Super Takumar Lenses on *istDS

[ted_white2]

My question is simple. I have 8 very good Super Takumar lenses in M42

mount. Can they be fitted to the new Pentax *istDS? Assuming someone

has come up with an adaptor, what would the new focal length be on,

for example, my 135/2.5?

[mdickerson]

They can be used with the M42 to K mount adapter which you can get for about $10 on ebay. You will be using the lens in manual mode and stop-down metering on the camera (or maybe you use a separate meter). Pentax claims the crop factor is 1.5, so for example your 135/2.5 would give about the same field of view as a 200mm lens on a film body.

[ted_white2]

Thanks, Michael. I was wondering what the Pentax digital mount was. I guess the final, and obviously more important question would be: Is the *istDS the right choice for someone going into DSLR for the first time?

I guess I leaning that way due to my collection of Super Takumar lenses.

 

Ted

[ted_sorensen1]

In case you didn't know... you can also adapt your Super Takumar lenses to Canon DSLRs in a similar way.

[mdickerson]

The Pentax digital SLRs use the same K mount as recent film bodies (KAF2, I guess). They will take any Pentax-made K-mount lens made since the beginning of time, and many but not all of the 3rd party K mount lenses. As for whether it is the best place to start in digital SLRs, have a look through the archives of this forum and the Digital Cameras forum; rather a lot has been written on the topic. Also see the column by Mike Johnston ('The K1000 of Digital SLRs') and review by Vuk Vuksanovic ('The prince of affordable DSLRs') which are still on the front photo.net page.

 

In short, the biggest advantage to the *ist DS is that many people find it much more enjoyable to use than its competition, and the biggest disadvantage is that it is not a Canon or Nikon. You will read that the *ist DS does a bad job with in-camera JPEG processing, but I don't find it so; that was just the questionable opinion of one reviewer at dpreview, and it has been in the zeitgeist ever since.

[jeffpolaski]

I've been using Pentax systems since 1970, but I don't want to start a religious war. I was a convinced mechanical camera (KX, primarily)user up until this year. This month I bought a Pentax ist DS, and took it on vacation to Maine will all my various lenses, I put the Sigma 50mm f/2.8 Macro (1:1) on first and never took it off the camera. It provided an effective 75mm focal length, which only improved my composition from scenics to macros. It was a PK/A mount, which meant I could use manual, aperture and shutter priority, and program.

 

I got home and tried an old Soligor 30mm f/5.5 T4-mount I had bought for my M42 Spotmatic, lo those many years ago. I fitted it with a TX-mount for Pentax K, which worked with the only loss being the maximum aperture would be f/8. I raised the "sensitivity" (ASA/ISO)to 1600 and grabbed the -- highly cropped -- attached shot from my front porch. To set the exposure with a manual lens, I only have to press the AE-L button and the camera closes down the lens, takes the exposure, opens up the lens, sets the shutter speed and fires. With a M42-K adapter, I understand you'll have to do the lens close-down yourself.

 

I couldn't ask more from a camera body than be able to use all my lenses. On the sly, I'm shopping for a couple more used Pentax lenses.<div></div>

[derekb]

I agree with the other opinions on the *istDS. One thing of note that was menioned was that M42 lenses can be used with other cameras such as EOS or Nikon. As far as I understand neither of those brands will meter with a lens that does not have appropropriate electrical lens coupling, which of course an M42 lens does not have. This means you need to do one of two things for exposure:

 

1. Guess and look at your LCD and historigram

2. Use an external light meter

 

Also, I am a great fan of eBay, but last time I checked most retailers on ebay wanted abou 25-30 USD for a shipped M42 to K mount adapter (no name branded) and I recently purchased mine at a local camera store (pentax original brand) for $25 Canadian (about 18USD) so I wouldn't pick up the adapter on ebay.

 

Thanks!

[ted_sorensen1]

RE: previous poster "... EOS or Nikon. As far as I understand neither of those brands will meter with a lens that does not have appropriate electrical lens coupling..."

 

This is NOT correct regarding the Canon EOS model.

 

I think it probably IS correct with at lease some Nikon models like D50/D70/D100 ... I think you can meter on the D2X/D2H... but I don't know the Nikon models very well.

 

With a Canon EOS DSLR, you have the same restrictions as with the Pentax when using mechanical manual lenses: you must stop the lens down manually to meter correctly (and of course focus manually). On a Canon EOS you can use aperture priority as well as manual mode with adapted lenses. The camera will still automate the shutter according to the meter in aperture priority mode.

 

I use several m42 Pentax Super Takumars as well as a couple of Nikon manual focus lenses with my Canon Rebel XT DSLR (and with my Canon EOS A2 and EOS 620 film bodies as well).

 

Of course, as far as I know the Pentax is able to use K-mount lenses whereas Canon EOS models can only use m42 screw mounts (and Nikon, Cantax, Leica, Olympus). I thought I also heard that the focus screen may be bigger on the Pentax and thus easier to use for manual focus.

[Alex_Es]

I got a Pextax ist D last year and am using some Takumars on it, 50/1.8, 35/3.5, 135/3.5 and the old fisheye 18/11, which is a truly dreadful lens but interesting at the same time. It's actually less problematic to use Takumars than the old K (pre-KA) lenses. Which the old K lenses you are never sure of what speed you're shooting at because speeds are shown only for the fastest f-stop and there is not depth of field lever. With the Takumars you flip to Auto to focus and to Manual to shoot. It is a bit like hunting with a flintlock but kind of fun.