edodo
Well-known
Hello, I have some questions about those smc takumar in screwmout m42. Has anyone test them against other prime lens? And are they worth investing in?
Meleica
Well-known
raid
Dad Photographer
I sometimes use a 85mm/1.8 SMC with an adapter on Canon FD bodies. The SMC lenses are very sharp.
Raid
Raid
Kim Coxon
Moderator
The SMC Taks from 24mm to 200mm are some of the best lenses made. The 85/1.8 that Raid talks about is very sought after, difficult to find and has a price to match. Most of the others are readily available and have been reasonably priced. They sre gradually increasing in price though as more people discover what a really good prime is capable of on a DSLR and they will fit most with an adapter.
Kim
Kim
edodo said:
raid
Dad Photographer
Kim Coxon said:
Kim,
Many years ago, I did not have a good medium telephoto lens for my small Canon FD system. I used as an el-cheapo alternative the SMC 85mm/1.8 lens. I was very surprised to get back very sharp images. I then added a Canon 85mm/1.2L lens. While I will not sell the SMC 85mm lens, I am considering selling a 17mm Pentax fisheye lens in K mount. Is the K moiunt version less in demand?
Raid
OldNick
Well-known
I have SMC Taks in 50, 55, and 200mm and have found all of them to be quite good.
Jim N.
Jim N.
Uncle Bill
Well-known
Takumar lenses are on the same plane as Leica glass. The 55 f 1.8/ f2 are some of my sharpest lenses and I use my screwmount Pentax gear mostly for black and white photography. On average they are reasonable save for the 85 f1.8. which is rare and silly expensive.
Bill
Bill
raid
Dad Photographer
I got lucky with the superb 85mm/1.8 lens. It is tack-sharp and it can be used on my Olympus Pen FT as a 135mm/1.8 (?) or similar focal length since the Pen FT is half-frame.
ampguy
Veteran
smaller market
smaller market
I think that since k-mount bodies as well as many dslrs with adapters can use m42 inexpensively, but not vice versa, there might just be more flexibility in m42 than k-mount lenses.
However, if you go to a K-mount of K1000 forum, you'd likely find someone interested.
smaller market
I think that since k-mount bodies as well as many dslrs with adapters can use m42 inexpensively, but not vice versa, there might just be more flexibility in m42 than k-mount lenses.
However, if you go to a K-mount of K1000 forum, you'd likely find someone interested.
raid amin said:
Dirk
Privatier
The SMC Takumars are quite special. The built quality is superb. Most of these lenses are 30, 35 years old and many look almost new. Optically I can say they have something special, something "organic" or natural to them. In that sense, they are superior to my Nikon, Canon or Konica glass, which seems comparatively clinical. For my money, they're a steal.
R
ray_g
Guest
edodo said:
They are great lenses. I especially like the 85/1.8, 50/1.4, and 35/3.5. Just watch out for yellowing (there is a cure but I have not tried it since I shoot mainly b/w with them).
You should also look at M42 CZJ lenses. I like the 20mm and 35mm Flektogons, the 50/1.8 Pancolar, and the 135mm Sonnar. The EBC Fujinons are good too.
As regards testing them against other lenses, popphoto (or was it modern photography?) tested the 50/1.4 very favorably. More recently, there have been many amateur tests on the net, mainly using these old lenses on Canon DSLR bodies. I don't know how reliable the testing was.
About whether they are worth investing in, I don't know. The prices have gone up with their use on DSLR's, and they likely will not go any higher.
Dougg
Seasoned Member
I use those lenses on the screw-mount Pentax bodies they were made for... and also have adaptors so they may be used on K-mount Pentaxes and the Olympus Pen F bodies. While the adaptations work, there is no auto-diaphragm stop-down, thus the lenses become "manual" or at best "pre-set" in diaphragm operation. Kind of a pain, in my view, though acceptable for tripod use. "Manual" in the sense of focus and aperture control too of course, as that was the state of the art at the time.
Seems to me the users of various non-Pentax dSLR cameras have to be pretty desperate for a fine prime lens to go this route.
Seems to me the users of various non-Pentax dSLR cameras have to be pretty desperate for a fine prime lens to go this route.
T
tedwhite
Guest
I have used Pentax Spotmatic bodies and Takumar lenses for several decades. The Spotmatics are built like tanks and seem to last forever. The lenses I have and think highly of are:
1. 28/3.5. In that focal length, unbeatable. As sharp at the edges as in the center.
2. 50/1.4. Very sharp, very fast, but with age prone to yellowing; easily reversible by a simple technique. Remove both caps, wrap in foil, shiny side inward. Leave rear of lens exposed. Place outside in sunlight, rear angled toward sun, and securely braced. Here in Arizona clearing the yellow usually takes about ten days. Don't, of course, leave it out in rain. PM me if you decide to do this and I'll provide more info.
3. 105/2.8. Probably the best bargain in a portrait lens. A bit longer than the coveted and horribly pricey 85mm, but very, very good.
4. 135/2.5. Again, in this medium telephoto focal length I don't think it can be beat.
All these lenses are screwmounts and, with the aid of an adapter, work quite nicely on my Pentax ist DS. Of course, with the 1.5 multiplier factor you gain with the long lenses and lose with the wide angles. Also they become presets, a small problem, really.
Regards,
Ted
1. 28/3.5. In that focal length, unbeatable. As sharp at the edges as in the center.
2. 50/1.4. Very sharp, very fast, but with age prone to yellowing; easily reversible by a simple technique. Remove both caps, wrap in foil, shiny side inward. Leave rear of lens exposed. Place outside in sunlight, rear angled toward sun, and securely braced. Here in Arizona clearing the yellow usually takes about ten days. Don't, of course, leave it out in rain. PM me if you decide to do this and I'll provide more info.
3. 105/2.8. Probably the best bargain in a portrait lens. A bit longer than the coveted and horribly pricey 85mm, but very, very good.
4. 135/2.5. Again, in this medium telephoto focal length I don't think it can be beat.
All these lenses are screwmounts and, with the aid of an adapter, work quite nicely on my Pentax ist DS. Of course, with the 1.5 multiplier factor you gain with the long lenses and lose with the wide angles. Also they become presets, a small problem, really.
Regards,
Ted
ampguy
Veteran
Hi Dougg
Hi Dougg
I think you're correct, especially for pros or amateurs that can afford the good new lens that mate to the dslrs -- the lens are there, but for us budget minded folks, the m42's I have for my film SLR would cost 10x or more to re-buy to get the autofocus/auto-everything convenience, so however small the niche is of using adapters, I think there will be one, especially for the crossover film/digital user base.
Out of sheer luck I guess, my Chinon CM-5 body meters fine with the M42 to K adapter on an 18mm 3.4 Sigma, and 35mm 1.9 Vivitar, and my adapter sets the M42 base flush to the body so I get infinity focus.
They are extremely dark stopped down, so I need to focus them wide open, then close down to meter and shoot. I think a tele with this setup would definitely require a tripod setup.
Hi Dougg
I think you're correct, especially for pros or amateurs that can afford the good new lens that mate to the dslrs -- the lens are there, but for us budget minded folks, the m42's I have for my film SLR would cost 10x or more to re-buy to get the autofocus/auto-everything convenience, so however small the niche is of using adapters, I think there will be one, especially for the crossover film/digital user base.
Out of sheer luck I guess, my Chinon CM-5 body meters fine with the M42 to K adapter on an 18mm 3.4 Sigma, and 35mm 1.9 Vivitar, and my adapter sets the M42 base flush to the body so I get infinity focus.
They are extremely dark stopped down, so I need to focus them wide open, then close down to meter and shoot. I think a tele with this setup would definitely require a tripod setup.
Dougg said:
Dougg
Seasoned Member
I'd actually be surprised if your Chinon didn't meter properly (stopped down of course) with the adapted lenses, and the correct M42-K adaptor does lie flush with the bayonet mount flange, though I hear there are some cheap ones that don't, and of course that's a problem!ampguy said:
On your latter comment, of course that's the normal experience in using the famous Spotmatic, though made easier with the meter switch also stopping the lens down when activated. Using a Spotmatic, I didn't necessarily meter for each exposure, just check around as with a hand-held meter and stick with the same camera settings until the light was clearly different. I'd usually switch off the meter, opening the lens back up and check my composition and focus before taking the shot... with auto diaphragm operation.
Where I think the adapted lenses are most inconvenient is that except for shots taken wide-open (or nearly so) you have to manually stop the lens down (with the Auto/Manual switch) for every shot.
I've heard stories of dSLR users deliberately bending the Takumar lens's diaphragm actuation pin to jam it in, I guess to make it stopped down always, or snipping the pin off entirely, or wanting an adaptor that includes an internal shoulder that presses the pin when the lens is mounted. I don't recall the reasoning there, but I don't like to hear of good lenses mangled.
telenous
Well-known
edodo said:
Over a period of few months I have somehow amassed four 50mm fast Pentax primes of varying vintage. They are not expensive as they retail for about 40 GBP but I wouldn't be surprised if you managed to find them much, much cheaper, provided you are patient. The older Takumars (the so-called Super Takumars that went with the classic Spotmatic) have outstanding construction quality, on a par with Leica's best in the 60's. Like others have already implied, handling an early Takumar is a very satisfying photographic experience. Word has it that Pentax was actually losing money with every fast prime it was producing back then in a kind of bend backward management strategy that made a good name for the company (I believe I 've read this somewhere in Mike Johnson's Luminous Landscape pages). Later reincarnations of the Takumar have very high construction quality standards as well.
From the use I 've made of them, it appears to me that the later versions perform better, perhaps because the Pentax multicoating was refined and perfected. I have found the very early Takumar in particular to suffer more from both flare and ghost lights from strong light sources compared to its successor, the SMC Takumar that came with Spotmatic F (let alone the later SMC Pentax primes for K-mount). I guess one can say that construction quality is better with the older lenses while performance improves with the newer versions.
ampguy
Veteran
Hi Dougg
Hi Dougg
With the Chinon, there is no Auto/Manual switch, so I just use the lenses on the M setting, and turn the aperture ring to meter and shoot, and turn it wide open to focus. The tricky part is to stop back down with aperture ring without screwing up the focus. I often go back and forth wondering if I've bumped the focus ring while stopping down.
Yeah, I don't know what the pin bending with Takumar's is for on dslrs. Changing lenses to K-mounts is a pain, I have to use a special wrench that came with the adapter so I mainly keep the adapter on the body, and alternate between the 18 and 35 on the Chinon.
Hi Dougg
With the Chinon, there is no Auto/Manual switch, so I just use the lenses on the M setting, and turn the aperture ring to meter and shoot, and turn it wide open to focus. The tricky part is to stop back down with aperture ring without screwing up the focus. I often go back and forth wondering if I've bumped the focus ring while stopping down.
Yeah, I don't know what the pin bending with Takumar's is for on dslrs. Changing lenses to K-mounts is a pain, I have to use a special wrench that came with the adapter so I mainly keep the adapter on the body, and alternate between the 18 and 35 on the Chinon.
Dougg said:
Kat
Well-known
Do the Super Multicoated ones work with Fujica ST 705s? The SMCs don't, right?
Kim Coxon
Moderator
SMC = Super MultiCoated 
Early ones were labeled Super Multi Coated and had metal focus ring. Later ones were labelled SMC and had a rubber focus ring but they are effectively the same lens. They will work on the 705 but once on you won't be able to remove them! If you have no intention of getting an SPF or ES series, you can remove the full aperture pin and then they will work on all the M42 cameras including the SPF and ES series but the full aperture metering will be disabled.
Kim
Early ones were labeled Super Multi Coated and had metal focus ring. Later ones were labelled SMC and had a rubber focus ring but they are effectively the same lens. They will work on the 705 but once on you won't be able to remove them! If you have no intention of getting an SPF or ES series, you can remove the full aperture pin and then they will work on all the M42 cameras including the SPF and ES series but the full aperture metering will be disabled.Kim
Kat said:
Buze
Established
I have about 60 or so M42 lens; including a bunch of Takumars in pretty much all the focale from 24mm to 200mm. Sone of them are excellent indeed, but there also are plenty of non-pentax M42 that are superior too. The Carls Zeiss Jena are exceptional, some Chinon are also very good, and the well known russians also had quite a few exceptional lens!
There are also "inferior" brands that produced "superior" lens on that mount, like Soligor and Vivitar, some of them are superior even to Pentax glass...
There are also "inferior" brands that produced "superior" lens on that mount, like Soligor and Vivitar, some of them are superior even to Pentax glass...