• Review of Asahi S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8
• Review of Asahi Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8
• Good read about M42-lenses
• Thunder awaits us
• Super-Takumar Sunflower as Stockphoto

Classic car

• Garphyttan in morning mist
• Camera collectors table at Classic motor fair
• Classic cars (and cameras) next week
• With a manual lens on the hill
• New lens: Yashica ML 50mm/1.4

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

• Review of Yashica ML 50mm/2
• Review of Asahi Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8
• Review of Pentax Super Takumar 35mm/3.5
• Review of Asahi Super-Takumar 135mm/3.5 M42-lens
• Review of Auto Yashinon-DX 50mm/1.7 m42-lens

Fluffy sunset with this Pentax-lens

• Good read about M42-lenses
• Renewed Flickr account today
• Thunder awaits us
• Review of Asahi S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8
• How to remember your manual lenses without EXIF

Photograph of Sara made with Asahi S-M-C Tak 55mm f1.8

• Pidgins with Super-Takumar 135mm/3.5
• Autumn with Super-Takumar 85mm/1.9
• Bohemian waxwings with Asahi Super-Takumar 135mm/3.5
• Greenfilter + Photoshop = Graphical
• Portrait of a magic lens

Losenhausenwerk with Asahi S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8

Handles

• Good read about M42-lenses
• A photowalk on 1 november
• Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.8 on Spotmatic
• Takumar photographs in the night
• A little package

Steelfactory gear in Garphyttan

• In front of Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.8
• Portrait of Sara with Asahi S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8
• Pidgins with Super-Takumar 135mm/3.5
• Submition to “$50-dollar film camera project”
• Review of Tele-Tokina 105mm/2.8 preset T2

Spotmatic and S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8

• Review of Asahi S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8
• Swedish nature shot with old Asahi-lenses
• Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.8 on Spotmatic
• Photolinks, part 1
• Review of Asahi Super-Takumar 135mm/3.5 M42-lens