[jawats]

All,

I enjoy older glass in general. I have the Adaptall-2 60-300, two (soon to be three) Takumar M42s, a 50mm A 1.7, and some other lenses. In adapting lenses to your Pentax (I have a K-3), have you found older manual lenses from any other brands worth considering / adapting? Or any lenses specifically which you've tried and enjoy? Thanks!

[timw4mail]

T-mount, Tx-mount, Adaptall, Adapt-a-matic. These are the other 'mounts' that I would consider, since they end up working as native lenses with the appropriate mount adapter. Adaptall is generally the best of the bunch in terms of full mount functionality.



Most of the other contemporary mounts have a shorter registration distance, which requires a piece of glass for infinity focus, or basically hacking to get them to work in a similar manner.

[bassek]

All,

I enjoy older glass in general. I have the Adaptall-2 60-300, two (soon to be three) Takumar M42s, a 50mm A 1.7, and some other lenses. In adapting lenses to your Pentax (I have a K-3), have you found older manual lenses from any other brands worth considering / adapting? Or any lenses specifically which you've tried and enjoy? Thanks!

There are many who have tried, at least (a former active member) RioRico posted a lot about various conversions some 5 years ago.
To sum it up, T-mount lenses are easy, OM are doable and the rest loose infinity focus due to the registration distance problem mentioned by timw4mail.

Seb

[jawats]

There are many who have tried, at least (a former active member) RioRico posted a lot about various conversions some 5 years ago.
To sum it up, T-mount lenses are easy, OM are doable and the rest loose infinity focus due to the registration distance problem mentioned by timw4mail.

Seb

Seb,

T-mount are mostly old Tamron, non-adaptall, correct? And OM are all the old Olympus lenses?

[marcusBMG]

Old olympus OM, original Nikon F* and contax-yashica CY mounts (see here) all have similar or slightly longer registration distances than PK, and the bayonets are very similar in dimensions to PK which is why the "multimount" works. The latter is in fact one of the two best ways of using eg a CY mount zeiss distagon on a pentax. The other is a custom leitax mount swap. I've often thought it would be nice to try a classic "zuiko" or two on my K5, but basically getting it on would require a little judicious grinding/filing of the OM bayonet. But it might be worth it, the zuiko 50mm f1.8 is actually a much classier metal lens than the plasticky smc-a 50mm 1.7. DIY mount swapping is mainly not worth the effort, though there are cases where it might be eg a less common mirror lens - and I have a project on the back burner to look at converting my FD 400mm to PKA...
*Nikon F can often be squeezed on to Pk in any case. It's not very secure and the lens IME is usually upsidedown, but it works. Note that the later AI/AIS mounts have protruding connections that prevent any mounting on a K-mount.

T-mounts are a generic screw-on swappable mount, originally attributed to tamron but used by many manufacturers to this day. The mount does not allow aperture connections so lenses are typically preset, but that makes them cheap (my info page on t-mount isn't up for the mo after my bruv in law switched servers without telling me...).

[Skodadriver]

There are some lenses by the likes of Ricoh (Rikenon), Chinon, Cosina and Helios that can be found at bargain prices. I have a few primes from these manufacturers that can produce good images. Not so much the zooms unfortunately. Watch out for black anodised "K" mounts though, some modification is necessary before they will meter and stop down properly.
If you have a spare couple of hours you could read up on the 3rd party lens reviews and see if anything looks interesting to you.
I like my Tamron SP 60-300mm, I sold my Tamron SP 70-210mm (19AH) as my copy was no better than my 23A in my opinion. Having a Tamron adaptall with A contacts makes Tamron adaptalls very handy.

[wstruth]

I've been having a lot fun lately with a Minolta MD 50 1.4

[marcusBMG]

I've been having a lot fun lately with a Minolta MD 50 1.4

On a pentax? You are just holding the lens against the camera mount (the bayonet being smaller than K-mount bayonet)?

[timw4mail]

On a pentax? You are just holding the lens against the camera mount (the bayonet being smaller than K-mount bayonet)?

Or an adapter with glass. SR-mount has a shorter registration distance than Pentax K.

[Fenwoodian]

.
Leitax (in Spain) makes the best quality adapters out there. They make them that adapt Nikkor, Zeiss ZF, and Leica R lenses to Pentax K mount. The adapters work perfectly, and many of these lenses are outstanding on my K1 cameras.

My favorites so far include: Nikkor 105mm DC, Zeiss Milvus ZF 85mm, and Leica R 80mm Summilux.

[Kelvin 5500]

... have you found older manual lenses from any other brands worth considering / adapting? Or any lenses specifically which you've tried and enjoy? Thanks!

I share your enthusiasm for legacy lenses and I own several pre-digital age manual focus lenses.

The smc Pentax-A 35-105mm F/3.5 is my favorite lens for studio portraiture. Here is the link to the Pentax Lens Review Database for the smc Pentax-A 35-105mm F/3.5 lens:
SMC Pentax-A 35-105mm F3.5 Reviews - A Zoom Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database

The Tamron SP 90mm F/2.5 Adaptall-2 (52BB) is my favorite lens for studio still life, flower photography and tightly cropped head and shoulders portraits. Here is the link to the Pentax Lens Review Database for the Tamron SP 90mm F/2.5 Adaptall-2 52B and 52BB lenses:
Tamron Adaptall-2 SP 90mm f/2.5 (52B/52BB) Lens Reviews - Tamron Adaptall Lenses - Pentax Lens Review Database

I recently ordered a Leitax Pentax-K mount to convert my Olympus Zuiko 21mm F/3.5 lens. It is expected to arrive in a couple of weeks. I will post a user review on Pentax Forums after I have had an opportunity to evaluate the performance of the converted lens when mounted on my Pentax dSLR cameras. Here is the link to the Leitax website where you can discover lists of lenses that can be converted for mounting on Pentax-K bodies including a variety of Leica, Contax, Nikon F, Carl Zeiss and Olympus lenses:
Leica & Pentax & Nikon | Leitax

Best regards,

Dennis

[jawats]

I share your enthusiasm for legacy lenses and I own several pre-digital age manual focus lenses.

The smc Pentax-A 35-105mm F/3.5 is my favorite lens for studio portraiture. Here is the link to the Pentax Lens Review Database for the smc Pentax-A 35-105mm F/3.5 lens:
SMC Pentax-A 35-105mm F3.5 Reviews - A Zoom Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database

The Tamron SP 90mm F/2.5 Adaptall-2 (52BB) is my favorite lens for studio still life, flower photography and tightly cropped head and shoulders portraits. Here is the link to the Pentax Lens Review Database for the Tamron SP 90mm F/2.5 Adaptall-2 52B and 52BB lenses:
Tamron Adaptall-2 SP 90mm f/2.5 (52B/52BB) Lens Reviews - Tamron Adaptall Lenses - Pentax Lens Review Database

I recently ordered a Leitax Pentax-K mount to convert my Olympus Zuiko 21mm F/3.5 lens. It is expected to arrive in a couple of weeks. I will post a user review on Pentax Forums after I have had an opportunity to evaluate the performance of the converted lens when mounted on my Pentax dSLR cameras. Here is the link to the Leitax website where you can discover lists of lenses that can be converted for mounting on Pentax-K bodies including a variety of Leica, Contax, Nikon F, Carl Zeiss and Olympus lenses:
Leica & Pentax & Nikon | Leitax

Best regards,

Dennis

Thank you Dennis! I have a Tamron 60-300 Adaptall-2, which is gorgeous. Just got an older 135 / 3.5 Takumar with dual rings (silver black version, here: Super-Takumar/Auto-Takumar/Takumar 135mm F3.5 Reviews - M42 Screwmount Telephoto Primes - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database) and have a 50/1.4 Takumar (SMC/S-M-C/Super Takumar 50mm F1.4 Reviews - M42 Screwmount Normal Primes - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database) and a 55/1.8 (SMC/S-M-C/Super-/Auto-/Takumar 55mm F1.8 Reviews - M42 Screwmount Normal Primes - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database), and finally, a 50mm/1.7 Pentax-M (SMC Pentax-M 50mm F1.7 Reviews - M Prime Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database).

I enjoy the 50s quite a bit, and am working on learning the 135.

[wstruth]

On a pentax? You are just holding the lens against the camera mount (the bayonet being smaller than K-mount bayonet)?

An adapter and it works just fine.

[Kelvin 5500]

...and have a 50/1.4 Takumar and finally, a 50mm/1.7 Pentax-M...

I enjoy the 50s quite a bit, and am working on learning the 135.

I, too, have and use the Super-Multi-Coated TAKUMAR 50mm F/1.4 (8 aperture blades) and smc Pentax-M 50mm F/1.7 lenses. The 50mm TAK elements were extremely yellow when I received the lens but I was able to easily clear the discoloration by shining sunlight through the lens for several hours. I have had the lens for ten years and the yellow discoloration has not returned. I do not mind not having manual focus because I only use these two lenses when using a tripod for landscape photography or when reverse mounted or bellows mounted for macro photography. (Not used for auto racing or any action sports events.) Green Button metering does not particularly appeal to me but I have traded a little inconvenience for what I perceive to be excellent optical performance.

Dennis

[Kelvin 5500]

T-mount are mostly old Tamron, non-adaptall, correct?

Although originated by Tamron, T-mounts have become a universal standard for mounting a camera to a variety of devices. Examples include mounting a dSLR camera to the rear of a large format camera to achieve technical movements and mounting a dSLR camera to a microscope or telescope.

And OM are all the old Olympus lenses?

Yes, this is correct.

Dennis