Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

SMC Pentax-A / FA 645 35mm f/3.5

Pentax · Pentax 645 · 1986

Also known as: SMC Pentax-A 645 35mm f/3.5 · SMC Pentax-FA 645 35mm f/3.5 AL [IF] · smc PENTAX-A 645 35mm F3.5 · smc PENTAX-FA645 35mmF3.5AL[IF] · Pentax 645 35mm f/3.5 · Pentax 645 35/3.5 · Pentax-A 645 35mm · Pentax FA 645 35mm AL IF · ペンタックス 645 35mm F3.5 · smc PENTAX-A 645 35mmF3.5

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
SMC Pentax-A 645 35mm f/3.5 (manual focus, 1986) Pentax 645 1986 — —
SMC Pentax-FA 645 35mm f/3.5 AL [IF] (autofocus, recomputed, 2001) · New computation: 10 elements in 7 groups with aspherical elements (AL) and internal focusing (IF), against the A's 9 in 8 (Ricoh Imaging; PentaxForums) Pentax 645 2001–2015 — —
  1. Unlike the 45mm and 75mm, the two 35s are different optics. The A is 9 elements in 8 groups (PentaxForums; camera-wiki; Japanese Wikipedia); the FA AL [IF] is 10 in 7 with aspherical elements and internal focusing (Ricoh Imaging). The family fields carry the A lens; the FA figures are in its variant row: 82 mm filter, 88 × 90 mm, 560 g, f/32.
  2. Launch year of the FA: Japanese Wikipedia says 2001, PentaxForums 'early 2000s', 16-9.net 1999. The A's 1986 comes from PentaxForums and camera-wiki; a PentaxForums reviewer says he bought his with the camera in 1986.
  3. No launch price in yen or dollars was found for either version.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Filter size sorts them in one glance: 77 mm with a round screw-in hood is the A, 82 mm with a petal bayonet hood is the FA AL [IF]
  • The A stops down to f/22, the FA to f/32; the A's front extends when focusing, the FA's does not
  • AL[IF] engraved after the focal length only on the FA; the A reads smc PENTAX-A 645 1:3.5 35mm

SMC Pentax-A 645 35mm f/3.5 (manual focus, 1986):

  • Engraved smc PENTAX-A 645 1:3.5 35mm; metal barrel; no AF/MF switch and no screwdrive coupler in the mount
  • 77 mm filter thread and a large, shallow round screw-in RH-RB hood; S80-120 case (PentaxForums)
  • 470 g and 80 × 67 mm; minimum aperture f/22 (PentaxForums; camera-wiki, citing Popular Photography, June 1984)

SMC Pentax-FA 645 35mm f/3.5 AL [IF] (autofocus, recomputed, 2001):

  • Engraved smc PENTAX-FA 645 1:3.5 35mm AL[IF]; screwdrive AF coupler; push-pull AF/MF focusing ring; the front does not extend when focusing (PentaxForums)
  • 82 mm filter thread with a petal-shaped bayonet PH-RBB82 hood and S120-150 case supplied (Ricoh Imaging)
  • 560 g and 88 × 90 mm, bigger and heavier than the A; minimum aperture f/32 (Ricoh Imaging)
  • Product code 26910 (PentaxForums)

Specifications

Construction
9 elements / 8 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5–f/22
Diaphragm blades
8
Min. focus
0.3 m
Dimensions
80 × 67 mm
Weight
470 g
Filter
77 mm
Years manufactured
1986–2015
Country
Japan
Coating
SMC (Super Multi Coating) on both versions

What reviewers say

History

Two lenses share this name and only one of them is an update of the other. The SMC Pentax-A 645 35mm f/3.5 arrived in 1986, two years after the camera, as the widest prime of the manual-focus line: 9 elements in 8 groups, f/3.5 to f/22, 0.3 m closest focus at 0.25×, eight blades, a 77 mm filter thread, 80 × 67 mm and 470 g, with a round screw-in RH-RB hood that owners describe as decorative (PentaxForums lens database; camera-wiki’s table, citing Popular Photography, June 1984; Japanese Wikipedia). One owner who uses it on a view camera reports floating elements for close-range correction; no maker document consulted confirms that.

The autofocus replacement was a new computation. Ricoh Imaging’s spec page for the smc PENTAX-FA645 35mmF3.5AL[IF] gives 7群10枚, ten elements in seven groups with aspherical surfaces and internal focusing, f/3.5 to f/32, eight blades, the same 0.3 m and 0.25×, but an 82 mm filter thread, 88 × 90 mm and 560 g, with a petal-shaped PH-RBB82 bayonet hood. Japanese Wikipedia dates it 2001, the year of the 645NII; 16-9.net says 1999 and PentaxForums says early 2000s. PentaxForums records its replacement in 2015 by the HD PENTAX-D FA 645 35mm F3.5 AL[IF]. The two 35s therefore differ in glass, filter size, minimum aperture, weight and focusing mechanism, and the page’s family figures belong to the A lens.

The reviews are unusually detailed because the same tester (writing on PentaxForums and at 16-9.net) shot both on a 47-megapixel body with a shift adapter and reported by zone. His finding: the A is excellent in the centre from f/5.6 to f/11 and matches the FA there, but its outer zones are soft at wide apertures and never reach the FA’s level; the FA is the better-corrected lens, with a smooth rather than rippled field, usable performance below f/4, smoother bokeh and better sunstars, but more chromatic aberration in the outer circle, a bulbous front that catches veiling flare, an internal reflection the nine-element A does not have, and a manual focus he calls herky-jerky. The wider PentaxForums crowd rates the A 9.17 over 19 reviews and the FA 9.00 over 8; 16-9.net’s separate review of the FA calls it the Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 of medium format and puts its f/8 and f/11 corner resolution well above the Hasselblad 40mm IF FLE and the Mamiya AF 35mm. The one recurring warning on the A is a moustache distortion that one architectural photographer found unusable for interiors even after correction.

Buying: fungus is reported on many A copies now, some repaired well and some not, so ask for a torch test; the A’s focus ring can develop a wobble from a loose internal screw, which is easy to fix because the barrel opens simply; the FA’s AF may need fine-tuning on a digital body; and neither version should be judged wide open, since both are lenses for f/8 to f/11. Whether to pay for the FA depends on whether the outer image circle matters, which it does on film and on shifted digital and does not on a 645Z. No launch price in yen or dollars was found for either version.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the SMC Pentax-A / FA 645 35mm f/3.5
Nelson-Atkins Museum on Rollei Infrared with a 720 nm filter; the uploader tags the lens 'SMC Pentax-A 645 35mm 1:2.8', a slip for the f/3.5 (Debbie Long) — Debbie Long, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a SMC Pentax-A / FA 645 35mm f/3.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $400 across 30 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-19 (middle half $380–$490). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 32 more listings

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-09-19. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: SMC Pentax-A 645 150mm f/3.5 · SMC Pentax-A / FA 645 45mm f/2.8 · SMC Pentax-A / FA 645 75mm f/2.8

Sources (8)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.