I was truly hoping that @JSherman had sent me a rocket kit, but I guess I will have to be satisfied with an extremely clean Lester Dine 105/2.8 Dental Macro in PKA mount. I was sorely disappointed back in about 2008 when the last of the NIB Vivitar Series-1 labeled version of the highly regarded Kiron 105mm Macro went on fire sale at various outlets for about $100. I missed the last one by about 15 minutes. Once they were gone, the price, used, for all versions of the lens (Kiron, Vivitar, Lester Dine, and Rikenon) took a significant jump out of my range and I eventually became the owner a 50mm Sigma Macro which has served me quite well for over a decade since. About two years ago I found a copy of the quite excellent Adaptall-2 Tamron 90/2.8 (72B, the manual-focus equivalent of today's AF lens) at a very decent price, but was still mildly unfulfilled. For as amazing as the Tamron is for close work, its ability to easily focus at moderate distance is hampered by a steep helicoid pitch in the range from 5' to infinity making it sort of a no-go as a portrait option or for a general use 100mm.
Sooo...to cut to the chase, when Jay offered a Dine 105mm at a very competitive price a few weeks back on the Pentax Forums Marketplace, I jumped at it. Yes, the Dine is heavy (metal and glass except for the grip) and yes, it is rather heavy (yes, I said that twice), but it does offer almost a full turn from infinity to MFD (1:1) with optical performance on a par with the highly-regarded Tamron. As a result, we have below:
- A box for a high performance chemical-fueled rocket
- The Lester E. Dine Dental Macro complete with dental "cheat" stickers in PKA mount
- A stack of Nabisco Ritz Crackers to serve as AMU
- The existing Tamron 90/1.8 Macro (72B)
- A green glass bowel and some other stuff in the background
Pentax K-3, Vivitar 135/2.8 (Komine, 5-element)
Steve