[pickles]

I'm interested in buying a few Pentax SMC screwmount lens, & have noticed this seller who is apparently quite well known, but a long way from good old Aus, so I know nothing about him.
My contact with him has not been particularly favourable, as my request for him to supply me with images of a lens he had advertised, met with a negative response. How I can be expected to purchase something I cannot view, is somewhat beyond me.
I thought some on here may have dealt with him & be prepared to offer an opinion.
Cheers, Pickles.

[robbiec]

The market place is your friend here and patience. Kevin Cameras are generally on the upper end or beyond pricing wise. I would walk away if a seller would not produce extra detail on any lens. My 2 cents.

[Adam]

He/they are way overpriced, but do have some rare items.

[Marc Sabatella]

As well as items that are nowhere near as rare as their pricing would imply.

[stevebrot]

There is never a bargain at Kevin's.

That being said, from what I have seen his offerings are always in top condition and often enough difficult to find in that condition.


Steve

[hangu]

I'm interested in buying a few Pentax SMC screwmount lens, & have noticed this seller who is apparently quite well known, but a long way from good old Aus, so I know nothing about him.
My contact with him has not been particularly favourable, as my request for him to supply me with images of a lens he had advertised, met with a negative response. How I can be expected to purchase something I cannot view, is somewhat beyond me.
I thought some on here may have dealt with him & be prepared to offer an opinion.
Cheers, Pickles.

The images of his lenses is a link in the main description of each listing, took me a while to find it, too.

Which particular lens are you looking for?

[gofour3]

I’ve bought four Pentax K Series lenses from him. These are my opinions:

- Prices are very high for some lenses and some are closer to KEH prices. You can get a discount though, buy directly from his web site and choose a bank transfer for the best prices. (No PayPal, Credit Card or eBay fees will be charged)
- Grading are spot on. You get what you see and his web site has tons of pictures of each lens, sometimes too many. All lenses I bought have been exactly as described/pictured.
- Shipping to Canada was very fast and via EMS, everything is tractable & insured. There were no issues with shipping, other than it’s not cheap.
- He will “fudge” the declared value, so you can save on custom fees if you wish. But you will be under insured.
- Communications skills are so so and get much better after you actually buy something!
- Overall I have had no issues buying from him.

Selection of lenses for sale is one of the best that I have seen. So beware if you want that special lens in perfect condition, you may succumb and buy from him.

Phil.

[hangu]

Phil, just out of curiosity, what were the 4 lenses you bought from him?

K28 f2?
K15 f3.5?
K30?
K85?
K28 shift?

[gofour3]

Phil, just out of curiosity, what were the 4 lenses you bought from him?

K28 f2?
K15 f3.5?
K30?
K85?
K28 shift?

Sorry I forgot that I bought three K Series and one A Series from him.

K28/3.5 Shift (Original K series with case and manual)
K35/2
K120/2.8
A15/3.5 (Sold it)

Phil.

[Pentaxor]

personally, way overpriced. unless if you are really insane about a particular lens and care less about saving money, then I believe it's ok. but still way overpriced compared to some sellers that I know of which can give the same lens in the same condition. all this depends on the availability of course. again, way overpriced.

[pickles]

I've examined his site, & there are certainly some "delicious" offerings there.
I agree with sentiments expressed here...excellent range, excellent quality, somewhat over-priced reliable seller.
The particular lens I was looking at was (is?) a Pentax M42 15mm wide angle, M- condition, with caps & case etc, priced at $1495.....but there are no images supplied, nor despite a couple of emails, was he willing to send me any!
In my email I mentioned there were two versions of this lens, to which he replied that it was not the Aspheric version, but that if it was, "it would be a $3000 lens".
I'm no expert, but I have read reports that images taken with the two versions would be very very similar, if not identical....to most people anyway.
The other point is that the Aspheric version would be quite rare.....I think it was only availabe in the M42 version......so, if everyone else is using non aspheric in K,M,A versions etc, it should be OK?
That's where I'm at, at the moment!
Cheers, Pickles.

[hcc]

I'm interested in buying a few Pentax SMC screwmount lens, & have noticed this seller who is apparently quite well known, but a long way from good old Aus, so I know nothing about him.
My contact with him has not been particularly favourable, as my request for him to supply me with images of a lens he had advertised, met with a negative response. How I can be expected to purchase something I cannot view, is somewhat beyond me.
I thought some on here may have dealt with him & be prepared to offer an opinion.
Cheers, Pickles.

In the last few months, the prices of lenses in Australia have become cheaper, compared to North-America, than 6 months ago (if you incl. delivery/shipping cost). I recently checked the prices for Tamron, Sigma and Voigtlander lenses in Australia. The retails was cheaper than ordering from North-America. I even bought a lens just before the end of financial year and got some discount by going in person to the local photo store.

In Oz, a reference online store with good prices is digital-camera-warehouse. In Brisbane, Photo Continental has some good choice and sometimes cheaper prices; it was recommend by a professional, I used it several times and can recommend it.

Hope that the comment will assist...

[hangu]

Pickles, I was in your predicament a while back, it's very difficult to find a manual focus wide angle lens for a fair price. The Takumars are of great quality but in no way do they justify the prices they are pulling for ultra wides. You are paying for the rarity, not the quality in these instances.

Look at other options such as the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 20mm f4 (roughly $300). Or the Vivitar 19mm f3.8 ($150).

In the end, I almost went with the DA 15 ($500) but settled for the DA12-24 ($600) for the extra 3mm. They're not full frame but Pentax isn't ever going to come out with FF, anyway.

[gofour3]

I've examined his site, & there are certainly some "delicious" offerings there.
I agree with sentiments expressed here...excellent range, excellent quality, somewhat over-priced reliable seller.
The particular lens I was looking at was (is?) a Pentax M42 15mm wide angle, M- condition, with caps & case etc, priced at $1495.....but there are no images supplied, nor despite a couple of emails, was he willing to send me any!
In my email I mentioned there were two versions of this lens, to which he replied that it was not the Aspheric version, but that if it was, "it would be a $3000 lens".
I'm no expert, but I have read reports that images taken with the two versions would be very very similar, if not identical....to most people anyway.
The other point is that the Aspheric version would be quite rare.....I think it was only availabe in the M42 version......so, if everyone else is using non aspheric in K,M,A versions etc, it should be OK?
That's where I'm at, at the moment!
Cheers, Pickles.

There were Aspherical & spherical versions of the 15/3.5 in both the M42 & K-mount.

The M42 versions are on the rare side, but I did see the M42 Aspherical version on eBay last year and it was priced around $2500.00. I can’t remember if it sold. (Private seller in Canada)

Kevin’s price for the M42 spherical version is of course on the high side. Checkout this lens price database. It has the T15/3.5, K15/3.5AL, K15/3.5 & A15/3.5 listed. Pentax is under the
"LNOP" tab.

Phil.

http://www.jcolwell.ca/photography/lens$db/Lens$db-v14.xls

[pinholecam]

IMO, his prices are too high.
Better to wait around BnS here or ebay and I'm rather sure most of the things you'd want will pop up at reasonable prices.