matt_savidge Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 Hello, I am just getting into photography and looking to buy a 28mm lense fore my k1000. Could anyone tell me if it's a waste of mony to buy a non smc lense? Is smc that much better? Thanks, Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stemked Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 Matt, SMC is MUCH better, but that is not to say non-SMCs are poor lenses. If you pickup two lenses, one SMC the other non SMC look at them from the front outside. What will likely happen is that you will get a lot of bright reflections from the non-SMC lens and hardly any from the SMC one. This gives you an idea of what is happening when light isn't transmitted through the lens. That said I personally currently own two lenses that are uncoated. One is a piece of junk 35mm so it is hard to gage quality with that lens, and the other is a 500mm f4.5 Takumar (pre-SMC). I get lovely photos with this lens using good technique. Further, I wasn't displeased with my results with my old Praticka screw mount lenses; it's just hard to compare because film quailty has improved so much (when I used those lenses). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skygzr Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 The non-SMC lenses are single coated. There haven�t been uncoated lenses made since roughly WWII. I have both SMC and non-SMC Takumars (screw mount). Looking at a print, it�s hard to say which lens made which picture. The only time you�re likely to notice is under extreme conditions, such as strong backlighting or when light sources are in the picture (night photography). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
escu Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 One of the best made 28mm lens is the Kiron 28mm f/2.0 (also sold as Vivitar Series-1), you get on eBay arround 40-60$. SMC (or Super Multi Coating) on Pentax lenses means higher contrast, but you might get better resolution from older single and double coated lenses (single/double coating refers to the number of coating layers, not to the glasses sides). Of course, SMC lenses behave much better in backlight, landscape, etc..., but non SMC lenses might be better in portraits and indoors (with/without flash). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
escu Posted January 30, 2004 Share Posted January 30, 2004 Pre SMC have both single and double coated elements in the same lens, for lenses having 5 or more elements. For 4 elements ones, seen in some telelenses, they employed rather single coating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fju Posted January 31, 2004 Share Posted January 31, 2004 Well there's also the issue of having filters with SMC. The SMC on your lens won't be of much benefit if the filter in front of it is reflecting a lot of light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt_savidge Posted February 2, 2004 Author Share Posted February 2, 2004 Thank you for all the advice! I managed to find a 28mm smc at a reasonable price which I may not have looked so hard for if it wasn't for all your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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