| Author: | | Forum Member Registered: February, 2013 Posts: 66
4 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 22, 2018 | Not Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Soft portrait lens. If you guess with lighting that gives an excellent result. | | Cons: | Not sharp | | Sharpness: 5
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K-01
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 | | | | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2016 Posts: 2
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 2, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | F2.5, Small, Very sharp at 2.5 | | Cons: | Cromatic aberrations, short hood | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K3II
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Great lens. Nice bokeh and very sharp at 2.5. Is not easy to focus with it but with some training I have the trick. You must past the focus confirmation on clockwise, the more near the subject the more you need to past the confirmation.
Negative: the cromatic aberrations are here. The lack of contrast (easy to correct in post) can be solved with a bigger hood.
| | | | | New Member Registered: May, 2015 Location: Setúbal (near Lisbon) Posts: 5 | | Review Date: October 28, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $62.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | compact, bokeh | | Cons: | no MC, no A | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax K-1
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@f/2.5
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: August, 2013 Location: Axton, VA Posts: 461
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: October 17, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $39.99
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Fast, build, bokeh, compact and color saturation | | Cons: | Long focus throw (even for a manual lens) | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K50 K30 K3
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This lens has a very unique and pleasing bokeh. One of the best long portrait lens I have used. It is built like a tank. The focus ring is smooth with good resistance ( the long focus throw is the my only complaint. The apeture ring has a nice click for each setting. It does not have an A setting. To me this is a non factor. Any lens I buy that is 2.8 or less stayers wide open 95% of the time. For an older film lens it is relatively sharp. Wide open it is soft at the edges. For portrait work this is a desirable trait. For the price you will be hard pressed to beat this lens when used to it's strengths.
| | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: November, 2014 Posts: 272 | | Review Date: September 25, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | build quality, inexpensive, sharp when stopped down | | Cons: | manual focus, flares when open, CA when open | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-1
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I like this lens because it is inexpensive and fun to mess with. I've taken some very sharp photos with it. The lens requires a hood or shade of some sort. Once you stop it down to f/8 or so it gets sharp. It works well with the Pentax K-1. | | | | | New Member Registered: September, 2016 Posts: 3
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 14, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Beautiful skin tones | | Cons: | Not for the JPEG shooter | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-30
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This lens is a horrible performer in many ways: it is NOT sharp at all at f/2.5, without post-processing shots often come out way over- or underexposed with unacceptable loss of contrast and it's unusable in harsh sunlight.
At the same time some of my absolute favorite shots have been made with this lens. You won't get any keepers SOOC with this lens but put a few minutes into post processing the raw files and you'll discover that it has a character of its own and renders skin tones very well.
Love/hate relationship, shots are either hit or total miss. Guess that's better than every shot being ok but nothing special, though, and accordingly I'll keep the lens.
      
EDIT:
Raising the grades for this lens. Long story short: I actually sold it when switching gear to m43 as the 2x crop factor turned this into too long of a lens. Now I have reordered it from ebay after getting a focal reducer (which effectively turns it into a 200mm F1.8 FF equivalent - not bad!). I did so because when looking through my photos from the past years the one with this lens really shines when it comes to people photography. Most of my absolute favorite portrait photos of my kids are taken with this lens.
Maybe it does so well because it compresses the midtones - no smc coating probably does this - leaving you with a very flat base image that responds exceptionally well to raw processing. Metering and white balance can be somewhat off also, at least on the K-30, but that's very easily corrected in PP when shot in RAW. I find that it's easier to put some some punch back into a flat image, compared with going the other way and try to dampen the output of modern "high contrast" lenses, which can feel borderline clinical/artificial. In the era of digital PP this is a must have lens IMO, especially considering the price/performance ratio. Film/jpeg shooters better stay away though, as illustrated by the before/after pics below.
   | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2015 Posts: 1
2 users found this helpful
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: December, 2007 Location: In the most populated state... state of denial Posts: 1,851 | | Review Date: August 20, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 5 |
| Pros: | Size, aperture | | Cons: | Oily blades, heavy, image quality | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 4
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 6
Value: 6
Camera Used: KX (film) - K5IIs (DSLR)
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Not a bad lens, but not a killer
Nice mid-tele but it lacks the feeling of all the other SMC-Pentax lenses of the era
I think an off brand 135/2.8 will out perform it
PS. I got one and in the DSLR era is a dog, I have adjusted my rating accordingly
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: June, 2015 Posts: 235
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 18, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharp, Nice contrast, build quality, focus,bokeh | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-30 K-5
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I have to give this lens a 10 because for the insane price I paid, I have one of my sharpest lenses, and a nice telephoto. It handles well with a nicely dampened focus ring, and is very nice to use with live view or VF. Optics must be nice on this because I get pin sharp results on the K-5 when using macro tubes and taking floral shots. Only issue with it is the coating as it isn't SMC but that's fixable by using an external hood(the one attached doesn't go out far enough) and a nice UV filter. I find that combo to pretty good when shooting towards the light. Overall I have to recommend this lens because it is sharp, easy to use, and fairly cheap for a high quality tele.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: May, 2014 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,045
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 8, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Well built, relatively compact, K-mount | | Cons: | Flares up, lack of contrast | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: K5-IIs
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I wanted a lens that would fit in the range between 100mm and 200mm. Since I rarely use a focal length above 100 except for sports and wildlife I wanted a cheap lens that would tide me over until I could afford the DA 200mm.
The 135mm focal length is the equivalent of 200mm on a ASP-C sensor, which is about as far one can go without carrying a tripod/monopod.
After reviewing a bunch of Manual lenses in the 135mm range, I took a chance and settled on this one because it had a K-mount. I didn't want to be bothered by the added expense of an adapter.
I purchased this lens from KEH in practically brand-new condition which is not always good, because it could mean the owner ditched it before they even had a chance to get some dust on it.
In any case, I was impressed by the build and weight of this lens ! Everything worked smoothly from focus ring to aperture. It took me a while to get the hang of using the Green button to get the aperture, but after a while it became fairly easy. You just have to remember to use it every time the light changes.
Despite my eyes not being as good as they use to be, I was able to focus very easily with this lens. Although, the Focus Confirmation light really helped.
Like others have said, this is not an easy lens. Depending on where you point it, it can flare up pretty badly. I would say avoid pictures with a lot of bright sky in them, or a lot of bright head-lights and you should be OK.
The sharpness is a little duller than on some of my other lenses, but that can be easily improved by just bumping up the sharpness in the camera a notch or two. The contrast is not as good as some of my other lenses, but it's not really a show stopper, because you can boost the contrast inside the camera. Maybe a really good UV filter might also help.
At first I was a little disappointed by the pictures tell you the truth, and was seriously thinking about sending the lens back, but after I did this(boost the sharpening/Contrast in-camera) things improved a lot. So I figured, why bother since it's only an intermediary lens anyway.
Having said that, for less than 80 bucks I have a decent lens that will take me a little further than my Pentax 100mm f2.8. Optically there is no comparison between the 2 lenses, but that's because the 100mm is an extremely sharp modern Macro lens. The thing I like about this Takumar 135mm Bayonet however, is that it render images with that Retro look, that really smooth look that works great with portraits and certain subjects.
| | | | | New Member Registered: January, 2015 Location: California Posts: 2
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 25, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $8.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharp, good bokeh, fast, pretty cheap | | Cons: | A tiny bit soft wide open, heavy CA under some conditions | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-5ii, MX
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I obtained this lens as part of an auction lot along with a Pentax MG, M50/1.7, bag, and Minolta accessories. The lot cost me $20, and I scrapped the MG for parts, so I'd say I paid about $8 for this.
My copy has an oily aperture. The lens will often refuse to stop down, but it loosens up after a couple minutes. I usually use it wide open, I only really stop down for DOF reasons, not sharpness. It makes pretty bokeh bits, as long as you don't shoot bright, reflective things. The flare from this lens can actually look good under the right circumstances, but usually you just get nasty CAs. This focal length is more useful on film, but is still very handy on APS-C. The focus ring is heavily dampened, making it pretty easy to focus, even without a magnifier or split-prism screen.
Pictures:
The lens itself:
 Takumar(Bayonet) 135mm f2.5 by Owen Fort, on Flickr
Sample Shots:
 Squash by Owen Fort, on Flickr
 IMGP9440 by Owen Fort, on Flickr IMGP9388 by Owen Fort, on Flickr
 IMGP4933 by Owen Fort, on Flickr
Demonstrating the fairly significant CA problems(expected, it isn't a SMC lens):
 IMGP4938 by Owen Fort, on Flickr
| | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2013 Posts: 3
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 8, 2014 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-30
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I'd say it's my standard lens for most photography I do or at least my preferred one unless i need a different focal length. I got it from my father who took pictures with this lens on an old k1000 and after all that time it's still a mighty fine piece of glass. This right now is a lens that if I have a kid and they want to get into photography and is old enough I'd pass it on to them and I think it would still preform great.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: August, 2012 Posts: 12
3 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 13, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | FL on aps-c, f2.5, built in hood is cool | | Cons: | long focus throw | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-5
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I found this lens for a great deal on Craigslist. I didn't expect much but man, it is slowly becoming my favorite lens. I love shooting manual with the green button. I'd say it is really really quite sharp, much better than a kit lens could provide. At f2.5 i don't find it that soft really at all also. No issues really with aberrations, or flare that I've found so far.
Anyway here's some photos. View my Flickr lens tests to see more.
 IMGP22081 by JZackery, on Flickr
 IMGP21861 by JZackery, on Flickr
 Blinds by JZackery, on Flickr
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: February, 2014 Location: Warsaw Posts: 76 | | Review Date: June 26, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $65.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Image quality, build quality, fast, sharp | | Cons: | Soft at 2.5, needs biger hood | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-500
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Very nice lens, fast, sharp and reasonably cheap, image quality is very nice colours are very natural.
Lens lacks any coating so shooting into the sun results in flare and very low contrast, but it can be fixed by using longer hood.
At f2.5 lens is soft but very useful in low light. Gets sharp at f4 and very sharp at f5.6.
Lens is fully manual and lacks coating there for requires some effort to take good shot.
Very sharp, fast and useful lens.
 | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: February, 2011 Location: Niagara Posts: 3,907
6 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 8, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Slide out hood, fassst aperture and 52mm filter thread | | Cons: | old coatings not suitable for digital when doing bad things like shooting into the sun.. go figure | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 5
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 10
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I bought this off an internet classified with a number of other film relics as a "take it or leave it" lot. I peruse the classified regularly for fast primes and other desirable photo goodies. This was a real treasure.
On finding the lens listed I reviewed the assessments here and found many reviewers commenting about this lenses poor sharpness. I assure you, this lens is VERY sharp. I have been shooting it wide open for a few weeks, and i have been extremely pleased with the thin DoF and wonderful detail.
Drawbacks : -Yes, it suffers from poor flare, and PF / CA as you'd expect from a non SMC lens of this age. That being said, it performs much better than say SMC Pentax 300mm f4.0 in this regard.
- The focus ring can be a bit stiff
- The built in metal hood is a bit short for APS-C shooting
- the crazy thin DoF can be tough to get tack focus
For perusing, I have posted several photos from my Single In December 2013 effort (almost all were shot wide open, because that's what you are really interested in right):
Wide Open
Dec 2nd: What's in yours? by _Matt_T_, on Flickr
Wide Open
Hood Ornament by _Matt_T_, on Flickr
Wide Open
For the birds... by _Matt_T_, on Flickr
Wide Open
Craftsman by _Matt_T_, on Flickr
f4.0 using CIF
Happiness is... by _Matt_T_, on Flickr
Annnnd example of some of the flare that can be had (with some Kr inbody creative filters)
Awaiting the new day by _Matt_T_, on Flickr
Thanks for reading, if you are considering a purchase - Jump on it -
I cant wait to shoot some film and update this post. 
Looks good on Film too!
Sometimes... by _Matt_T_, on Flickr
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, one have to read for 3 hours to do that
and I'm not going to do that. I'm sure many more people come to this forum but left after encountering this kind of design.
