Pentaxians... Any out there?

Godfrey said:
Ah, activity on the Pentaxian thread!

I was a Pentaxian about a decade and a half ago. You're motivating me to pull out my SMC-Pentax-L 43mm f/1.9 Special, fit it to either the M4-2 or CL digital, and go make some photos with it. That's the last piece of Pentax equipment I own... and the 43/1.9 lens is my all-time favorite Pentax lens. 🙂

G
Click to expand...

That is a very cool lens. Would love to see some pictures from it.
 
Sure ... First, camera and lens:
30814443717_8f25b486aa_b.jpg

Leica CL + Pentax-L 43mm​


Then a few photos:

Leica CL + Pentax-L 43mm f/1.9 Limited
ISO 6400 @ f/1.9 @ 1/60


Leica CL + Pentax-L 43mm f/1.9 Ltd
ISO 6400 @ f/2.8 @ 1/60


Glimpses As Daylight Fades #3 - Santa Clara 2021
Leica CL + Pentax-L 43mm f/1.9 Ltd
ISO 800 @ f/5.6 @ 1/60 (estimated)​



It's a wonderful lens, took me a while to find one at a reasonable price. Many are sold 'as new' in the original packaging for pretty high prices; I managed to find this one as just the lens and caps for about half the average price. 🙂

G
 
Godfrey, these are beautiful. You have motivated me to dig out my 43/1.9 in K mount. I should use it more.


Godfrey said:
Sure ... First, camera and lens:
30814443717_8f25b486aa_b.jpg

Leica CL + Pentax-L 43mm​


Then a few photos:

Leica CL + Pentax-L 43mm f/1.9 Limited
ISO 6400 @ f/1.9 @ 1/60


Leica CL + Pentax-L 43mm f/1.9 Ltd
ISO 6400 @ f/2.8 @ 1/60


Glimpses As Daylight Fades #3 - Santa Clara 2021
Leica CL + Pentax-L 43mm f/1.9 Ltd
ISO 800 @ f/5.6 @ 1/60 (estimated)​



It's a wonderful lens, took me a while to find one at a reasonable price. Many are sold 'as new' in the original packaging for pretty high prices; I managed to find this one as just the lens and caps for about half the average price. 🙂

G
Click to expand...
 
IMG_6177.JPG - Click image for larger version Name: IMG_6177.JPG Views: 0 Size: 260.3 KB ID: 4763541
Original Pentax and an adapted Xenon 50/2. Came to me with wrinkled curtains which caused hangups; much better after new curtains and a CLA =).
 
nickthetasmaniac said:
Lovely 🙂

Who did you get to replace the curtains? I’ve currently got a tech in Australia doing the curtains on my Asahi Pentax S.
Click to expand...

Thanks! It's my go-to SLR these days, especially since I've also now acquired a 58/2 Takumar to compliment it.

I did the curtain replacement myself - I enjoy working on the pre-Spotmatic Pentax cameras, but this was my first curtain replacement on one. I did try to make fresh curtains from scratch at first, using the originals as templates and reusing the AP's curtain bars, but I wasn't satisfied with the result.

I have a few S/H-series cameras in parts condition. The S1/H1 has curtains that are practically identical in pattern, with only the curtain rollers being different. The S2/H2 (not the S2 Super) are probably exactly identical, but I don't have one on hand to say for sure. In any case, I took the curtains from an H1 that was already missing many other parts.

Being that the curtain rollers in the H1 are different to the AP, I then carefully transferred the H1 curtains to the curtain rollers in the AP.

Two points to note:
  • The AP uses the curtain bar of the opening curtain to trigger the flash - thus, ~5mm of bar from each end is sanded to bare brass to accommodate this. The later cameras use a gear to trigger the flash.
  • The rubberized side of the curtain is oriented opposite as well - the original curtains in the AP had the rubberized side facing the film, where the H1 has it facing the lens. Minor things that don't impact shooting, but perhaps important if one is interested in a camera that is exactly as it was originally issued.
Honestly, the only real challenging part was getting the curtain, clutch, and wind gears back into the correct orientations. Unfortunately, the camera jammed in the middle of a winding cycle while I was initially testing it before the curtain swap; thus, I was unable to note the correct starting positions of the gears during disassembly. There is no service guide (that I know of) for the original Pentax cameras, so one must make inferences from the guides available for the later cameras to get everything into the proper position. Very logical once you figure it out, but a bit of trial and error to get there.

Probably more than you wanted to know, but it's fun to share anyways.
 
Blind_spark said:
Thanks! It's my go-to SLR these days, especially since I've also now acquired a 58/2 Takumar to compliment it.

I did the curtain replacement myself - I enjoy working on the pre-Spotmatic Pentax cameras, but this was my first curtain replacement on one. I did try to make fresh curtains from scratch at first, using the originals as templates and reusing the AP's curtain bars, but I wasn't satisfied with the result.

I have a few S/H-series cameras in parts condition. The S1/H1 has curtains that are practically identical in pattern, with only the curtain rollers being different. The S2/H2 (not the S2 Super) are probably exactly identical, but I don't have one on hand to say for sure. In any case, I took the curtains from an H1 that was already missing many other parts.

Being that the curtain rollers in the H1 are different to the AP, I then carefully transferred the H1 curtains to the curtain rollers in the AP.

Two points to note:
  • The AP uses the curtain bar of the opening curtain to trigger the flash - thus, ~5mm of bar from each end is sanded to bare brass to accommodate this. The later cameras use a gear to trigger the flash.
  • The rubberized side of the curtain is oriented opposite as well - the original curtains in the AP had the rubberized side facing the film, where the H1 has it facing the lens. Minor things that don't impact shooting, but perhaps important if one is interested in a camera that is exactly as it was originally issued.
Honestly, the only real challenging part was getting the curtain, clutch, and wind gears back into the correct orientations. Unfortunately, the camera jammed in the middle of a winding cycle while I was initially testing it before the curtain swap; thus, I was unable to note the correct starting positions of the gears during disassembly. There is no service guide (that I know of) for the original Pentax cameras, so one must make inferences from the guides available for the later cameras to get everything into the proper position. Very logical once you figure it out, but a bit of trial and error to get there.

Probably more than you wanted to know, but it's fun to share anyways.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the detail, very interesting!

Id also like to see some samples from the 58/f2. A Takumar very rarely spotted in the wild!
 
Southern Highlands | Tasmania

Test roll from my newly restored Asahi Pentax S (and a sneaky cameo from my M2). The AP-S still has a bit of shutter capping, so it'll have to go back for a fine tune. But gees it's fun to shoot 🙂

Kentmere Pan 400 in ID-11


Asahi Pentax S and Takumar 55/f2.2


Leica M2 and Voigtlander 50/f1.5
 
nickthetasmaniac said:
Southern Highlands | Tasmania

Test roll from my newly restored Asahi Pentax S (and a sneaky cameo from my M2). The AP-S still has a bit of shutter capping, so it'll have to go back for a fine tune. But gees it's fun to shoot 🙂

Kentmere Pan 400 in ID-11

{snip}
Asahi Pentax S and Takumar 55/f2.2

{snip}
Leica M2 and Voigtlander 50/f1.5
Click to expand...

Interesting how similar the rendering from these two lenses looks. 🙂

G
 
Godfrey said:
Interesting how similar the rendering from these two lenses looks. 🙂

G
Click to expand...

True, but then this was shot at f16, on black and white film, with no sun in the frame, and scanned on a lowly V550. Point being, I wouldn’t expect much visible difference under these conditions from two fairly standard Double Gauss designs!
 
I purchased a macro lens recently in K mount. However, the lens is a bit of an oddity and I am hoping someone can enlighten me. The lens is an SMC Pentax-M macro f4 50mm. Common enough lens, except this seems to be in three colors. The aperture ring is bronze, the middle body is titanium and the grip is black. What is it because I can't find a picture of another. They are all black. Anyone know?

Excuse the dust.

Thanks,
paul
 

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