| Latest Review Posted | SMC/S-M-C/Super-/Auto-/Takumar 55mm F1.8
This is an exceptional lens. After taking my time to get into digital photography, this is one of the reasons I decided to go with Pentax, because of their great lens heritage.
The 55 f1.8 may have been great as a normal lens (the lens most people seldom use) but now in the digital world with a K7, it is now equivalent to an 82mm, which is great for portraits but also an ideal focal length for macro! I am using it with a Novoflex bellows and K adapter on my K7. The combo is AWSOME.
The 55 f1.8 is tack sharp in the mid-range of the apertures, but because it is a 1.8, this means it is good over a 5 stop range! Unlike an f4 or f5.6 where you can only get 1 or 2 stops of ultimate sharpness, this aspect alone makes it a super choice for many applications.
It seems I have the older version of the lens, with auto aperture and the slide aperture actuator. As I am using it on a bellows, this doesn't make a great deal of difference to me, but using it on the Novoflex bellows adds convenience with the Auto Aperture but the lens still needs to be stopped down to obtain the proper exposure settings.
Although this is an older lens, I was lucky in the EBay purchase as it looks like it was never used! There is virtually no wear indications on the barrel and except for a little bit of show through on the threads, my lens is perfect. Again, as it is being used for macro applications the focusing smoothness is irrelevant, but it is smooth and tight. I imagine this is one of the lenses that ... |
