[jva59]

Took my new (to me) 55 1.8 for a walk today. Think I'm going to like this lens!

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[Argenticien]

Took my new (to me) 55 1.8 for a walk today. Think I'm going to like this lens!

Nice. Is yours a Super (or older), a Super-Multi-Coated, or an SMC? I have the SMC in a 55/1.8, while right now I have only a Super Tak in 50/1.4, so if I want the benefit of the best coating, I have to sacrifice half or two-thirds of a stop or whatever that difference is.
--Dave

[Jonathan Mac]

Some automn colours with the S-M-C 50 f/1.4.

[nono]

Jonathan: Beautiful colours, and I like the composition of #2 very much.

[jva59]

Nice. Is yours a Super (or older), a Super-Multi-Coated, or an SMC? I have the SMC in a 55/1.8, while right now I have only a Super Tak in 50/1.4, so if I want the benefit of the best coating, I have to sacrifice half or two-thirds of a stop or whatever that difference is.
--Dave

Thanks, A.! Mine's a Super. I'll have to consult the web site to discover to which iteration it belongs.

[Chex]

Sigma now has a 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM. That's if you don't want to MF a lovely Takumar instead.

Yes, it's actually on my list.. I would be ok with MF lens like a nice Tak.. but sometimes it's just easier to have all my EXIF data setup and AF for when I use it indoors with the kids..

[WinterboJ]

....with my Kood optical adapter (and a circular polariser just to add another bit of glass.. oh.... and the shop window of course, three extra bits of glass between image and sensor...). The polariser was held firmly against the shop window, I'd tried different techniques but reflections from the shop window defeated me.

It's uncropped so any degradation in the corners is still there, to help assessment of the affect of the adapter on corner IQ. It's not the whole story of course, whether the drop off is down to the lens or the adapter or a combination of both is a different question. And (light bulb goes on) one I can test; this shot is well within the range of the same lens without the optical adapter, and if I'd thought of that at the time I could have done a series with and a series without the adapter. Luckily the shop window is 4 minutes away and a single "could you go back and do that then?" request will get a "yes of course, give me a day or two and it will be done".

Something that doesn't get mentioned often enough on this optical adapter issue: to get the infinity focus with the Nikon registration distance, the adapters are (if properly calibrated to give exact infinity focus when the lens says so) actually x1.1 teleconverters (you'll have to trust me for now, but I've measured it) so this 24mm Tak is actually a 26.4mm lens in this shot.

Oh, and don't trust the exif on aperture. I found that to get near enough correct exposures I had to lie to the D700 and tell it a 24mm f/5 was attached, so that's what it will show. The shot is actually either f/8 or f/11. It spooked me, I have to say, I have a good selection of Taks and this is the only one that when I tell the camera the focal length and max aperture it gets the exposure badly wrong.

[@chex and your ideas about an AF 35mm - I said earlier that the APS-C Nikkor 35/1.8 vignettes "slightly, but not as much as you might think". I did a quick refresher course, and it's highly aperture dependent. Wide open it's hardly noticeable at FF, f/4 to f/5.6 it's noticeable but something some folk might add in PP for an arty effect, but by f/8 peeps will be saying "that's an APS-C lens on a FF camera". I can send you some examples, but this clearly isn't the place to post Nik AF shots. If - and I don't think you are - thinking of an MF 35mm then you should include the CZJ 35/2.4 Flektogon in your thinking. Even Tak diehards acknowledge that's a good'un. You would of course need an optical adapter...... and preferably a good one :-))]

I referred to "42 crowd" in my first couple of posts, I should have said "M42 crew". That's probably my natural home on PentaxForums in the digital era (the only Pentax camera body I still have likely to see any action is an ESII). I have a series of quite well controlled shots of fast(ish) 50(ish) lenses, each with shots from wide open to shut down, it includes three Taks (both versions, 7 and 8 element, of the original Super-Takumar 1.4/50 and also the SMC 1.4/50), Auto Sears 55/1.4, a CZJ Pancolar 50/1.8, the longest and slowest was a CZJ Biotar 58/2. All on the D700 and all with the optical adapter. And a much better insight into Bokeh than sharpness, to be honest.

I've just added another shot (the ivy + autumn fallen leaves one); this time the only extra glass element is the Kood adapter; looks quite sharp to me until you get down to the very nitty gritty of the bottom right hand corner where it goes very soft. Lens? Adapter? Combination of the two?

These are probably the first and last shots I'll post in this club (but watch out M42 Crew); but also will still definitely continue to pop in regularly to have a look at what you peeps do with the Taks, as I said early on I've been lurking on here for a couple of years or more, not because I'm a gear freak (which I would probably have to admit to) but because these lenses on modern Pentax dslrs continue to produce beautiful and/or challenging images. Long may it continue.

I nearly forgot - the ivy shot is also the 26.4 SuperTak!

[WinterboJ]

Not sure what happenned there - this is the first image I thought would appear with my long message above.

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[tim60]

Not sure what happenned there - this is the first image I thought would appear with my long message above.

Thank you for showing the effect of the registration distance adaptor.

Even with the quality possible on the forum and with no enlarging of the image on the screeen there is a noticeable (easily noticeable) degradation only a modest distance out from the centre. How glad I am that I can use the Taks with a body which is backward compatible by having the correct registration distance and mechanically fits an adaptor.

This is one of the major design philosophy points I believe Pentax has in its favour - deliberate backwards compatibiity so even the ancient kit can be used with the new kit - and even my 60s lenses have shake reduction, a feature that their designers thought meant wearing a large gyroscope!

[kcobain1992]

An old shot with my brother messing around.. Not very interesting nor photographic, but we were having fun

[rob1234]

Super-Multi-Coated TAKUMAR 6x7 105mm f/2.4:


P67, 105/2.4, Superia X-tra 400, Epson 4870

[nirvanaguy19]

I really like the Super takumar 300/4. Almost all of the pics in the set below were taken with it
Wild life - a set on Flickr

[riff]

I really like the Super takumar 300/4. Almost all of the pics in the set below were taken with it Wild life - a set on Flickr

Wow, that is some very fine imagery.

[kcobain1992]

It dawned on me that I had some forgotten pictures from a September afternoon, so I edited them quickly, and shared some of them. First is with the 55/1.8, all others with the 200/4. At the moment I like them, but please be harsh and tell me if they're actually horrible

[jt_cph_dk]

Super-Multi-Coated TAKUMAR 6x7 105mm f/2.4:


P67, 105/2.4, Superia X-tra 400, Epson 4870

Hi Rob, great lens and nice, sharp shot. But the colors are way off (‘natural‘ anyway). The sky is very turquoise. And is that grain or digi-noise? Looks like noise deriving from adding ‘exposure‘ What are your scanner settings? Regards