Takumars are often great wonder of quality, and so are normals like this Asahi S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8. My most used lenses are the normal primes (around 50mm) so naturally I wanted a Takumar of some sort in the normal range since I collect them. I managed to find an auction with some great stuff…
S-M-C Takumar 55mm f1.8 M42
The purchase
I got this on swedish ebay in a package with a lot of stuff. There was this Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 55mm/1.8 lens and then:
- Asahi Pentax Spotmatic SLR in great condition
- Tele-Tokina 105mm/f2.8 lens which turned out to be really rare
- Soligor 35mm/3.5 which I sold
- Gossen Sixtar lightmeter
- big Braun 370 BVC flash I can’t get to work (corroded batteries)
- filters and accessories
All for about $40 and then shipping. I think that was a good price. Some of the items are now sold, I keep the ones I use.
Super-Multi-Coated frontlens
The lens
It is a M42-lens with manual focus and aperture. To use it on a DSLR I need a M42-adapter. Like many of the Asahi lenses from the time it has a button for Auto / Manual-mode and you can use this to open and close the aperture while focusing. Very handy. This is well buit, you can feel the quality turning the ring – the focusring is very well balanced, not to stiff, not to loose and fast (not to much turn). It is hard to describe the feeling, but you just know that it’s good quality when holding it.
Aperture blades
The Super-Multi-Coated Takumar lenses from Asahi was manufactured from 1971-1976, during the development of multicoating. The filterthread is 49mm. It’s a slim lens like many other manual, normal primes. This and other 50mm primes of the Takumar era goes for $30 on ebay.
Side of this Takumar 55mm
Results
I think this lens is at it’s best with saturated images and nice soft bokeh. Good for the autumn leafs or portraits. On my Canon EOS 350D the cropfactor is 1.6 giving this lens the imagesize of a 88mm lens (although it really means less of the lens projection is being used). Can be sharp if needed too. I think this lens is best used at a shallow depth of field. Not because it is bad otherwise, but because that’s where it’s strength is.
For some reason I often get wrong focus with this lens even though it feels easy to focus. But when it gets right, it gets good. I’ve shot some photos in to the sun without problem so I guess the coating is ok.
I like this lens, but it has some great competition in my collection so it don’t get used every day.
Images
See images below. You can also watch my set at Flickr.
Autumn berries
"Flags" in sundown
Fence and sun
Machines
Autumn leafs and sky
Pros
- Easy to focus, smooth ring turning and fast moving
- Very well built with metal
- Sharpness, although some think it’s a bit soft at f1.8
- Bokeh is soft
- Vibrant / saturated
- Value for money (one remaining bargain amongst mf-lenses)
- Good enough coating
Cons
- Min aperture f16
- Eventhough easy focus I feel that I miss focus often with this lens… not sure why, but I’m quite convinced it’s just me (or the small viewfinder in the DSLR I have) in this case.
Reading
Reviews at Pentaxforums.com
Topic at Manual Focus Forum
Super-Takumar version at MFLenses
I like your retro site and also like the old Pentax cameras and lenses. Was outbid for old takumar lens tonight. I like your Flickr pics. Such vivid colour which is why I like those lenses. I am in London Best wishes- Mal Grosch
Hello, I was Googling for price on Mimaki accessories. Your info appeared on Excite. I eventually found what I was looking for here: DX4 printheads
I have this lens, but I’m worried because it has thorium inside the back glass :-( Thorium emits alfa beta and gamma rays that are potentially carcinogenic. Gamma ray is more dangerous.
Look shielding for gamma ray in this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray
I know this is a problem with some lenses but I didn’t know for this lens. However when I investigated it for a Yashinon-lens my conclusion was that the radiation was on a level where it wasn’t harmful (actually not much higher then background radiation and you also need to stay very close to the lens for a time to be exposed). It can also be a big difference between batches/models. But this is only what I’ve heard from others – so don’t take this for 100% sure ;)
would the camera holding the lens be a radioactive risk as well? i mean , since its exposed to it directly.
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