Pentax SMC manual lenses

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ferret1981

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Anyone on here shoot with any old school pentax lenses? I got rid of my pentax kr about a year ago. But i really do miss shooting with my old 1.4 50mm lens. The quality of the shots I used to get with this lens were exceptional. Despite spending alot of money on new canon gear I really do miss the great shots I got with the pentax glass.
So much so I've just bought some quality smc glass to put on my 60d. I can't wait to see the results.
Anyone else use pentax glass combined with canon?
 
I can't shoot my Pentax glass with my digital camera (it's a Nikon, so the old lens compatibility isn't quite on par with Canon EF unfortunately), but I do so as intended - with the great Pentax film bodies.

I have a K 55mm f/1.8 (that's the one before the Pentax-M series), and an M 50mm f/2 along with a soon to be shipped off 40mm f/2.8 pancake. Great bits of glass - the K 55mm feels unbelievably solid, the M 50mm is sharp and packs a lot of punch, and the 40mm pancake is just ludicrous - barely bigger than a body cap, but produces some great images.
 
I got into film again by putting a SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4 on the front of my 20D with an M42>EOS adapter. Came as a reccommendation by the manager of my local LCE when I was looking for an upgrade for my canon 50mm f1.8, he suggested if you don't mind manual focussing and buy an adapter with focus confirm then it would be a good option. 12months later I had a spotmatic f, ESII and bag full of SMC lenses.
 
Lots of us shooting Pentax here. Some lovely lenses in the lineup. Both bayonet (k-mount) and m42 (takumar). I'm clearing some stuff out at the moment, but holding on to some choicer glass :-)
 
Does anyone know why there doesn't seem too be many wide angled film lenses around? Was it just because there wasn't crop factor to worry about?the widest I can find is 24mm which isn't wide enough for me on a crop sensor.
 
there are 17mm and 18mm fisheye lenses in the M42 Takumar range and the do crop up second hand... very pricey though (last one I bothererd following went for about £360).
 
They were difficult to engineer and commensurately expensive. The sub-24mm 'look' is a fairly specialist need, so ultra wides never sold in great numbers.

I suspect that computer design has made a bigger impact at that end of the market if you'll forgive the pun. :)
 
An additionally it is much more difficult to design any reasonably specialised lens for full frame - I'd look for a APS-C native lens for wides, because FF film versions can often be as expensive, as Bill mentioned.
 
There's also the tamron and tokina 17mm rectilinear lenses and the zenitar 16mm fisheye in the cheaper bracket. All still typically over 100 quid though.
 
There was also a 20mm f4.5 in the M42 SMC Takumar range, along with a 15mm non-fisheye. Both of these, along with the 17mm fisheye however are fairly rare and command high prices. I've got all the instructions, accessory books etc with my Spotmatic F and the wide lens listed in 1973 were the 17mm fisheye, 20mm, 24mm 28mm, 35mm f2 and 35mm f2.8.
 
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I have a 50mm F1.7 Takumar that I got given by my Dad and it is probably my sharpest lens. Definitely worth the £10 for the adapter!
 
I use my K-fit lenses with my 400D - bought an adaptor from eBay, always nervous when using it though. Came with no instructions, and doesn't exactly fit on easily... seems to snap onto the lens, then fit (very tightly) onto the body of the Canon. Makes me think I'm doing it wrong - does anyone have any suggestions?
 
chinese made adapters are a bit of a lottery, I've had some very good ones (Roxxsen I think) and some lousy ones (can't remember the seller).
 
it tends to grind a bit :/ maybe I'll get another adaptor some time, they're only a tenner on eBay.
 
I should of mentioned in my post I do already have a samyang 8mm fisheye which is a great one trick pony lens but I was looking for something without the fisheye effect for large group shots at events. Looks like it would work out more beneficial to get a spare fullframe 5d classic body and use my 24mm lens.
 
pentax smc 135 3.5 arrived through the post yesterday. I must say I am really impressed its a great lens the colours and contrast are excellent when used outdoors. I might have a look for a 200 f4. Has anyone else used this?
 
I have the Takumar 50mm f1.4 and recently bought a M42 to Nikon adaptor but the thing is the lens doesn't focus on infinity for some reason. Probably the focal plane isn't at the correct distance?!
 
Correct - the "flange focal distance" on Nikons is 46.5mm, M42 is 45.46mm. The lens you want to mount must be part of a system that has a greater flange focal distance than the one you want - and must be sufficient for space for an adapter as well, which takes up a bit of space. So for instance you could probably mount a Nikon lens on an M42 body, not that many people do.

You can get adapters with a glass element to correct and ensure the lens focuses to infinity, but they are often associated with some degree of quality loss (although depends on which one you get), and it creates a slight teleconverter effect. Considering most of these lenses are being mounted on 1.5x crop bodies already, that means a standard 50mm lens with an adapter giving a ~1.2x teleconverter effect gives an effective 90mm focal view - possibly desirable but more likely undesirable.
 
Funny that this thread should pop up again as last night I spent an hour or two testing all my lenses on a D300 (sorry but it was easier).
I shot Nikon 18-135mm & 28-105mm, Tamron Adaptall2 80-210mm & 75-150mm, Yashica 35-105mm and Voigtlander Dynarex (for Bessamatic cameras) 135mm.
Used both ends of the zoom and cropped to 100% and the sharpest and I think best rendered image came from the Voigtlander, over 50 years old, doesn't fit on the adaptor very well and fully manual but still the winner.
I then tried the 35mm Voigtlander and took a few shots of the boy wonder and its a lovely portrait lens.

Andy
 
^ the rendering of older lenses is also often very pleasing as well. Single coated lenses often give a much more warming rendition of an image, and since we are so unused to seeing it these days it is a nice change sometimes.

I really want to find a good Pentax K to Nikon F adapter - I know it'll involve a glass element for infinity focus, but the internet seems almost entirely devoid of information on them.

A Google Translate of this video description says 1.2x for Pentax to Nikon... hmm... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2cndxXIdlg
 
Both the Tamrons were good as well, not quite as sharp but the colours and tones were lovely.

Andy
 
Well, the adapter was cheap because a) it was probably mass produced in China, and b) it was just a piece of metal/plastic, without even the glass element (which wouldn't have added that much to the wholesale cost, but obviously to the final cost paid by the buyer).

The glass element adapters will probably satisfy, but it isn't "perfect". The Canon EOS system tends to be a bit more friendly for old glass.
 
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