I've been wanting to try out macro lenses for the longest time and i've also been interested to check out the a Takumar lens. being also excited about the ability to try any m42 lens later as well, i bought myself an m42 adapter and bid on an Super Multi Coated Takumar 50mm f4...

first impressions, the lens is very very recessed in the barrel, almost no need to worry about a hood or getting dust in the lens. my copy was pretty good but what impressed me most of all was the smoothness of the focus ring. unbelievable, makes the rest of my lenses (see my sig) seem cheap in comparison. the da21 and fa35 don't have much friction and the M has too much friction. as well the metal focus ring is nice and fat and a joy to use. the aperture ring also has very satisfying clicks.

as it seems like with all pentax macro primes, this lens is sharp as a tack. the tricky part is using it is the manual exposure. but with a bit of practice i was doing pretty well, i would always have to switch back up to F4 to get a bright image to focus.

my dad suggested that i take it out for dim sum and so i had some fun playing around with it. i've attached some pictures as well (minimal post processing) the final watch photo is a 100% crop run through neat image. any comments and criticisms are very welcome

[k100d]

.... more pix

[k100d]

here's the da21 now ... square

I love the S-M-C tak lenses. I actually tried to get one of these when I was looking for my first macro. I ended up with the SMC M 50 F4 macro. And like this one, it is sharp.

But there is something special about the SMC taks. You are right the focus ring is really nice. And you did really well on those food shots.
Keep them coming...

[barbosas]

I've got one of those but is the older model, not S-M-C but instead of 1:2 it does 1:1 macro.

It's great, that focus smoothness is almost in every super-takumar lens.

i never used it outdoors, but to use with a light box, it's a excellent lens.