[justkatie]

Hello everyone! You all are the biggest bunch of enablers!!

I found a good deal on a 28mm & 135mm lens. Now, the description claims that the 135 has a nick on the lens. I have emailed them to find out if its a scratch or the Grand Canyon and if it affects the image (still waiting to hear). Any opinions on if I should even bother pursuing it?

Do I really need them? This is just a hobby right now; I don't have any specific needs. I have a menagerie of lenses from my first SLR kit and my dad let me borrow a couple from his stash that is older than I am. I already have:

SMC M 50mm 1.7
SMC FA 28-90mm (kit w/ ZX-60)
Soligor M 28-80mm
Tamron AF 70-300mm
DA 18-55mm (on its way!)

Or perhaps you want to recommend another lens that better suites my collection, but I have been reading many other threads and can see what I popular. I have a list of wants, but they would break the bank. TIA!

[Nesster]

Which 28 and 135? Though that's not really an issue as I think all of them are excellent.

[justkatie]

Good to know Nesster! Since the discription states that the camera was bought in the 70s, I am assuming they are M 28mm 3.5 and M 135mm 3.5. I think I am mostly concerned with the scratch...

[eyou]

i just ordered a 135mm 3.5 myself there are plenty of extremely cheap k mount 135mm f/2.8 if you want this length prime and offer doesnt work out for you and it's 1/2 stop faster. obviously i dont have an opinion on the lens because i dont have it yet. the review in the lens section don't seem too bad.

it does seem like you do have those two focal lengths covered and in the 'sweet' spot in some of your zoom lenses. i just like using primes.

[AndrewG NY]

I guess they mean a scratch on the glass? Hard to be sure without more info or a test, but often some pretty bad-looking scratches (particularly on front elements) will have very limited affect on image quality--may not appear in images, maybe *slightly* reduced contrast?

As for how good they are, I'm assuming (especially if they're Pentax) that they're at least 'very' good. I've personally found 135 to be a little long for general usage on digital bodies and they usually have fairly long minimum focus distance so they're not terribly useful indoors. 28mm is actually quite handy as a 'normal' single walkaround lens on a digital body; they're usually quite compact, probably close in size/weight to your 50/1.7. I'm imagining from your description that this kit is pretty cheap so if the glass is Pentax it's likely you could re-sell it without much of a loss if you find yourself not using it.

Your last response also reminds me of something else I've observed--about 1/2 the time when someone thinks they bought the camera in "the 70's" it was likely in the early 80's instead based on what they're selling--you see Pentax-A lenses on K1000's...Pentax-A didn't appear until 1983. And ME Supers didn't appear until 1980. Just saying. :-)

[AndrewG NY]

i just ordered a 135mm 3.5 myself there are plenty of extremely cheap k mount 135mm f/2.8 if you want this length prime and offer doesnt work out for you and it's 1/2 stop faster. obviously i dont have an opinion on the lens because i dont have it yet. the review in the lens section don't seem too bad.

it does seem like you do have those two focal lengths covered and in the 'sweet' spot in some of your zoom lenses. i just like using primes.

As eyou says, your 18-55 kit lens and the Tamron 70-300 should be very good at 28mm and 135mm, respectively. But there's something to be said for shooting primes as well, even if in this case the optical difference is not going to be huge. They tend to encourage you work and focus harder to get what you want if you have the time.

I'll also throw one more idea out there just to fuel your LBA is if you like M135/3.5 (or whatever it ends up being) -- the M75-150/4 zoom which I think is somewhat fair to describe as compact and prime-like.

[Peter Zack]

I have a Tak 28 f3.5 and a Takumar 135mm f3.5 and both are excellent lenses. They are sharp with beautiful image rendering. Your zooms will give you the focal lengths and the auto everything but there's still something special about these old lenses and they produce much better images in both sharpness and background blur over any zoom. But remember that 135mm's are cheap these days. a good quality 28mm like my Tak is $75.00 or so.

[X Man]

Hi Katie, In my experience I've found the M 135 3.5 to be a good lens optically. But, as eyou said, there are lots of K-Mount 135mm lenses out there and cheap. However, the M 135 3.5 is fetching about $50 on eBay! right now for one in excellent condition.

Now, the M 28 3.5 is a nice lens. Very sharp, great color and contrast. It's one of the better 28mm Pentax primes. Sharper IMO than either the "A" or "M" F2.8 variants. I recently sold one of these for $60.

Oh, and of course you need all the lenses you can get, silly.

Regards,
Mike

... I am assuming they are M 28mm 3.5 and M 135mm 3.5. I think I am mostly concerned with the scratch...

[Sudhakar]

If it is takumar 28/3.5 go for it. I have it already. I also use SMC P A 50mm/f1.7 Given a chance, I use 50mm first and then take 28/3.5 later

[navcom]

Don't know about the 135, but the 28mm is a great lens. It's a perfect lens for landscape photography. Great image quality and you can't beat the price. It's also not a bad lens for just carrying around.

What type of photography interests you the most?

[Peter Zack]

I also noticed you said, Assumption. Make sure you know exactly what you are getting. There are lots of 3rd party lenses out there and some are good, many are junk. Check it out first and get a picture of the chip in the lens before buying. As said before front element issues are less noticable than rear and some pretty beat up lenses still take good shots.

[justkatie]

Thank you! I really appreciate all of your opinions. The lens review section has also been helpful!

I just heard from the seller and all 3 lenses(50mm, 28mm and 135mm) he is selling are Pentax Super Takumar. Screw mount right? OK, so my next question would be what is the best adapter? (Keeping all this straight is making me dizzy ) After doing some reading, the only issue would be that auto focus would not work correct? Which is a non-issue anyway.

[Peter Zack]

There's one best choice for the adapter. Here and there other cheaper ones but need a tool to remove or don't fit nearly as well. The Pentax version removes easily with a fingernail.

Super Taks are a better version so that's good. They have an eariler version of the SMC lens coating and produce very good images. They are manual everything. Manual focus, manual stop down and manual metering. But even with that, still excellent lenses.

It's a long thread, but some great discussion and images here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/31601-takumar-club.html

[Marc Sabatella]

Autofocus isn't the only issue with screw mount lenses - they also have a different metering procedure than manual K-mount lenses. Some actually find the screw mount method more convenient, although it does mean the viewfinder darkens as you stop down, and you have to deal with the adapter. I personally haven't messed with them, and find manual K-mount lenses just fine to work with - but I like working in manual mode.

[res3567]

Thank you! I really appreciate all of your opinions. The lens review section has also been helpful!

I just heard from the seller and all 3 lenses(50mm, 28mm and 135mm) he is selling are Pentax Super Takumar. Screw mount right? OK, so my next question would be what is the best adapter? (Keeping all this straight is making me dizzy ) After doing some reading, the only issue would be that auto focus would not work correct? Which is a non-issue anyway.

Get the Pentax adapter and enable "FI with S lens used" in the Custom menu. The focus indicater and red square should light up and the camera should beep as well once you manually achieve focus with a screw mount lens.



Custom menu


Adapter


Adapter on camera