[mattt]

What a wonderful thread - I've been around here for quite some time and I dont know how I missed it.. some great photography, and excellent Bokeh!

[th1952]

A bit of bokeh.

K5IIs with Sears 135mm 2.8

I find the lens to be very frustrating to use. Sometimes I can get a fairly sharp pic and other times it fails miserably.

[goatsNdonkey]

Which Sears 2.8/135 is that? --- the m42 Japanese-made one, the K-mnt Korean one, or the K-mnt Korean one with Macro? I was also wondering what aperture you were using.

A bit of bokeh.

K5IIs with Sears 135mm 2.8

I find the lens to be very frustrating to use. Sometimes I can get a fairly sharp pic and other times it fails miserably.

[th1952]

Which Sears 2.8/135 is that? --- the m42 Japanese-made one, the K-mnt Korean one, or the K-mnt Korean one with Macro? I was also wondering what aperture you were using.

It's the K-Mnt Korean with Macro. I got it with my Sears KS2 back in 1982. I believe I was using f8.

[goatsNdonkey]

It's the K-Mnt Korean with Macro. I got it with my Sears KS2 back in 1982. I believe I was using f8.

Thanks for the info. The shot looks great.

[pepperberry farm]

kitchen bokeh

[zzeitg]

I have two examples of the later all-black Pentacon's.
Great bokeh and still sharp enough for most subjects.
A lens that can rightfully claim its place among the best 20 M42 lenses.
Your pictures are a nice example of what can be done with it.
Thumbs up

Paolo

Thanks, Paolo!
There are several M42 lenses I really like. Pentacon 135mm and 200mm (both are 15 blades aperture version), Tair 135mm (20 blades), Helios 85mm, Meyer-Optik Görlitz Primoplan 58mm (14 blades), Meyer-Optik Görlitz Trioplan 50mm (12 blades), Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm, etc..
There are also some other lenses which I never bought because their price today is more than tall. Like the famous Trioplan 2.8/100. Or the rare Komura lenses.
Anyway, shooting with M42 lenses is always fun.

Helios 58mm

[Jorgario]

K-3 and FA 100 / 2.8:

[/URL]

[/URL]

[/URL]

[/URL]

[jmschrei]

K-5 = DA 35 limited

[cyberjunkie]

Thanks, Paolo!
There are several M42 lenses I really like. Pentacon 135mm and 200mm (both are 15 blades aperture version), Tair 135mm (20 blades), Helios 85mm, Meyer-Optik Görlitz Primoplan 58mm (14 blades), Meyer-Optik Görlitz Trioplan 50mm (12 blades), Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm, etc..
There are also some other lenses which I never bought because their price today is more than tall. Like the famous Trioplan 2.8/100. Or the rare Komura lenses.
Anyway, shooting with M42 lenses is always fun.

My compliments for both your pictures and your taste re: vintage lenses.
I have a Trioplan 100mm converted to PK (the slightly cheaper N version) and a few Komura's. Not so many people know about them, cause Komura went bankrupt long ago. I owned one of their best lenses: the 152mm f/2.8 with 4x5" coverage, one of the very few large format lenses ever made, with good coverage and such large aperture. It was the Japanese Xenotar. The only other competitor, the Carl Zeiss Planar, was one step below.
Their medium format lenses were also very good, and the late models for 35mm (marked Komura Ltd) are still desirable for their optical performance and their great build. A pity few are available in PK mount and none in PKA.
I only have two of the late models, one was NOS and the other one needs to be restored. Beautiful lenses.

I like your M42 choices!
I love Helioses, 58mm and 85mm.
If you come across other Meyer lenses with the name starting with "Prim*" I'm sure you'll like the bokeh

Ciao

Paolo

[zzeitg]

If you come across other Meyer lenses with the name starting with "Prim*" I'm sure you'll like the bokeh

Ciao

Paolo

No doubts. Then there are several wonderful vintage CZJ and Soligor lenses, too.


Some more with Helios 58mm:

[goatsNdonkey]

A question for the fellow bokeh-minded --

If bokeh is one of the considerations, what might be "the cheap-skate's best-buy" as an m42 prime lens in the 75-85mm range?

Background: I've found myself building out my kit of m42 primes, and right now my biggest gap in the series of focal lengths is between 58mm and 105mm. I'd like to find something near the middle of that gap. Like my other lenses it can (or probably has to be) on the very inexpensive side, but I don't mind at all if it has some limitations. Who needs sharpness across the frame, when a bit of sharpness somewhere might be enough? Who cares if there are some aberrations? Something with some character of its own, rather than perfection, is fine with me. I've followed a couple of Jupiter-9 85mms on 'bay in the past, but they seem to zoom out of my price range by the last day of bidding.

[zzeitg]

A question for the fellow bokeh-minded --

If bokeh is one of the considerations, what might be "the cheap-skate's best-buy" as an m42 prime lens in the 75-85mm range?

Background: I've found myself building out my kit of m42 primes, and right now my biggest gap in the series of focal lengths is between 58mm and 105mm. I'd like to find something near the middle of that gap. Like my other lenses it can (or probably has to be) on the very inexpensive side, but I don't mind at all if it has some limitations. Who needs sharpness across the frame, when a bit of sharpness somewhere might be enough? Who cares if there are some aberrations? Something with some character of its own, rather than perfection, is fine with me. I've followed a couple of Jupiter-9 85mms on 'bay in the past, but they seem to zoom out of my price range by the last day of bidding.

What about this one...? Helios / ?????? 40-2 85 mm f/1.5 | Flickr

[goatsNdonkey]

What about this one...? Helios / ?????? 40-2 85 mm f/1.5 | Flickr

It was fun to look at some of those Helios 40-2 f1.5 85mm pictures, where you linked and in the Pentax Forums reviews for the lens. It's funny that the reviews are so poor for sharpness, when some of the sample pictures show what looks like to me as very good sharpness in the areas focused on. And the bokeh is obviously one of the lens's greatest strengths.

The PF reviews say, however, that the average price is nearly $300, and current ebay offerings don't show any lenses of that model available for less than $200 (cheapest one is about $235, $250 with the shipping). Unfortunately, that's not what I personally could call a bargain lens--in fact it's well beyond my once-a-year-photography-item-splurge price. I suppose I am asking for tips about the cheapest 75mm to 85mm m42 lenses anyone has ever used (or heard of ) that might still be worth having, for photographic purposes (not for a paperweight). Since bokeh fans are open to a lot of experimenting in search of more kinds of bokeh and ways of getting bokeh, this seemed like a good place to pose the question.

[twilhelm]

It was fun to look at some of those Helios 40-2 f1.5 85mm pictures, where you linked and in the Pentax Forums reviews for the lens. It's funny that the reviews are so poor for sharpness, when some of the sample pictures show what looks like to me as very good sharpness in the areas focused on. And the bokeh is obviously one of the lens's greatest strengths.

The PF reviews say, however, that the average price is nearly $300, and current ebay offerings don't show any lenses of that model available for less than $200 (cheapest one is about $235, $250 with the shipping). Unfortunately, that's not what I personally could call a bargain lens--in fact it's well beyond my once-a-year-photography-item-splurge price. I suppose I am asking for tips about the cheapest 75mm to 85mm m42 lenses anyone has ever used (or heard of ) that might still be worth having, for photographic purposes (not for a paperweight). Since bokeh fans are open to a lot of experimenting in search of more kinds of bokeh and ways of getting bokeh, this seemed like a good place to pose the question.

In my experience, 75-85 pushes the price over $200. In the $100 range there are some Vivitar, Ricoh, and even Tamron from 90-100mm. I’ve had several in K mount and the Tamron in adaptal, which is also a macro lens. All have nice bokeh, with the Tamron and Ricoh bettering the Vivitar.
Occasionally I see a Takumar 105 on the bay in the range of $150.