? Takumar lenses on M9 & Monochron

[MarkP]

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I have the opportunity of picking up two very cheap but pristine Pentax Super-Takumar lenses (3.5/35 and 3.5/28) with M42/M adapter.

 

Does anyone have any experience with these lenses? Are they interesting old lenses or just crappy old lenses, or are all old lenses potentially interesting lenses?

 

Mark

[jaapv]

Super Takumars were wonderful lenses. I guess I am not the only one here with fond memories of my Spotmatic.

Use them on the M

[earleygallery]

My 2nd SLR was my fathers Spotmatic F. I still have it and used the 28mm a lot. I thought it was an excellent lens, definitely worth trying.

[MarkP]

Thanks James & Jaap.

 

I was given my first SLR when I was 15 which replaced my first camera, a rangefinder Canonet. my grandmothers was convinced to buy a new Pentax ES (basically a Spotmatic with AE) to take photos of the grandchildren. She never understood how to use it so within a month or so it was mine:).

 

Jaap, you reminded me that it came with a 1.4/50 Super-Takumar. I do not recall the quality of the lens and will have to dig out some of my old Kodachrome 25 & 64 transparencies.

 

The vendor wants $AUD 225 for the full kit including both lenses, filters & caps, original hoods, and adapter. I think I'll get them .

[TomB_tx]

I had a new pre-Spotmatic Pentax in college, and my photo-mentor (who used Leica M2s) couldn't get over the smooth mechanical feel of the Takumar lenses. He was also amazed at the sharpness when we did 20x30 prints.

The 35 3.5 is an especially good lens. I also have the old huge 35 2.0 lens (about a 67mm filter size) that is much better than I expected. I've been gathering several of the Takumars recently, and they are as good as I remembered.

[martinis]

Ah , the 50mm f1.4 super Takumar as featured in You Only Live Twice fiited in the Toyota sports car. Terrific lens, check the in each lens iris is still snappy though.

[tobey bilek]

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I had 12 or 15 Super Takumars and MC Takumars all purchased new. I could never produce a monochrome print I liked after a decade of trying. Then a friend leaned me a Leica M3.

 

Same 100 foot fllm roll, same paper, same everything but now I got the print I was looking for right out of the box first try.

 

The Pentax stuff was sold in short order.

 

When I belonged to a camera club they had a contest. The club provided the film and processing and everyone did the same subjects. Names were on the back side of the slide. One Pentax fanboy thought he knew it all, but then he noticed some looked distinctive on the light table. Flipped them over and they all belonged to Leica people. His Pentax gear was also sold.

 

Say what you want, certain things are superior.

[michali]

Wonderful to see that I'm in esteemed company here, the first SLR I ever used in about 1968 was my father's Spotmatic which had the Super Takumar 50mm f1.4 attached. I then moved from that to an M3.....

 

Great lenses, they'll be wonderful on the MM Mark, have fun with them!

[MarkP]

I had 12 or 15 Super Takumars and MC Takumars all purchased new. I could never produce a monochrome print I liked after a decade of trying. Then a friend leaned me a Leica M3.

 

Same 100 foot fllm roll, same paper, same everything but now I got the print I was looking for right out of the box first try.

 

The Pentax stuff was sold in short order.

 

When I belonged to a camera club they had a contest. The club provided the film and processing and everyone did the same subjects. Names were on the back side of the slide. One Pentax fanboy thought he knew it all, but then he noticed some looked distinctive on the light table. Flipped them over and they all belonged to Leica people. His Pentax gear was also sold.

 

Say what you want, certain things are superior.

 

Thanks for your input/warning Toby.

I don't think anyone here is implying that they are a match for Leica lenses.

 

Regards,

Mark

[earleygallery]

Maybe not a match for the latest Leica lenses, but I simply cannot relate to anything Tobey said.

[farnz]

What are your zone focussing skills like?

 

I used Super-Takumars on my medium format Pentax 67 and they were superb; I've never used the M42 ST's.

 

Pete.

[gyoung]

In '68 I sold my Pentax outfit, which included 35/3.5, 55/2, 85/1.8, 135/3.5 etc and bought my M3.

I remember the absolute joy of the first rolls of Kodachrome from the Summicron 35, Elmar 50/2.8 and 90 Elmarit, not just sharp like the Takumars, but so much better colour and tonal rendition. Japanese lenses are much better now, but in those days in my experience (and as a generalisation) they were sharp of course, but also contrasty and lacking in shadow detail compared to Leica, and also the Zeiss and Schneider lenses I used on larger formats.

I do have an S1a and a few lenses including the 35/3.5, bought very cheap for nostalgia reasons a good few years ago, the Pentax cameras, including my son's later K mount ones, are about the nicest of the japanese slrs to handle IMHO, but I wouldn't be bothered to put the lenses on an on an M.

 

Gerry

[TomB_tx]

In '68 I sold my Pentax outfit, which included 35/3.5, 55/2, 85/1.8, 135/3.5 etc and bought my M3...

I do have an S1a and a few lenses including the 35/3.5, bought very cheap for nostalgia reasons a good few years ago, the Pentax cameras, including my son's later K mount ones, are about the nicest of the japanese slrs to handle IMHO, but I wouldn't be bothered to put the lenses on an on an M. Gerry

Excellent summary! It was always the feel and handling of Pentax that appealed most to me, and it was indeed the sharpness that we noticed. I agree the tonality is different, and in '68 I also bought my M4 for much the same reasons. Later I had Leicaflex & R, but also went back to Pentax when the MX came out, for its small size and good feel. I tended to get better pictures with the MX than the Leica R, just because it handled faster and easier. The R lenses were optically better, but using the MX was more instinctive. (I also have an H1a again for the same reasons!)