[WPRESTO]

The conventional wisdom is that no adapter can make a lens better than it is without the adapter. Single lens adapters will degrade IQ - - period. Back in the 90's I had an adapter called a "Switcheroo" that allowed Nikon lenses to be mounted on Pentax K with focus to infinity. It was basically a very simple 1.5X teleconverter with a male K-mount on one end and a female Nikon mount on the other, and an appropriate length for Pentax. I used it with two lenses: Nikon 500mm f4 P and Nikon 180mm f2.8. I did not find IQ acceptable with either, so I purchase a Nikon FA body to use those lenses..

[Marcus Rowland]

Today's acquisitions were a 950nm infra-red filter for my Sony DSC-V1, which for some reason has taken ages to arrive; still waiting on the variable ND filter to accompany it. Also a Canon EF 80-200 4.5-5.6 which I got in Portobello Road for £15. It's a fairly elderly version but works well and should earn a few pounds.

[blumoon722]

I got this Minolta MD W.Rokkor-X 20mm 2.8 lens with hood in mint condition.
Going to try it on my Lumix G7

[cyberjunkie]

I got this Minolta MD W.Rokkor-X 20mm 2.8 lens with hood in mint condition.
Going to try it on my Lumix G7

Nice lens, would be great on full frame...
I love the shape of the hood. Although a little impractical, I like a lot this kind of design.
A pity this lens wont fit on a Pentax. Not so many vintage twenties of good performance and reasonable price can be used on a Pentax DSLR without destructive measures


Before showing the pics of my new pets, a short story that can either be chosen as an advice, a call for restraint, or as an encouragement.
First things first. I have a kind of wish list in my mind, simplifying a little it consists in two main categories: "user" and "collector".
The first is about lenses that are either sharper or "different" from those I already own. I have plenty of good vintage optics, but some focals are not covered by a modern, uber sharp lens. I also crave for lenses that were not available in PK mount. One example is the Laowa Venus 2/105mm STF. Before its release I believe there were no other "bokeh lenses" with an apodization element (Smooth Trans Focus) available for Pentax, while most (all?) the major brands at some point in time had one.
Unfortunately modern high performance lenses are not easy to find second-hand, and when it happens I often don't have enough funds
The second category is about collector items (which can also be good user lenses) I wish to have because I have a special interest in them (either because of the maker/t, the typology, or some specific functionality).
One example is the Enna 1.5/85mm, just like the one in a previous post, but in M42 mount.
It is a perfect example of the fast vintage primes I like so much, especially in the 80mm to 135mm range.
I also like japanese third party lens makers, like Komura for example (both early ones and from the seventies).
I try not to be manic, and avoid checking Ebay on a regularly basis.,
I just save searches, and receive emails when something of interest surfaces. Unfortunately the info does not come immediately, so tin he rare occurrences I find out that an item is actually sold way below market prices, somebody else has already taken advantage of the nice deal.
Many of my dream lenses, either modern/super sharp or vintage/collectibles are routinely sold at incredibly high prices, just because there are few on sale and the vendor waits for a customer with more money than common sense. I've seen a Voiglander/Cosina 2/40mm sell for as low as 250 USD, in other mounts. The PKA version is not as common, and I've just seen one on sale for about 550!
Please refrain from rewarding vultures. Please. Let's not feed this mechanism any further. Wait, sooner or later you'll find a reasonably priced one. I found the Ultron for 400, and I didn't buy it because IMHO it was still too expensive.
A responsible restrain on our side (both when buying and selling) would ultimately affect the prices. The pentaxian community is not su huge...
Expensive and cheap are two very subjective concepts, though I believe that helping the newcomers with information about non-technical issues would ultimately give them more chances to buy what they want/need at a decent price.
I have seen prices on the Marketplace that were much more than decent. It makes me happy, cause I see this forum as a community.
Unfortunately many sales have a price tag way over the average market price. It makes me kind of sad, newbies should find a welcoming community, under any point of view. That is, find prices around the lower end of the market variance, and be sure that an experienced user can honestly represent eventual little problems, and has checked the functionality of the item on sale.
I love film era lenses, older or newer, and I'm glad to share my interest and my little knowledge with people who have an interest in them.
I like the idea of giving access to vintage optics to people who happen to live in countries where the choice is very limited.
In fact, I almost bought a nice Apo Telezenitar 135mm from a famous macro specialist (moderator of another forum). I asked for a discount, he agreed, but last minute he told me that he decided to sell the lens to a friend in South America. A lens that had been waiting for long had just vanished, but sincerely I didn't have bad feeling at all. If it had to go I prefer to see it going to a place where such optics are almost impossible to find. Since long time I like lenses, and during this time I tried to read books and find all the possible information I could have access to. So I also like people who like lenses, and I feel good when a fine optic goes in loving hands, rather than find it resold at double the price.
I guess I had somehow elevated my karma (yes, I'm kidding!)... cause in almost no time I found the very same lens, never used, MC version, for much less. About one third of the average price.
Of course there is a reason for the hugely lower price: because it has never been used, the diaphragm blades are stuck in fully closed position, but (fingers crossed) I hope it should be easy to free/clean them. The blades are there, with no damage, much better than when I found a "silver" Trioplan -for a much bigger price! - with derailed blades. I found out that not a single one was salvageable, and I'm still waiting for a broken one to be the donor of its precious innards. No, not always there is an happy end
The more I got involved in this interesting hobby, the more I understood that any stroke of luck compensates unfortunate purchases.
Back to the Apo Telezenitar, now.
I had this uncommon late soviet era lens in my Ebay Saved Searches for ages, with no luck.
Today, days after the evaporated deal, I found it at a great price as Buy It Now. What a strange consecution of events!
I guess the lesson is to never despair.
Today my hobby gave me a good reason to be happy, despite the usual headaches of everyday life. I am italian by birth, food is a serious issue, though if I had spent the same money on a fine gargantuan meal, it wouldn't be as satisfied. Never
I can finally have at my disposal a very sharp 135mm, reportedly almost Apo.
I would have gone for the Samyang, but my wallet said no.
Now I just hope that all the hype about this lens has a base of truth.
At medium apertures I already have a few 135mm's that perform good enough for the sensor of my K-1, though wide open, or stopped a click, none of them has true high level sharpness.
From what I've read the late MC version of the Apo Telezenitar should be rather close to the best of the crop (available in PK or M42 mount).
I'll see very soon if the info I found were accurate
Here is the little beast:

MC APO Telezenitar-M f/2.8 135mm





Just before finding the previous deal, I succumbed to my attraction for old Komura lenses.
I didn't really need it, but it was too nice to pass.
It's still like new, with its original bag to transport the lens separated in two, and has all the caps.
It is Minolta bayonet. Fortunately I have another UNI mount (first version) with M42 screwmount. I might even convert the Minolta one to PK, sooner or later.
Here is the big beast:

Sankyo Kohki Komura f/7 500mm

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Last edited by cyberjunkie; 09-15-2018 at 07:30 PM. Reason: typos and new content

[Marcus Rowland]

I agree entirely re. pricing. I sell a lot of lenses etc. on eBay, I almost always sell by auction,start low and without reserve - I lose money sometimes, but even then it gets the lens to someone who wants it, which hopefully expands my customer base, and I make up for it on the items that do well. The exceptions are items which have a very limited market, such as lenses for Pentax 6x7 - there's too much risk of only one bidder being interested, so when I had one I checked a few dealer's prices and put it at a lowish "buy it now" price that ensured it would sell reasonably fast and still made me a reasonable profit - and things where it's simply too much hassle; for example, I currently have lots of Raynox adapter tubes and packs of mini DVD-R disks for cameras, I have them as low-price buy it now items since it would be silly to auction one at a time.

My latest acquisition for myself is the variable ND filter I mentioned on Friday, which finally arrived yesterday. With the 950nm filter and the other stuff I've bought my old Sony DSC-V1 is finally ready to use for infra-red work in daylight, I'll probably take it out for a test run later today.

[cyberjunkie]

My latest acquisition for myself is the variable ND filter I mentioned on Friday, which finally arrived yesterday. With the 950nm filter and the other stuff I've bought my old Sony DSC-V1 is finally ready to use for infra-red work in daylight, I'll probably take it out for a test run later today.

From what you write I get that your old Sony camera does not filter out IR.
That's interesting.
I always been fascinated by IR photography, but I am not ready to send one DSLR camera for an (expensive) conversion.
I never considered that there could be compact cameras with a sensor that could capture infrared.

[aurele]

I agree entirely re. pricing. I sell a lot of lenses etc. on eBay

I agree too. Ebay is a very special market when your goal is to do profit or at least end up with a neutral bank balance. Still, it's a great place to buy and sell if you're not in a hurry.

[gaweidert]

95 pounds (43 kg) of Macintosh apples. Last night, fresh from the oven warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream on top. Even better that bacon.

[aurele]

Last night, fresh from the oven warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream on top. Even better that bacon.

OH GEEZ ! I may need a new keyboard after drooling that much ....

(I loooove apple pie with ice cream. I could eat that all day )

[IgorZ]

95 pounds (43 kg) of Macintosh apples. Last night, fresh from the oven warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream on top. Even better that bacon.

Going Apple picking now. But what do you do with 43 kg? We'll probably make some jam, but we usually get a bushel at the most...

[gaweidert]

Going Apple picking now. But what do you do with 43 kg? We'll probably make some jam, but we usually get a bushel at the most...

Some we give to neighbors and family. Some go into pies, applesauce and other baked goodies and some are stored and eaten over the next few months. This was probably about 2 bushels of apples if we added it all up.

[swanlefitte]

Apple pie, butter, sauce, fried apples, cider, strudel...
I need me some apples!

[IgorZ]

Some we give to neighbors and family. Some go into pies, applesauce and other baked goodies and some are stored and eaten over the next few months. This was probably about 2 bushels of apples if we added it all up.

Sounds wonderful. Just picked half a bushel of Macintosh. Will try to make some jam if I get some free time

[Marcus Rowland]

From what you write I get that your old Sony camera does not filter out IR.
That's interesting.
I always been fascinated by IR photography, but I am not ready to send one DSLR camera for an (expensive) conversion.
I never considered that there could be compact cameras with a sensor that could capture infrared.

Sony made a few compact digital cameras with Nightshot mode, which removes the normal IR-blocking filter from the sensor and switches on a small IR LED as a light source. The snag is that it was only ever intended for use at night and with the LED providing light, so the shutter speed and aperture are preset, not controlled by the amount of light actually reaching the sensor. To use them in daylight you have to have a filter to block visible light - I got 950nm since it blocks visible light completely - and a neutral density filter to reduce the amount of light getting in since the camera thinks it's working in dim light. Images tend to be a bit noisy, but I'm hoping to fine tune for best results via the neutral density filter.

An additional snag is that these cameras are mostly designed with retractable lenses, so you have to use an adapter tube to hold the filters, and they are fairly old, from the nineties. The DSC-V1 is only 5 megapixels, I think the last one with this feature was only 8 megapixels. The models are:

Two compacts:
DSC-V1 - 5 megapixels - 1.5" teeny screen - retractable lens - the one I have
DSC-V3 - 7.2 megapixels - 2.5" screen - retractable lens - the one I want, tends to be fairly expensive.

Three larger cameras, Sony's weird L-shaped designs
DSC-F717 - 5.24 megapixels - 1.8", also bridge camera type eye level screen - lens is not retractable, but for some idiot reason the LED is INSIDE the filter ring and must be blocked off if you want to use IR this way, otherwise it reflects back off the filter and into the lens. There's an earlier model, the DSC-F707, which I think is much the same specification.
DSC-F828 - 8 megapixels - 1.8" screen, also bridge camera eye level screen - lens not retractable, I don't think it has the LED problem
Allegedly you can set these three to nightshot mode but get full speed and aperture control by sticking a powerful magnet onto the casing so that the filter doesn't go back when you switch nightshot off, but I have never seen it done.

So the one to look for if you want to play with this casually is probably the DSC-V3, the DSC-F828 for more serious work. But a modified SLR or mirrorless camera will give you much better results and more options. And you won't be limited to using Sony's memory sticks.

The album of test shots I took today is here - I hope to tweak it for better results.

Sony DSC V1 Infra-Red Mode | Flickr

[Canada_Rockies]

Sony made a few compact digital cameras with Nightshot mode, which removes the normal IR-blocking filter from the sensor and switches on a small IR LED as a light source. The snag is that it was only ever intended for use at night and with the LED providing light, so the shutter speed and aperture are preset, not controlled by the amount of light actually reaching the sensor. To use them in daylight you have to have a filter to block visible light - I got 950nm since it blocks visible light completely - and a neutral density filter to reduce the amount of light getting in since the camera thinks it's working in dim light. Images tend to be a bit noisy, but I'm hoping to fine tune for best results via the neutral density filter.

An additional snag is that these cameras are mostly designed with retractable lenses, so you have to use an adapter tube to hold the filters, and they are fairly old, from the nineties. The DSC-V1 is only 5 megapixels, I think the last one with this feature was only 8 megapixels. The models are:

Two compacts:
DSC-V1 - 5 megapixels - 1.5" teeny screen - retractable lens - the one I have
DSC-V3 - 7.2 megapixels - 2.5" screen - retractable lens - the one I want, tends to be fairly expensive.

Three larger cameras, Sony's weird L-shaped designs
DSC-F717 - 5.24 megapixels - 1.8", also bridge camera type eye level screen - lens is not retractable, but for some idiot reason the LED is INSIDE the filter ring and must be blocked off if you want to use IR this way, otherwise it reflects back off the filter and into the lens. There's an earlier model, the DSC-F707, which I think is much the same specification.
DSC-F828 - 8 megapixels - 1.8" screen, also bridge camera eye level screen - lens not retractable, I don't think it has the LED problem
Allegedly you can set these three to nightshot mode but get full speed and aperture control by sticking a powerful magnet onto the casing so that the filter doesn't go back when you switch nightshot off, but I have never seen it done.

So the one to look for if you want to play with this casually is probably the DSC-V3, the DSC-F828 for more serious work. But a modified SLR or mirrorless camera will give you much better results and more options. And you won't be limited to using Sony's memory sticks.

The album of test shots I took today is here - I hope to tweak it for better results.

Fascinating discussion, not applicable to me, I don't care for IR photos particularly, but fascinating nevertheless.