| Author: | | New Member Registered: May, 2010 Location: Oslo Posts: 7 | | Review Date: January 22, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Color rendition, bokeh, sharpness, smooth focus ring | | Cons: | none | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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The lens I have is SMC takumar 50mm 1.4, my copy of this lens has stiff aperture blades but I dont see it as a problem so I didnt do anything to it and slapped it on the m42->ef adapter and right into my 5d2.
It's sharpness, color rendition and bokeh is pretty amazing, probably the best 50mm I have and used. It's so good that I'm even considering a backup copy of it just incase.
| | | | | | | New Member Registered: December, 2011 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: December 26, 2011 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharp, amazing color, f1.4 is very fast, gets amazing bokeh and depth, works well on both film and dslr, build (metal, this baby will last forever) | | Cons: | needs adaptor to use on modern cameras | | Sharpness: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
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Originally I used this lens with my Spotmatic, which it came with, but now I also use it on my k-x with an adaptor. This lens gets superb results on both film and digital. With f1.4 you get a very narrow depth of field and beautiful bokeh, plus it's very fast and you can use it to shoot indoors without a flash or very high iso. Some people complain about the yellowing effect, but of all the lenses I have used I find that this one has the best and I love it. The contrast and sharpness are also excellent, and I find that the build is superior to anything made later. Focusing is very smooth. Easily my favorite lens.
With a Pentax Spotmatic:
   
With a k-x and a screw mount > k mount adaptor:
    | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: April, 2010 Location: California Posts: 484 | | Review Date: December 22, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $65.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | everything | | Cons: | nothing | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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I have the Super-Takumar version, but I find the flare resistance to be pretty good even without the SMC designation. Mine does show some yellowing that I haven't bothered to get rid of so far. I find it sharp even wide open with a somewhat diminished contrast that's easily dealt with in post-processing. This lens is just a pure joy to use. Very highly recommended!
Pigtails by Ludger Solbach, on Flickr
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: October, 2010 Posts: 62
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 19, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Color, bokeh, sharpness at f2 | | Cons: | like most of the lenses the sharpness wide open is not as good as that when stopped down | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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Mine is the SMC version with rubberized focusing ring. A few things to note while using this lens on a Pentax dSLR
1. Always use a proper hood.
2. The depth of field can be very shallow at f1.4 and f2, so try to get precise focus
3. Underexpose a little while shooting wide open, the results are very likely to be better
Keeping certain things in mind like I mentioned will help you to extract the best out of it.
Many people say that the wide open sharpness of takumar 55/1.8 and K mount 50/1.7 is better than that of this lens. I do not disagree. But this lens is very very sharp at f2. Both the color and the contrast are great. The out of focus rendering is so pleasing. Overall at f2 the images produced by this lens look better than the images produced by the other two lenses at f2, at f1.8 and at f1.7. So if you can manage the 1/2 stop speed difference from 1.7 to 2, you get better pictures from this lens compared to the other two. Use it wide open only when you have to, otherwise stopping down a bit doesn't let you down.
No lens is perfect. But please try to understand the positives and negatives of any lens before making a judgement.
If you don't have one buy one soon, because what you miss is one of the most celebrated Pentax lenses  .
All photos are at f2
The below one may be seen only in India
This one I should have underexposed a bit more
The focus is not perfect in the following image
 | | | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: April, 2009 Location: New York Posts: 2 | | Review Date: November 10, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $145.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Small, Sharp and Beauty | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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Never think that so small 50mm can be better than 50 1.2L from Canon or Contax 50 1.4.
Smooth focusing and superb bokeh, sharp enough for portraits wide open and super sharp from F2.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: January, 2011 Location: Minahasa, North Celebes (Sulawesi) Posts: 586 | | Review Date: September 11, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $140.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Better than M 50/1.4 | | Cons: | Original M42-PK adapter rare and expensive | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 8
Value: 9
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Mine is the "SMC" version with rubber focus grip. Got a minty copy with original metal cap, no yellowing so no sun bathing Loose focusing mechanism though, but a 15 minutes fixing of a loose screw under the filter ring solved the problem.
This is my first lens of the dubbed "Blue Blood" Takumars line. Better than M 50/1.4 especially in term of sharpness and color rendering. Less flare issue shooting under direct sun. I love the "cat eye" bokeh I fail to see on the M 50/1.4.
 | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2011 Posts: 2 | | Review Date: August 18, 2011 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Color, Sharpness, Speed | | Cons: | ???! | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
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This is my first post to Pentaxforums.com. My father passed down to me his Spotmatic and associated lenses he collected in the 60s and used for the next 20 years. I had just purchased an E-P1 Pen and picked up an M42-M4/3 adapter to fit the Pentax glass. I've never taken it off since. I cannot describe just how spectacular this lens has performed. The autofocusing kit lens sits collecting dust and will rarely be used again.
This 50mm is constantly producing breathtaking shots with rich color and sharpness. As mentioned in another review there's a bit of a foggy look wide open but it's gone when stopped down one or two clicks. Wide open is not unusable - it can provide a bit of art. I've made some nice dreamy looking night shots at f/1.4. Other wide selections create shots with great DOF, and if notched down just a bit the results are razor sharp.
My lens was significantly yellowed (as seen through the rear element) but the purchase of a compact florescent black light at a local hardware store resolved that issue. The glass seemed clear with 3 days of exposure and I gave it a few more for good measure. Clearing the yellowing definitely lets more light through. I'd recommend using this method rather than sunlight as there's no heat involved and it goes a lot faster.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: May, 2010 Location: Hong Kong / Irvine, CA Posts: 636
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 24, 2011 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | sharpness, fast | | Cons: | | |
I have a Super-Multi-Coated TAKUMAR 1:1.4/50
I think this is one of the best. The other one is A 50/1.7.
SMC Takumar 50mm f/1.4
Tessar Carl Zeiss Jena DDR 50mm/2.8
M 50mm f/2
M 50mm f/1.7
A 50mm f/1.7
FA 50mm f/1.4
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2010 Posts: 753 | | Review Date: July 15, 2011 | Recommended
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | beautifully crafted, f1.4, cheap | | Cons: | very soft wide open, can't focus on infinity with k10d | |
I had two : Super Takumar 50/1.4 and S-M-C Takumar 50/1.4.
Mechanically one of the most beautiful lenses I've ever had, Pentax limiteds are nowhere close to build of this Takumar. Somewhere I read that those Takumars were from time when Pentax was competing with Zeiss for dominance and every 50mm 1.4 Takumar company produced was actually made with loss.
Focusing with this lens is like dream...perfect. Downside is that you have to use adapter and i couldn't make lens to focus properly on distances longer than maybe 5-6 meters even with original m42-pk adapter. Maybe the focusing helicoid was adjusted and maybe because of that my focus was improper all the time causing the soft looking photos. Because of that my rating is only 7.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2009 Location: Ohio, USA/ India Posts: 478 | | Review Date: June 1, 2011 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | IQ, contrast | | Cons: | none | |
This is my favorite 50 from Pentax. This lens hardly needs any post processing - the colours and contrast are terrific. I love this so much that I got rid of the FA 50 1.4 and chose to have this manual focus prime at this focal length.
| | | | | | | | Review Date: April 2, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Small, Sharp, very sharp stopped down, dreamyish wide open | | Cons: | | |
I made a video review here on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTTp8va84W8&feature=channel_video_title
But to sum up, the lens is decently sharp wide open when not focusing at infinity. It does have fringing wide open and it's pretty bad but stop down just a little bit and it pretty well goes away.
This lens is one of my favorite manual focus 50mm lenses, focusing ring is just right, the IQ is good and the build is to die for.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: January, 2009 Posts: 173 | | Review Date: January 17, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, contrast, CA control, focus, build. | | Cons: | None | |
Mine was the SMC Takumar with the rubber focusing ring. Sold it about a year ago after acquiring K 50mm F1.4. After I sold it, I was depressed for about 4 month and couldn't even do photography for a long period of time, somehow the K lens did not fill the void left after selling this lens.
Anyway, got this lens on eBay all yellowed, riddled with fungus, and very stiff focusing coil. Didn't return it since the price was pretty good. Took the lens apart, re-lubed the coil, killed the fungus... didn't clean it from yellowing, somehow I started loving the warm tones it created.
Basically this is the best 50mm lens I've ever used ( I've used K 1.4, FA 1.4, A 1.7, Super Tak 55 1.8, Helios 58mm f2). I do not want to say its the best of ALL lenses since you can't really compare wide or telephoto with normal lenses.
Lens was very sharp even at 1.4, the contrast suffered a little wide open, but since we are living in the digital age, its no biggie. CA control is very good, good flare control too, never even used the hood provided with the lens. After re-lubing the focus coil it was very smooth, I could focus using only 1 finger and thus was fast enough to even track down running kids.
Hated myself for a long time for selling this lens, but I knew that I just wouldn't use it much anymore since I decided to replace my screw-mount Takumars with their K mount counterparts. After a while I started loving my K 50mm 1.4, but its just never been the same after selling this Takumar. So learn from my mistakes people, do not sell this lens unless you really have to!!!
Both at F1.4
 | | | | | New Member Registered: December, 2010 Location: TN Posts: 3 | | Review Date: December 13, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | center sharpness at 1.4, SMC Tak build quality, very compact given optical prowess | | Cons: | focus difficult at 1.4 of course | |
This lens is a pure pleasure to use. The soft corners at 1.4 really aren't an issue as they are usually part of that buttery background bokeh afforded by the 8 blade diaphragm. I highly recommend getting the SMC Takumar version over the Super-Takumar. It costs a bit more but the better coatings, increased number of aperture blades, and increased wide open sharpness are really worth it. Half stops on the aperture ring are a nice touch. I was lucky to acquire a mint copy with a snappy diaphragm and silky smooth focussing.
The lens really shines from f2.8 onward with great sharpness across the frame. Contrast and color rendition are reportedly even better than later Pentax-m and Pentax-a versions of the lens. The lens is solid and all metal but is compact and takes 49mm filters.
I've compared sharpness of this normal prime on my Olympus e-pl1 to others like the Mamiya/Sekor 55mm 1.4 and Konica Hexanon 50mm 1.4 and this lens beats or equals them at any f-stop.
Focus at wide apertures can be difficult, but sometimes switching to live view and magnifying the subject can aid greatly.
Overall, this is a real gem and a steal at current prices on eBay.
Well, I need to exceed 300 words in the review to be eligible for the lens giveaway so let me prattle on. This lens is nice to use on a Pentax DSLR but and fits snuggly with the Pentax Mount Adapter B for m42 lenses, but removing the mount adapter can be a little inconvenient when I want to switch to a native PK lens. The mount adapter is well made but you must use a pin to depress a metal pin on the mount while unscrewing the mount adapter which is rather easy but can take some time.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: May, 2010 Location: Bekasi Posts: 32 | | Review Date: November 27, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $75.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, bokeh, yellowing (for B/W), warmth | | Cons: | Contrast at f/1.4 | |
My top favorite of all lenses, bought for IDR750,000 (< US$75). The yellowing is somewhat too strong (~1.5 stops). Only ever shot color once, resulting sepia. I use for B/W instead.
Build quality and handling feel is simply unsurpassed.
At f/1.4, IMHO it is NOT soft. It IS sharp, but has very low contrast and grayish fog-tone. Probably good for special effect
Best used at f/4 or f/5.6 and pre-focus, then it is a perfect street lens...
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: February, 2009 Posts: 228 | | Review Date: November 18, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $43.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Nice bokeh, resolution power, contrast, 3D | | Cons: | None | |
Excelent IQ.
Great resolution power, nice bokeh and contrast neutral.
Mechanically, OK.
Very good coated.
from 2,8 to 11 is a great lens. 1,4 something softer corners (as I like). 2 very useful.
The IQ is very similar to the summilux M 1,4/50 first version.
Delicate, subtle lens. For delicious pics.
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