Andy Collins Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 I know very little about Pentax manual lenses, which is ironic because my first slr was an ME Super, albeit with an SMC Pentax-M 50mm f/2 and a Gemini 28mm f/2.8. That was as far as my Pentax lens experience extended before leaving manual cameras to dive into the world of EOS a few years later. Even since I began collecting cameras some years ago, I only had a few lenses, most of which were excellent, several versions of the 50mm f/1.4, from Super Takumar through the Pentax-A and Pentax-M 1.4s, the Pentax-A 24-50mm, the Pentax-A 35-105, and a couple others. Recently I acquired the 28-135mm f/4 beast, as I posted last week. So far I'm enjoying it a lot and building up muscle carrying it around. My question this time concerns the SMC Pentax-A Zoom 28-80mm f/3.5-4.5. I've read mixed messages about this lens, or maybe I'm just mixed up. I understand that it was a kit lens and that the non-SMC version was not a very good lens, but that the SMC "A" version (which is what I happen to have--it came with a pristine ME Super for $32!) was pretty good. Is that correct? What have any of you experienced with the SMC version of this short zoom (or the other one, for that matter), and is it a keeper or one to move along? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m42dave Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 (edited) Andy, Years ago I had the 'Takumar-A" (non-SMC) 28-80 and used it on a ME Super body for a while. It was a budget lens, largely plastic construction as I remember. I don't know if was even manufactured by Pentax, or possibly sourced from Cosina or elsewhere. I don't think it got the highest user reviews, but I thought it was a surprisingly decent lens. Hope you can post some results from your 28-135. Dave Edited July 26, 2017 by m42dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Collins Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 Thanks Dave. That's pretty much the same opinion I've read from others regarding the Takumar-A 28-80. I'm really curious as to how different the SMC is to the Tak-A though. As for the 28-135, I will certainly post some pics. I'm almost finished with the roll of film, so hopefully I'll have some soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDMvW Posted July 27, 2017 Share Posted July 27, 2017 off topic, but... When I used Pentaxes (link), zoom lenses were exotic and mostly unsharp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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