental garden lizard hugging a railing at Toh Guan Road, near the boundary of Toh Tuck Woods. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

The Pentax-K 28/3.5 also happens to be a great match with my Helios 44-2 because my copy of the latter is in K-mount as well. They’re both small lenses—practically the same size as the K&F K-E adaptor I use the lenses with on my Sony A7C or A7IV.

Beware falling coconuts! Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

Not the best sun stars, and terrible flare resistance, but I have been wanting to get this backlit portrait of these rocks for some time! Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

The laundry pole was being yanked in as I took this shot and I thought the shadows were nice. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

Baskets stacked in front of a coffeehouse. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

At Beauty World MRT Station. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

Someone thought this bird nest fern is a trash can… Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.

Shield Leaf Bug chilling on a sempo ayer leaf. This was taken at minimum focus distance wide open at F 3.5. Pentax-K 28/3.5 + Sony A7C.