| Author: | | Site Supporter Registered: July, 2009 Location: Montgomery, TX Posts: 66 | | Review Date: September 21, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $65.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | | | Cons: | | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: 645Z
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Bought a low priced sample from Ebay, want to have a big 67 lens in my collection. Bought the Pentax 645 adapter, put it on my 645Z and it worked, adjusted exposure based on manual changes of the aperture. I got it for $40 with $25 shipping from Japan to USA
Only did test shots, but I wanted to have a recent price to database
| | | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: September, 2013 Location: Toronto Posts: 2,074 | | Review Date: April 7, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | Value priced, in focus sharp, pleasing bokeh, solid construction | | Cons: | Heavy fringing, bit contrastier than I'd like, heavy | |
A value-priced short telephoto for the 6x7 that's possible to hand-hold with faster film or wider apertures. (Downside is that you'll either need very bright light, very high speed film, or working towards the wider aperture range.)
Downside is that it fringes badly. Magenta fringing in OOF areas and bright light. Perhaps best for B&W work.
| | | | | Loyal Site Supportaxian Registered: September, 2013 Location: Texas Posts: 503
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 30, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Inexpensive, sharp, Well suited to Astrophotography | | Cons: | OOF CA Green/Magenta | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 10
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If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive lens for astro work, you've found it. I've never used it on a MF camera, so my review is only for using it on smaller format cameras. I read that this was a good lens for astrophotography, so I picked one up to use on a Full-Frame and APS-C 35mm cameras. I was not disappointed.
On a APS-C sensor, the stars are pinpoint from corner to corner at F4. As another reviewer already mentioned, color tonality is exceptional in this role. (One of the most difficult aspects of getting good astro shots is keeping all the stars from clipping the color channels (which degrades the saturation) and this lens does a better job than anything short of a pricey telescope or much more expensive lenses.) Field illumination is also very even - hardly any vignette at all. Of course, I 'm using the lens in its "sweet spot", but this is really important when you're doing deep-sky shots and a little vignette is often the difference between getting enough picture data to make a good stitch with or not. Mechanically it's easy to make critical focus with. If you're mating this with a dedicated CCD or DSLR, there's enough room to fit a filter wheel between the lens and camera. If you using something like the Pentax P-Adapter (6x7 to M42) to fit it to your dslr, you can take advantage of the fact that the adapter has internal 49mm threads, and therefore you can use a 49->48mm stepdown ring to enable use of your astronomical filters.
A solid value, as these are readily available online for good prices.
| | | | | Giveaway winner! Registered: December, 2007 Location: beantown Posts: 944
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 22, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | very sharp, well behaved in glare conditions | | Cons: | a little far sighted | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
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This is a sharp lens and I've had very good results from it. The common complaint is the close focus being not all that close. That is more a minor point for me and I am more out to 8-15 feet for many shots so far, so I've not had the frustration as some do. I found this focal length to still allow me to get away with handheld shots and though the f4 is not fast, it is still sharp enough (bright indoors). This is a very good lens so far and I hope I don't find too many negatives along the way.
Update: Well found a point where I'll agree. Small nephew... couldn't quite manage the right framing for a portrait... yes, not close enough. Lucky thing I had my extension tubes to play with and he was willing to stand there.
| | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: montreal Posts: 136 | | Review Date: November 7, 2010 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | sharp, built quality | | Cons: | some green CA, sensor flare | |
Hi,
this review is based on the use on my K20D, it's a sharp lens , not spectacular but sharp enough for most use from f/5.6. The problem is that there is some green CA in OOF background, if you use it for landscape it shouldn't be a problem since you will stop it down for DOF. The thing that bugs me is sensor flare, especially in long distance shots on an overcast day when stopped down.
Because of those 2 things i gave it an 8. Still a good lens.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: May, 2009 Location: S. Ontario Posts: 30
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 29, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $180.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Solid - ex. contrast and colour saturation - takes 67mm filters | | Cons: | Tad heavy - price for being solid & well built. | |
I rated this a 9 - even though it lacks the close focus distance like that of the updated version. I use the 165 lens for portraits, so the closer focus is not that much of an issue for me. The older version shares the 67 mm filters with the 90, 135 & 165 lenses. The newer version uses a 77mm filter, so more stuff to carry.
The older design has a natural feel when on the camera. The glass and coatings used gives an extra richness to the colours - compared to the newer 200 version. My friend now has this lens and has taken a number of astro photos with it shot wide open at f4. A small amount of vignette at the corners - to be expected wide open - as shooting tiny pin points of light and faint nebulae are very demanding on a lens.
He has also shot astro frames with various other Pentax lenses, but the results from this older 200 lens left us stunned. The colour saturation and tonality of the stars - especially the gold, red / orange giants, was incredible. The blue and pure white stars were no exception, filling the frame with a veritable feast of colours for the eyes. None of the other lenses have reproduced the colour saturation and tones captured with this lens to date.
I have since replaced this lens with the newer design. It's lighter, very sharp, closer focusing, a great lens, but does not have the feel or tonal quality of the older lens. Photos of sunsets, especially the gold reflections in water of a yellow / orange sun will show the differences between the two versions. Yes, I'm thinking of going back to the older version.
Just be aware as this Takumar lens, as well as other lenses will reach critical focus before the infinity stop on the lens. I have proved this with with my 300 lpi Ronchi screen on my Stiletto focuser using a brighter star at night. Critical focus was achieved about the middle of the infinity symbol where the mark pinches in.
This is necessary with astrophotography where the atmosphere and angle on the horizon, plus use of filters, will change critical focus. It is rarely right against the infinity stop on the lens. I believe this was intentionally designed by Pentax, for the astrophotographers.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: February, 2009 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 527 | | Review Date: February 20, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | sharp and inexpensive | | Cons: | Not close enough focusing for portraits | |
The fact this lens didn't close focus for me was an issue. I replaced it with the newer version.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: February, 2009 Location: SLovakia Posts: 141
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 5, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $200.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | very good sharpness, flares well controlled, perfect and solid build quality | | Cons: | only that minimal focus is about 2,5 meters | |
I really love this lens. It is very sharp and very good against the sun.
Itīs a passion taking pictures with this lens. Depth of field is very narrow, it can be beautifully used in pictures with small DOF.
Outstanding in direct sunlight , 8 aperture blades = 8 starbursts:
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