[optikus]

Hello,

I want to try the use of this lens with a astro-modified (enhanced red sensitivity) EOS 5D camera. Is there any experience concerning this lens for astrophotography here, especially its sensitivity for color fringing on the red and blue end of the spectrum?

Thank you for your replies.

Joerg

[bjolester]

I do not have the answer to your query. However, there is a UK based astro photographer, Mike Dickson, that uses a Pentax 67 800 ED lens, both with the Pentax 67ii, K-5 and Canon DSLRs. If I am not completely mistaken the 400 ED and 800 ED have some optical and constructional features in common, at least that is what I have heard. Maybe you can learn something about these lenses by studying his Flickr images where he uses the 800 ED quite a lot. (Of course you could also contact him.)

Here is a link to Mike Dickson’s Flickr: Horsehead Nebula - from Kielder Autumn Starcamp 2012 | Flickr

[optikus]

Hi,

thanks a lot for the information, saw his images, impressing. It seems to be as suspekted, that the ED are really apochromatic. I found more users in the astro-scene who found some of the 67-lenses very capable, so I will see ...

Kind regards
Joerg

[bjolester]

Here is an article where Luminous Landscape Michael Reichman discusses using the 67 400 ED for astro:

Astrophotography-Next-Steps - Luminous Landscape

[optikus]

Here is an article where Luminous Landscape Michael Reichman discusses using the 67 400 ED for astro:

Astrophotography-Next-Steps - Luminous Landscape

Wow ... ok, so I know the job to do ... - Luminous Landscape seems to be interesting. And the idea of the quality of the lens is confirmed as I think.

Thank you very much for the information.

Joerg

[bjolester]

Hi Joerg

You are welcome! I am glad you found the article helpful.

Bjørn

[optikus]

Good evening from Germany,

thank you to the community for the received information, akquisition of a copy is started, now I will see what is on the market here. Next job is the mounting of the lens on a telescope mount. Some ideas come from the links the forum delivered, others come from some publications of VdS in Germany. I will report what happens and how it looks like.

Kind regards
Joerg

[desertscape]

The 400 Takumar and 400 EDIF were both APO but the big difference between the two is the degree of color correction of the uncorrected colors. The use of low dispersion glass in the EDIF gave it the advantage of better correcting the uncorrected colors, while the Takumar would fringe a bit in those colors wide open. The EDIF had much lower spherochromatism than the Takumar; meaning that the difference in color focus by lens zone was much smaller. The 400 Takumar has been used in astro work successfully when stopped down a bit but the EDIF is the one to use if you have the money.

[optikus]

Hello Desertscape,

what you wrote is also the essence of what I found in the web, the EDIF will perform wide open, I compare the "*"-Lenses of Pentax with the Canon's "L"-series, The Pentax lenses seem to be interesting for manual use on my EOS because of the easy adaption, good price and modern designs, in Germany we often look on our own vintage lens brands, but the prices for the commonly as good seen lenses are far from realism.

The 400 4.0 EDIF seems to have a very precise flat image-plane also, there exist CCD-Images with sensors much larger than 35mm with absolute fine stars to the edges and without any blur and fringing, so the invest in such a lens will have much potential for the future.

So far as seen in the www all of the EDIF's perform very well, so the 400 4.0 will be the first, bus perhaps not the last, we will see. This moment I observe some on EBay, the prices for a komplete package as deliveres are around 1.000 € + shipping, I try to keep patient and wait for the best offer. Fast buying is expensive buying on EBay.
Until having purchased a copy of the lens I optimize my german mount and autoguiding, enough to do. Some shorter lenses are here and also a EOS 20Da for testing, so the time will not become to long.

Kind regards
Joerg

[ilya_sp]

The 400 Takumar has been used in astro work successfully when stopped down a bit

Hello, Could you share some images please?

[optikus]

Hello Ilya,

please use google and search for the keywords "widefield astrophotography", "pentax 67", "Pentax 67 400 4.0 ED IF". Fotos in use of the Takumar 400 were in a forum, I haven't marked it, I don't intend to have such a lens in the next future. You will find much interesting on narrowbandimaging.com and cloudynights.com. Those images are not mine so I will not distribute them.

Kind regards
Jörg

[optikus]

Hello,

I could get a 400 4.0 EDIF for some days to test, the first experiences teached me to think about the mechanical tolerances of the tripod mount and the camera body.

The heavy weight of the lens and the orientation on the german mount seem to produce minimal moves of the combination. Fixing the lens only with the tripod mount is not sufficiant although the tripod mount seems to be very massive.

My idea is to use a vixen-style prism rail as a basis for fixing the lens with the tripod-screws and the camera body with a camera-holder. Focusing will be realized by a robofocus-motor and a belt-drive. If additional connecting of the camera body is not sufficient the last option is the tripod-mount of the P67 - EOS adapter, that is what the components offer ...

I will test and report.

Kind regards
Joerg

[optikus]

Good evening all together,

last week I got a non-EDIF 300mm f4 in near mint condition for a minimal invest, so I thought it would be useful to test the adapter P67-EOS. The first tests with my EOS 1DS MkII were disappointing with low contrast. With my vintage lenses from Pentacon or Zeiss Jena often the too short lens hood causes those problems. So I tried to adapt a longer Heliopan hood:



{Inserting pictures via Flickr works }

This evening I tested a second time near the Loreley rock - now the images are easy to focus (with the split screen) and the colours are ok, sharpness was no problem neither with the short built-in hood nor with the Heliopan hood. The handling is ok with the camera attached, but a solution for the tripod is difficult. Mounting with the camera screw is nonsense, and the screw at the adapter is not much better. Focusing to infinity works properly.

Kind regards
Joerg

[desertscape]

Hello, Could you share some images please?

James Cormier uses the 400 Takumar with the Pentax 67. I use it for terrestrial work only.

[optikus]

Hi desertscape,

thank you for this information, as you see I start using the Pentax 67-System this days and the first impressions are very good, it is necessary to learn how to handle the massive lenses, but the results promise `more`.

Kind regards

Joerg