[Len24]

Hello

When i bought Pentax k-500 camera last year i also bought Super Takumar 55mm f1.8

Everything worked great except the fact that i got the wrong m42 adapter at first (the one with the flange with which i couldnt focus to infinity).

So i bought another adapter and with it i could get infinity focus with the Super-Takumar.

Last week i acquired S-M-C Takumar 50mm f1.4 in mint condition. I wanted to get that lens before prices went into Zeiss planar territory.

The lens is really beautiful but the only thing that took me by surprise is that it only focuses to 5 meters on the distance scale.

It acts as if 5meters is the infinity mark and everything past that is unusable and out of focus.

any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[sergysergy]

If you can confirm that it is a problem with the lens and not the adapter you can try this:

Shooting with a Pentax K10D: Fixing the infinite focus on a Super Takumar 24mm ...

[Adam]

Hello

When i bought Pentax k-500 camera last year i also bought Super Takumar 55mm f1.8

Everything worked great except the fact that i got the wrong m42 adapter at first (the one with the flange with which i couldnt focus to infinity).

So i bought another adapter and with it i could get infinity focus with the Super-Takumar.

Last week i acquired S-M-C Takumar 50mm f1.4 in mint condition. I wanted to get that lens before prices went into Zeiss planar territory.

The lens is really beautiful but the only thing that took me by surprise is that it only focuses to 5 meters on the distance scale.

It acts as if 5meters is the infinity mark and everything past that is unusable and out of focus.

any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Is the way screwed all the way in? If you have an off-brand adapter, it's possible that it isn't machined perfectly and therefore might be giving you trouble. The best thing to do is use the genuine adapter. If your focus ring turns all the way to infinity, it's not likely to be a problem with the lens.

[Len24]

Thanks for the reply.

I would only take this lens apart as a last resort.

Unfortunately, right now i cannot test my super-tak with this adapter because it has been disassembled comepletely for regreasing and aperture blade cleaning.

As i remember when i focused with my super-tak mounted on this same adapter on the post office across the street the distance read beyond 10 meters (close to the start of infinity),

where focusing with this s-m-c 50mm roughly from the same position on the post office reads very close to 5meters. Everything beyond that, as i have mentioned earlier is out of focus.

As i recall, previous owner used this lens on canon 60d and sony a7s.

What is the cheapest adapter that works 100% on all m42 pentax lenses ?

---------- Post added 05-25-15 at 07:08 AM ----------

Is the way screwed all the way in? If you have an off-brand adapter, it's possible that it isn't machined perfectly and therefore might be giving you trouble. The best thing to do is use the genuine adapter. If your focus ring turns all the way to infinity, it's not likely to be a problem with the lens.

Thanks for the reply, Adam.

The lens is screwed all the way on the adapter. If i would to go any further i only might break something.

Dont know if the adapter is genuine or not, but there is writing on the outer ring which reads "M42 Pentax K/M".

The focus ring is smooth and turns from 0.45meter to infinity with no problem.

---

Last edited by Len24; 05-24-2015 at 10:08 PM.

[Adam]

Dont know if the adapter is genuine or not, but there is writing on the outer ring which reads "M42 Pentax K/M".

Probably not. The genuine one reads "Asahi Pentax" or just Pentax with no further markings.

Pentax Mount Adapter K (M42 Adapter) reviews - Pentax Camera Accessory Review Database

It's not cheap, but it's worth it if you plan on using M42 lenses extensively.

[Len24]

Probably not. The genuine one reads "Asahi Pentax" or just Pentax with no further markings.

Pentax Mount Adapter K (M42 Adapter) reviews - Pentax Camera Accessory Review Database

It's not cheap, but it's worth it if you plan on using M42 lenses extensively.

Well i have these two fifties and planning to buy Takumar 135mm so yes, i will be using M42 lenses extensively. I hope that the genuine Pentax adapter will solve this focusing problem, although its kind of strange that this adapter worked for one lens but for this S-M-C 50mm f1.4 it throws the focus quite off.

The only thing that this adapter is consistent at on both of these M42 lenses is that it meters exposure equally badly when using green button.

Most of the time it meters 1/125s or from time to time some other crazy number, but mosly its 1/125s.

I will give it another go with the genuine adapter (hope that it solves this problem) and report the results.

[Lowell Goudge]

one thing to check, is that there is a version of non flanged adaptor with a lip, that is used to depress teh aperture pin on M42 lenses with out the auto manual switch. this lip interferes witt a proud bump on the rear face of the mount on SMC taks and some super taks related to the addition of open aperture metering. this bottoms on the internal flange of the mounts with the pin depression flange before the lens is seated.

check it out see this one from B&H

General Brand Pentax-K Body to Universal Lens Adapter ABPKS B&H

the inside lip prevents smc taks from bottoming

[BakDinitzen]

Had the same problem with my Super Tak 50, 1.4 and a third party adaptor on my K5IIs! As soon as I got the original Asahi Pentax adaptor, everything was fine. I think it was around 40 USD, but it's worth trying before taking it apart.

[Len24]

Thank you all for the support and advices.

Today i picked up my adapter from the post office and mounted it with the lens, but sadly it still only focuses to 5meters.

Everything beyond that ,including infinity is out of focus.

I am thinking did the previous owner try to adapt it to some other camera brand by messing with the focus or what.

All in all...what a shame.

[Len24]

It's seriously a 5 minute DIY repair. No need to be intimidated!

Im listening. what do i need to do ?

[Lowell Goudge]

It's a good bet some one either set infinit to be used in a Nikon, or with a flanged adaptor. Before I got seriously into building an M42 Kit, and devoting a body with failed AF drive into an M42 dedicated body, I considered resetting infinity focus and putting flanged adaptors on all my M42 lenses. What the H! They are cheap, I got 5 for about $6 each to use as donor mounts for converting Minolta and Nikon mount lenses to pentax

[Len24]

Step 1: Remove the "Super Takumar" name ring by turning it counter clockwise with a drain stopper or other rubber tool.
Step 2: Remove three screws holding the fornt barrel on and pull barrel out
Step 3: loosen (don't remove)the three screws holding the focus ring to the inner brass helical ring
Step 4: Mount the camera on a lens on a tripod and adjust the actual focus to infinity by pushing the focus ring against the helical and turning, allow it to loosen, turn again, and fine tune until it is sharply focused on a very distant object. If you have it on a DSLR, the best way is to use Live View with max magnification to achieve perfect focus.
Step 5: Without pushing own, turn the ring to the infinity, then tighten the screws back down.
Step 6 - reattach the barrel and the name ring
DONE

With the number I've done, I can do the entire process in about 1-2 minutes. For a complete novice, give yourself 5-10

If you look at Sergysergy's link above, you will see pics that will help you through the process. The guy in that took 3 hours to do it focusing via trial and error, but if you have a Live view camera, it's dead simple to get it right the first time.

EDIT: If you look at the first 6 images in this thread, it will show you everything you need to see. Just loosen the screws in step 3 rather than removing them, or they can be a bit of a pain to get back in.

Thank you very much for your writing effort. I took my time so it was not 5-10 minutes but nevermind that, I think i fixed it. Although it took me some time to figure out the procedure i think i got it. now when i move the focus to infinity i can clearly see the tower in the distance all the way on the highway.

I just hope i got the step #4 right, because i just loosened the three screws which were holding the focusing ring to the brass helical and turned the focusing ring , then screwed it again and tested until the distance scale infinity symbol matched the "visual" one.

I was not so much intiminated by it as i am not new to DIY or fix it yourself (made my own electric guitar, tube amp and 3D printer).

The only thing that in lense disassembly that scares me is the name ring removal, because i have done it on my super-tak 55mm using the sticky tape method and then when i unscrewed the name ring got accidently left some glue on the front element.
That happened again on this one but i managed to clean it with 96% alcohol and fortunately , the glue didnt leave marks on the front element.

So i have put the lens back together aand now am taking a break while i am trying to find more suitable tool to screw the name ring and then its done.