Pentax manual focus lenses - which are the good ones?

I am interested in learning more about Pentax manual focus lenses,

particularly primes. I currently have an old Vivitar 28 f2.8 K mount with an A

setting and a Pentax SMC 50 f2.0 with no A setting. I am also aquiring a

Pentax 135 f2.8 lens with an A setting.

 

I am interested in knowing which are the best optically speaking Pentax K

mount manual focus lenses to look out for. While I currently have a K1000, I

may pick up a body that has an aperture priority or program mode.

 

Thanks for your help.

This is a good site to start studying lenses:

http://home1.gte.net/vzeehbv4/html/pentax_primes.html#105

In my own experience the best of the best in photography include

 

SMC Pentax A 85/1.4

 

SMC Pentax 105/2.8

 

SMC Pentax 50/1.4 (any Pentax 50 mm should be similar)

 

SMC Pentax 200/2.5 (stop down a little)

 

Of course there are other lenses also which I don't know.

The best part of the story is that you can buy these lenses with very small money. This makes Pentax so exciting also in the digital era.

"I am interested in knowing which are the best optically speaking Pentax K mount manual focus lenses to look out for"

 

They are almost universially ALL good; its hard to find a bad Pentax prime lens. It's Pentax!

 

The best of the best are Pentax's * lenses and probably the limited series lenses. The prices of the * have gone through the roof. Examples 200mm f4 A* macro (I have this lens beautiful!), 200mm f4 FA, 85mm f1.4 both A and FA, 24mm f2 FA, 135mm f1.8 A*, 300mm f4 M*, A*, 300mm f4 F/FA 4.5 (I have the former) and then a lot of the big glass over 300mm.

 

Pentax's big glass doesn't get a lot of attention, but in some ways it is superior to Canon and Nikon lenses. For example, the 600mm f4 F/FA lenses are said to be optically superior and can focus closer than N or C. However, Pentax glass does not include ultrasonic motors in the lenses, and of course until the coming of the new digital bodies, lacked stabolization mechanisms. The lack of ultrasonic motors is a significant point however in N or C favor.

 

Prices on all these lenses are through the roof since the coming of the Pentax digital lenses.

 

The only limited series lens I have is the 77mm f1.7. It's a beautiful lens.

 

There are so many lenses; its impossible to list them all. You might try Stan's lens page:

 

http://stans-photography.info/

For what it's worth, of the lenses I've actually used and tested, rather than read about on the web, two A series 50mm f/2s were good, but not great, the couple of A series 50mm f/1.4 were both outstanding, the A series 28mm f/2.8 was unimpressive (I got better from Tamron wide-angle zoom), whereas the 24mm f/2.8 was much better, the 105 f/2.8 was also very good. Amongst those I've used, I've found nothing that was as good as the 50mm f/1.4. I'd go so far as to say it beats the Olympus OM and Nikkon 50mms I've used in the past, fantastic at f/2 or smaller and great on either film or digital.

 

As ever, your milage may vary, what someone else likes in a lens might not interest you, and beware sample variation, especially in the used market among lenses of unknown history.

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My collection of Pentax K mount lenses is small but slowly growing (I haven't a lot to spend). My all-time favorite lens for ANY 35mm SLR camera is the Pentax Super-Multi-Coated 50mm f/1.4 in Pentax Screw Mount (M42). I shoot this lens with an adapter on Canon FD cameras as well as M42 and my *ist DS dSLR. It is the best lens I've ever owned for 35mm SLR, bar none - and I say this with some sadness, since I am a Canon FD guy from way back, but it puts my best FD lenses (no, I have no L lenses) to shame. Shame!

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I recently acquired a Pentax-A SMC 50mm f/1.7 - could not afford the 1.4, so this seemed a good compromise. I am quite pleased with the lens quality pretty much wide-open on my *ist DS. An example from last weekend:

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<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/84/226235323_dfc863f0a0.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Bugs..." /></a>

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Taken through glass at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences - Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Hand-held, available light, as I recall something like 1/60 @ f/2.4 ISO 800.

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I certainly hope to be able to aquire more Pentax K mount lenses; in general I hear it is best to stick to the SMC coatings, but otherwise, I don't have a lot to offer on specific models.</p>

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Consider the Pentax 50mm SMC f1.7 with the A. As mentioned, it can be had for quite a few bucks less than the 1.4. There must be millions of these sold with Pentax kits of the mid ﾑ80ﾒs. Great lens. Itﾒs my favorite lens with my old A3000, Ricoh XR7, and the newer ZX-M. Hadnﾒt tried it on a digital body yet. I went with a Digital Rebel a few years ago, and now I need to part with that stuff before coming on board with Pentax digital.

 

Iﾒve got some examples with the 50mm here at the thread's start on these links. http://www.photo.net/bboard/nw-fetch-msg?msg_id=008TTX & http://www.photo.net/bboard/nw-fetch-msg?msg_id=008NYI. They were with the ZX-M, the first in highspeed B/W Agfa, the later in Sensia.

"The best part of the story is that you can buy these lenses with very small money. This makes Pentax so exciting also in the digital era."

 

This is so far from the truth as to be hardly creditable. The A*85/1.4 is probably more expensive, second hand, than almost any other 85/1.4, often fetching $1000 or more. The A*135/1.8 also goes for big money as does the A*200/4 macro. The 85/1.8, a difficult to find lens, can go for more than $500 as can the 28/2,the FA 24/2, the 20/2.8 the 200/2.5, the A*300/4, FA 300/4.5, A*200/2.8. Longer glass goes for much more, as do the superwides. Even humbler glass, like the 35/2, K,A or M, the 105/2.8, the 30/2.8 can go for $300 or more.

 

In fact the only cheap Pentax lenses are the excellent 50's (as with almost all manufatures) and the slower and less excellent 28's, 35's, 135's and 200.

 

One piece of glass well worth picking up, which is both excellent and cheap (for the moment) is the 135/2.5 K SMC.

Here I feel that I must be more specific. My statement on low prices of manual focus Pentax lenses is based on my own experience. The trick here is to know how to make the acquisitions.

 

It is true that if you buy in auctions or in shops the prices may be high. I look for old film shooters that are switching to digital or quitting the hobby. They are happy to sell all their gear collection. The price remains low if you agree to buy everything. I have bought several film bodies to get these excellent old lenses. It is also pleasing to make these transactions as both parties are very happy to the outcome. I see no need to offer a lower price than they ask. The exact price of the individual lenses is then not well-defined, but they are in the ball-park of one fifth of the prices asked in the web-auctions.

 

In shops the price level varies, but I have found SMCP 105/2.8 in excellent condition at 160 euros or US$200. I have never paid more than 250 euros of any Pentax lens.

Two M42 lenses that I own and haven't been mentioned so far, are the excellent 50 Macro (f:4.0), and the "sleeper" of the Pentax line, the 35mm 3.5 S-M-C.

 

Not too many people today are interested in a slow, cheap lens like a 35mm 3.5, however if you shoot at 5.6 - 8.0, this lens is amazingly sharp.

Thanks for all your help and the links to the sites. It seems the ebay market is well aware of which are the goodies. There is plenty of junk out there, which can be had cheap but the goodies always seem to fetch a steep price. While finding a bargain is nice, it also costs a lot of time - and, as they say, time is money

Pentax glass has gotten pricey. B&H sold this item brand new for $359.95 September 2003. Now used its $808.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250019621774

 

I am glad I got a couple better pentax lenses before the digital crowd rushed in.

 

I find its next to impossible to get bargain prices(circa brand new 2001-2003 B&H) or used at ebay or anywhere now.

 

 

A simple search will provide you sales results for the screw mount non smc or smc screw or is it K mount M or is it SMC A? 50mm 1.2's. You've got 3 or 4 possibilities.

 

Long live pentax, well until the price spikes drive me to cash out once i get frustrated with not being able to acquire newer glass for decent money. I do wish pentax still made 35mm film lenses, you know like canon and nikon do. I am not a fan of 1.5x crop glass as I still use a film body and 1.5x crop glass is not dual use.

 

Lindy

I also have the 35/3.5 in the Super-Takumar version (I believe it is optically the same as the SMC version). This lens is indeed incredibly sharp, but with screw mount and manual aperture I would not include it in the category of dream MF lenses. It is quite interesting that this lens was the cheapest piece of glass that Asahi Pentax were offering some 30 years ago.

 

It is very sad that Pentax do not make full 35 mm size lenses any more. Does it mean that they will not develop a full size sensor camera ever?

No full size sensor for pentax is my best guess due to the fact they discontinued all these 35mm lenses and 35mm film cameras:

 

http://www.estiasis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=626

 

Lindy

Another link that may be of interest with lens resolution tests for some Pentax lenses here:-

http://www.takinami.com/yoshihiko/photo/lens_test/index.html

I believe in the long term its just a matter of whether the FF digital can actually made a viable product category. If FF remain niche, expensive and requiring top notch new lens it will simply not made any business sense for the like of Pentax ( probably not for the like of Nikon either, in fact only Canon need to have it simply because they are already in there )

 

As regarding MF K mount lens. I suspect too many are just trying to go all out for the really exotics. Truth be told; realistically there are many good K mount lens. The SMC-M 135/3.5 and SMC-M ( or SMC-A ) 100/2.8 are excellent lens for very affordable amount of investment. Any version of the 100/4.0 Macro is well worth theit price. The SMC-A 50/2.0 IMHO give very good account of itself and certainly best bang for the buck. The K 24/3.5 and the A 35/2.0 is to be recommended.

 

AFAIK, many of Pemntax gem lies with their special lens ( aka off beat focal length and ... ) The K30/2.8, the SMC-P 85/2.2 soft focus, all version of the 120 & 150 are interesting if not really top in optical performance.

I have used Pentax manual focus 'consumer' (SMC-M or similar not * or limited) for over 25 years now. In my opinion best performers I have had are

 

35mm f3.5 (non SMC-M)

 

100mm f2.8

 

50mm f1.7, which makes a super portrait lens on digital kit

 

24mm f2.8 is average

 

Relatively poor wide but good stopped down to f8 is 85mm f2.

 

An absolute joke is the PKA 28-80mm that was packed with P30s and the like. I binned mine.

 

35mm f2.8 is not as sharp as 35mm f3.5 even though it's an SMC-M. 35mm f2.8 suffered a sticky iris problem, which I've seen other mentions of, so best to steer clear.

 

If you can track down a nice pair of 35mm f3.5 and 100mm f2.8 you should be spending maybe $200 - $300 for a very usable range (on film at least - I don't know what I'm going to do with my digital as although the 50 becomes a short tele, the 24 is no match for the 35).

 

My other 35mm camera is a Contax G2 and my examples of these two do not suffer very much from comparison with the 35mm and 90mm Zeiss glass on this - yes really! Also the older all metal SMC-M and other K lenses have really nice chunky build quality that inspires confidence.

 

I notice that 50mm Pentax are rising now as people twig their better utility on digital (from boring to portrait) so snap one up soon!