[dmeadows85]

This is a lens I could find out zilch about online, but is a surprisingly sharp and fast M42 lens, and very affordable as well. I just wanted to share some samples with it in case someone else out there has a copy as well!

The pics lost a little sharpness in the upload, but the color and tone remain, and I am extremely pleased with the lens and am sure it's gonna become one of my favorites.

All taken with the K-5, I think at f/1.8 or f/2.0, ISO 800.

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[HoustonBob]

Spiratone was an early importer of Japanese camera equipment in the 1950s. The lens discussed here was from around 1977. I bought mine new from Cambridge Camera in New York along with the Spiratone 135mm f1.8. Unfortunately my 135 got destroyed after loaning it out. Modern Photography tested both lenses and rated them very highly. Using the 35mm f1.8 lens on my K3 several things stand out about it. The first is that for a fast lens it appears to be pretty free of Purple Fringing. I agree with the Original Poster that it has a very nice color rendition. The resolving power is good. The major fault of the lens is lateral chromatic aberration - which is pretty easily corrected with modern software. This is a normal focal length lens on an apc camera. I'm looking forward to using it on the full frame Pentax. I think this would be a good lens to use for Video.

f4.0@160th ISO 100 DNG processed in UfRaw and Elements 9.

[HoustonBob]

Spiratone 35mm f1.8 M42 lens on a K3. f4@1/2000 ISO 100 - DNG developed in UfRaw and Adobe Elements 9.


This flower is really outside the Gamut of sRGB. In the adobe RGB color space it looks truer to its wine color.

[HoustonBob]

Spriratone 35mm f1.8 on a K3 Pentax

f4 @ 1/250th ISO 100 DNG processed in UFraw and Elements 9

My neighbor has a nice Car, although I kind of have to question the sanity of anyone with a black car in Houston, the sun will heat those up to egg frying temperatures in the summer.

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Last edited by HoustonBob; 05-22-2015 at 11:33 AM.