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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-03-2020, 12:26 AM
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Sorry to hear about this. It's always a risk buying these old cameras off the web.
Yes, mine is green with some blue, but to be honest it's a darker green than it looks in the photo - it was a quick pre-work snap on the kitchen table (with some printer paper) and the camera was a bit dark so I had to lighten it all up.
BTW, your rare early Takumar 55/2.2 is a very interesting lens. Thanks for sharing a photo of it/from it. I'd love to compare it with the different, later Auto-Takumar 55/2.2, which is a fine lens. The Auto-Tak produced this Explored photo on Flickr, and a good number of views/faves - great to see people looking at Takumar photos!
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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-01-2020, 11:37 PM
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A beautiful camera and lens - congratulations.
The purple of that instruction guide is so cool! Thanks for sharing.
The guide I have for the K is green. Wonder if they came in different colours for the same camera? Anyway, a short and succinct manual. I liked your composition, so I tried to copy it...(with a S-M-C Takumar 28/3.5)
And a recent snap (with processing) taken by that Auto-Takumar 55/1.8 zebra....
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Forum: Lens Clubs
05-24-2020, 11:34 PM
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K1 + S-M-C Takumar 50/1.4.
I work in non-essential manufacturing and as we've been shut up at home, I decided to try and make/post a YouTube video about some of my lenses as an experiment. I actually ended up posting four videos on "Best bokeh lenses" for M42 lenses. For your potential amusement, I'd like to share this one - it covers 55mm to 58mm lenses, and includes 7 Takumars up against some pretty good "competitors".
You Tube
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src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i0sNtXwt3wc?controls=1" allowfullscreen>
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Forum: Lens Clubs
08-26-2019, 12:10 AM
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Thank you! Yes, it's a cosmos, growing in our local park.
Those 85mm prices! The good news is that if/when you buy one, as long as you can find one at a reasonable price versus current prices, then it should be a good investment as well as fun. I paid 150 UK pounds for this in early 2017, when most were going for around 180, and they've gone up since then:
Looking through my albums with the 85/1.8 and 85/1.9 on Flickr this morning...my personal favourite below was taken with a 85/1.9. If you'd like to take a look, my 85/1.9 album is: Super-Takumar 85/1.9 | Flickr and my 85/1.8 album: SMC Pentax 85mm f1.8 ("K series") - sold | Flickr
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Forum: Lens Clubs
08-24-2019, 12:36 AM
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I had a similar itch to own a 85mm, and ended up buying the SMC K 85/1.8 (the K-mount version of the SMC Takumar). On the basis that if you've going to spend money on an expensive manual lens, you may as well try to buy the best you can. The A* was out of reach and I waited some time before finding an affordable-to-me K version. I wasn't disappointed. Physically, it's a very handsome lens, and optically impressive. After using it every day for a month on a Daily challenge, I posted a 10/10 review on Forum's lens reviews (so I won't repeat what you can read there).
However, I found that I wasn't using the lens nearly as much as I thought I would - on crop or FF. The K135/2.5 seemed to open up more interesting photo opportunities, even as a portrait lens. So it turned out to be an expensive lens sitting on the shelf.
Then I saw a good-value Super Takumar 85/1.9 for sale, and thought that if it's anywhere near as good I'd sell the 85/1.8. The 85/1.9 is an older optical design dating back (I believe) to the Auto-Takumars, with lesser coatings. My copy was well under half the price of the K85mm.
And is it half the lens? Not at all. Ergonomically, it's more tactile to use with the all metal focus ring (compared to the K85's hard rubber covered ring). Optically, the 85/1.9 is probably a tad softer across the stops, and the lesser coatings result in a slightly more dreamy rendering. But I actually prefer that - generally, I prefer the Auto-Takumar renderings to the later SMCs. It's just a personal preference, and I'm happy to do the pp'ing required to compensate for any lack of contrast. To my eyes, the 85/1.9 bokeh is better than the 85/1.8; sharp enough on the in-focus parts with softer and creamier oof areas - and others have said so too. Not that the 85/1.8 has anything other than beautiful isolation/bokeh. I ended up selling the 85/1.8 for a profit.
Coincidentally, I took out the 85/1.9 on the walk to work yesterday - the first time I've used it for ages - and here is a pp'd snap from the walk, taken wide open.
Hope this helps and happy hunting, Simon
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Forum: Lens Clubs
08-14-2019, 10:44 PM
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@ scratchpaddy. Great light! It's years since we've been on the same thread - good to see you back. I took this photo of one of your friends yesterday with a S-M-C Takumar 55/1.8. I was supposed to be going to a cricket match at Lord's London, but it was rained off, and so I went outside to snap this duck in the wet (a duck is also a cricket expression for getting out without scoring).
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Forum: Lens Clubs
07-08-2018, 11:09 AM
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Different groups of ornamental onions, by two early Takumars. The first by a Takumar 58/2...
…and this by an Auto-Takumar 55/2.2.
I waited a long time to find a good copy of the Takumar 58/2, and I'm enjoying the lens's Sonnar design bokeh - often bolder and busier than the Takumar 55s. However, the 55/2.2 is an equally fascinating lens to me, at a fraction of the price. Both of these photos were Explored on Flickr - fun to share Takumar photos with a wider audience - and the 55/2.2 was the clear 'winner', for what that's worth.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
07-05-2018, 12:51 PM
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Interesting discussion about Brunel, as I recently visited his 'Three Bridges' in West London; here's a photo by a S-M-C Takumar 200/4.
The 'Three Bridges' were part of the last railway project engineered by Brunel. Started in 1856, Brunel's challenge was to build a structure that supported Windmill Lane on top, the Grand Junction canal below, and the double-track broad gauge Great Western & Brentford Railway below the canal, all intersecting at the same point. You can see the bridge supporting Windmill Lane over the canal in the photo, with most of the heavy engineering unseen below the canal.
There's some more information via this link with some good old photos of the structure: Disused Stations: Station
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Forum: Lens Clubs
02-15-2018, 04:38 AM
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Lovely shots - with those Pentax/Takumar reds and rendering, and I particularly like the in-and-out of focus subtleties of the second photo.
There's no doubt the Tak 200/4 is a fine lens, especially for the kind of compositions you've show here. It can produce images with great pop (here's one below on a K-3). My problem with the lens on crop sensors related to using it as a walk around, hand-held telephoto lens, for taking photos of wild-life in parks. The equivalent of 300mm on crop, plus more sensitive digital sensors, resulted in a large proportion of blurred images, even with Pentax's SR. It really needed a tripod to stabilise the set-up. Now the lens is back to the natural 200mm on FF, I'm finding more keepers.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
02-11-2018, 08:40 AM
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Who's the fairest of them all? Taken with a S-M-C Takumar 200/4. Loved this lens on film cameras, not so impressed with it on digital crop sensors. But now it's on a full-frame K-1, I think my copy is back to its former glory.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
01-18-2018, 05:14 AM
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Great shots Todd. Here are two recent shots from the aforementioned Takumar 58/2. Couldn't resist stressing this 1957 lens on the second photo - any lens old or new would have done something strange in this sunlight - the Takumar happened to do something quite interesting.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-19-2017, 09:48 AM
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Here in London we had a rather eerie darkened orange sky and blood-red sun, courtesy of the "sahara sands" pulled up from the south by Ophelia. I took this mid-afternoon snap of the sun, sky and some flying leaves pretending to be vampire bats with a Super-Takumar 85/1.9
...and with the same lens, here's a more conventional sky with the sand in Southern England firmly on the ground...
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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-23-2017, 10:09 AM
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Many thanks. Yes, this was taken just with the lens, but the photo has been cropped to get closer in to the flower. I took the photo below for a Macro Monday's high key theme day on Flickr, with a Macro-Takumar 50/4 Preset. It's a head scratcher....
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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-19-2017, 07:55 AM
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Interesting to see this lens in action and read your comments with a fine set of photos. I've often thought about getting the lens, but then remind myself that I tend to do so much processing to photos, including landscapes, it's OK to stick with at the longer end of the DA10-17mm :o.
Here's an example of a recently processed photo from a Super-Takumar 50/1.4, 8 elements version.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
08-09-2017, 04:58 AM
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Great post, to remind us of where it all began; never knew the lenses are named after Mr Takuma Kajiwara.
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Wonderful to reach the 1000th page, on a thread that remains one of the most viewed lens threads on the Forum. Go Takumar!
A cup of tea, by a Macro-Takumar 50/4
And not a cup of tea - a Brenizer image combining 28 photos from an Auto-Takumar 55/1.8 (non zebra version)
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Forum: Lens Clubs
06-08-2017, 05:47 AM
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I agree! Have fun taking photos with it - I've got the all black pre-set version and it's a good, surprisingly small, lens to use.
Here's some bikeh from an Auto-Takumar 55/1.8
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Forum: Lens Clubs
04-04-2017, 05:21 AM
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@ ntrao, Erictator, jschoonj and niceshot - many thanks!
Yes, good call, so many favourites! I am a big fan of the Auto-Takumar 55/2.2. It's a different lens in its design (for example, it has more blades) and rendering. It produces more eccentric bokeh and bokeh-bubbles/balls, and a creamy glow to images, especially in strong sunlight. If you're into unusual bokeh - as I am - then it's a more interesting lens than the Super-Takumar 55/1.8. If you want a lens that is sharper and smoother, requiring less post-processing and less contrast boosting, then the Super-Takumar is a better bet.
FWIW, neither lens would make my short-list of "most favourite Takumars" (!) - that list tends to change with the seasons/mood, but would always include the Macro-Takumar 50/4 preset version and the Auto-Takumar 35/2.3.
Here's a recent photo from the Macro-Takumar.....
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Forum: Lens Clubs
04-03-2017, 05:13 AM
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Two photos by a Super-Takumar 55/1.8. I have a lot of "favourite" Takumars, but really, this one is a big, big favourite for its sharpness and dreaminess.
The Flickr Explore algo must like this lens too, because when I posted three photos by the lens on the same day last week, surprisingly, all three were Explored the next day. Once it came to its senses, Explore dropped the third photo, but the first two stayed the distance on the day, and here they are.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-18-2016, 12:50 AM
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Two recent Flickr explores for my Takumars. One far more popular than the other! Sea-shells by a Super-Takumar 85/1.9
..and this bokeh-fest from an Auto-Takumar 35/2.3
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Forum: Lens Clubs
07-01-2016, 04:48 AM
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Taken with a Super-Takumar 85/1.9. I'm a big fan of the bokeh the Super-Takumar 55/1.8 produces, but it's big cousin - the 85/1.9 - is perhaps even better.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
03-27-2016, 10:57 AM
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Two recent photos taken with my Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 50/1.4, radio-active red!
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Forum: Lens Clubs
01-14-2016, 05:47 AM
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The K 28/3.5 was one of the k-mount lenses that had a new optical design. The Takumar 28/3.5 in its various forms is a good lens, but the SMC 'K' version is in a different class.
I took my Auto-Takumar 55/1.8 zebra out for some shots, and got the usual bokeh surprises wide open - that red blob in the background is a red double-decker London bus.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
12-03-2015, 01:37 PM
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Just a beautiful set of photos on this page above.
Hope I'm not lowering the tone too much by including this K-3 in-camera, "Toy Camera" filtered image by a SMC Takumar 55/1.8. I'm using this month's Single In challenge to try out some in-camera filters, but really, this lovely lens doesn't need much help.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-12-2015, 12:53 AM
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K-3 and Auto-Takumar 55/2.2. Processed to add contrast and light, but this old lens certainly produces the right raw material if you like painterly bokeh.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-02-2015, 02:19 PM
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Many thanks! No, my Auto Tak does not produce a great deal of PF (only very occasionally). The image has been processed to bring out the bokeh (which is rather Helios-like), but zero adjustment for PF. Other images from my lens are here, if you're interested, https://www.flickr.com/photos/95859572@N06/albums/72157650476654070 including some straight out of camera images.
While I'm on, here is my most recent photo taken by a Super Takumar 50/1.4, early version:
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