dbarnes
Well-known
I was one of the guys rooting for Fuji to make a 120mm prime, in hopes of filling the niche of my trusty old 180mm Nikkor. That didn't happen, of course. Pentax once made a manual focus 120/2.8. Has anyone tried one on a Fuji body?
There were two Pentax 120mm variations, one in M42 screw mount, then the same extremely sharp f/2.8 lens in K bayonet mount. Oh, and probably not relevant to your use, there's a 120mm f/3.5 soft for the 6x7 cameras, plus the 120 f/4 Macro for P645. I have all four... 
dbarnes
Well-known
Thanks very much for the reply. Sounds like you're happy with sharpness of your 35mm-format 120s. Have you used them on Fuji bodies? What's your assessment at wide open?
BillBingham2
Registered User
While I know it's a 22.5mm effective jump, there are a lot of good 135mm 2.8s out there. The Leica early R mount ones on Evil Bay look reasonably priced (one cam or less). I don't think Leica ever made an R lens that was a dog.
Just a thought.
B2 (;->
Just a thought.
B2 (;->
nickthetasmaniac
Veteran
I was one of the guys rooting for Fuji to make a 120mm prime, in hopes of filling the niche of my trusty old 180mm Nikkor. That didn't happen, of course. Pentax once made a manual focus 120/2.8. Has anyone tried one on a Fuji body?
I haven't used them on Fuji unfortunately, but I've used the Pentax-M 100/f2.8, Super-Takumar 105/f2.8, Pentax-M 120/f2.8 and Pentax-K 135/f2.5* extensively on Pentax APS-C and Olympus Micro Four Thirds, and all are excellent.
The 135/f2.5 is the best optically, although also the biggest. The 100/f2.8 and 105/f2.8 are both gems and very compact. Build quality on the Takumar is outstanding. The 120/f2.8 is my least favourite of the four, but still very good.
*Note* There's several different versions of the Pentax 135/f2.5 that can be confusing...
- Super-Takumar 135/f2.5 (5 element) - Very good
- Super-Takumar 135/f2.5 (6 element) - Excellent
- SMC Pentax (K) 135f2.5 (6 element, same optical design as the S-T) - Excellent
- Takumar (Bayonet) 135/f2.5 (4 elements) - Mediocre.
Sorry, have not used them on a Fuji... all my Fujis are medium format film cameras. I last used the screw mount SMC Takumar 120mm in 1983 on a Pentax ES.Thanks very much for the reply. Sounds like you're happy with sharpness of your 35mm-format 120s. Have you used them on Fuji bodies? What's your assessment at wide open?
However here are a couple of shots from 2006 using the bayonet-mount 120 SMCP on a Pentax K2DMD at some mid-aperture.


dbarnes
Well-known
Thanks much to all who replied and especially to Doug for the samples.
I'll probably give the 120mm a try.
I'll probably give the 120mm a try.
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