Pentax Super Takumar 1.4 @ 1.4

[manny212]

Got a real sweet deal on this lens , so why not . My converter is the non optical type .

Just been playing around and having some fun with it . The bottom pic is wide open , not at infinity and focused on the X of Pentax .

Have found a bit tricky to nail anything wide open , but at 2.8 seems to sharp w rather nice bokeh .

Fun little lens . Oh 7 element copy .

super Takumar 1.4 by manny herreria, on Flickr

 

[Derrel]

Those lenses have such a high-precision, luxurious feel to them! Such a robustness as well. Speaking of tough to nail focus and Super Takumars...I picked up a 55mm f/1.8 Takumar for a song a couple summers ago at Goodwill, and it was just very,very challenging to do manual focus with. Same with the Super Takumar 200mm f/4...the 55mm lens was probably the most-difficult normal I'd ever shot...I could not get it to focus right about half the time. Might have been due to the rather long, slow focusing throw it and the 200 both have--a looooot of "turn"...of course, my Canon 5D has no focus peaking as a focusing aid system, and the optical viewfinder's apparent depth of field is, according to Canon, around f/4.8...so...with a d-slr we're operating at a deficit right from the get-go. A mirrorless camera would actually probably have an advantage for hand-and-eye focusing, especially at wide shooting f/stops like f/1.4 to f/4.

 

[manny212]

Those lenses have such a high-precision, luxurious feel to them! Such a robustness as well.

Darrel, could not agree more! Having a mini love affair with this thing.

I shoot nikon, so it has its issues regarding sensor distance at infinity, but up close its pretty darn awesome.

 

[Derrel]

Who would have ever thunk that 1960's and 1970's regular-grade Japanese camera lenses would come to feel as luxurious as today's $1,699 Zeiss manual focusing lens build quality!

There's just something super-sexy, just inexplicably so, with that smooth-finished barrel design and the lack of rubberized grip surface on both the old Super Takumars and the new Zeiss ZF series lenses.