• Review of Auto Yashinon-DX 50mm/1.7 m42-lens
• A window to 1946
• Asahi Super-Takumar 135mm/3.5 on Pentax Spotmatic – beautiful old camera
• Review of Asahi Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8
• Lens for sale: Asahi Preset Takumar 135mm/3.5 M42 (model 1957)

Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8 on Pentax Spotmatic Camera

The purchase
I bought this lens Asahi Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8 from my friend Daniel together with another lens. I guess this was about 800 SEK (approximately 76€, $98, £66 at the moment of writing) of the price, a bargain because I have later seen it on ebay for about $200. This is in good condition, only problem was a little stiff aperture ring but it loosened up with some exercise. Normal wear on hood and mount. A couple of other friends here in Örebro also bought lenses from Daniel at the same time and he shipped them all to me, so we had a little package-opener party.

Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8

The lens
Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8 is a M42-mounted lens. This means I can mount it on Canon EOS with an adapter. M42 also works with adapter on DSLRs from Pentax, Olympus ans Sony. It also work on all M42 screwmount cameras offcourse.

The optical design is 5 elements in 4 groups. It’s quite wide for an early Takumar lens, 55mm filterdiameter (smaller then many other 85mm-lenses though). It was produced 1960-1964. It has aperturering in the front, nothing I have though of that much, but now I kind of feel I like that design since I can hold the lens steady while changing aperture. Weight 330g. My copy came with an original hood. The whole thing is made of metal offcourse, no plastic feeling anywhere. It has a button which I can use to open the aperture temporarily, I seldom use it hough since I often shoot with his lens at wide apertures.

Asahi Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8 from side

Results
This is probably the best lens I own. Sharp but the bokeh is fantastic – really soft even in flares. The Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8 is good for portraits but also works great for naturephotography. It’s easy to isolate a sharp object to a milkysoft background. Close focus is 85cm, not great but ok. I like the focal length, on my EOS 350D the cropfactor makes it 136mm. Offcourse f-stop 1.8 is fast for a short telephoto.

I answered a question on Flickr earlier today, which lens I would pick if I could only keep one. The answer was Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8. In fact, the list below “cons” will be short since I can’t find many cons.

Mount of Asahi Auto-Takumar 85mm f1.8

A note on later versions
The later Super-Takumar and SMC version, one with different f-stop (1.9) have a different optical formula. Some people say those are much better, I have even read advise to avoid the Auto-Takumar but I feel that’s a bit stupid and write it down to the “all things newer is better”-myth. Sure, they have more glass and coating – which make their properties different and in som ways “better”, but to disregard this fantistic Auto Takumar lens because of that is insane. For me it still outshines all other lenses I have tried including modern primes.

Images

Leaf with butter background

Portrait of my daughter

Frozen leaf

Selfportrait

In town

Pros
+ Best bokeh ever
+ Fast f-stop, clear viewfinder image
+ Build quality… metal… solid like a tank.
+ Size (from what I’ve read most 85s are larger).
+ Button to let you temporarily open the “springloaded” aperture while focusing.

Cons
- Stiff aperture in my copy
- If it’s really important to you, I guess single-coating is a con. But I haven’t noticed it.

Reading
http://www.taunusreiter.de/Cameras/Pentax_Takumar_85mm.html
http://www.pentaxforums.com/lensreviews/showproduct.php?product=284 (they have mixed it up with Super-Multi-Coated)
http://forum.takumar.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=48
New: Asahi Pentax Auto Takumar 85mm f/1.8 Lens Review on MFLenses

• Review of Pentax Super Takumar 35mm/3.5
• Review of Auto Yashinon-DX 50mm/1.7 m42-lens
• Review of Yashica ML 50mm/2
• Review of Pentacon Auto 50mm/1.8
• Review of Asahi S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8

Icebubbles made with Asahi Opt.Co. Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8

• Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.8 on Spotmatic
• In front of Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.8
• Review of Asahi Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8
• Another portrait with cameralens Auto Takumar 85mm/1.8 (m42 screwmount)
• Review of Pentacon Auto 50mm/1.8

Sara my wife

• Review of Pentacon Auto 29mm / 2.8 m42
• Review of Auto Yashinon-DX 50mm/1.7 m42-lens
• Portrait of Sara with Asahi S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8
• Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.8 on Spotmatic
• In front of Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.8

Well, I needed a couple of images for different occasions. So late tonight I took out the cameragear and gave it a try.

• A chair
• Two constructionlights (500W)
• Tripod
• Camera with m42-lens Asahi Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.8
• A piece of string
• Some Photoshopping

I tied the string to the tripod and stretched it to the chair. Sitting on the chair I focused on the tripod. Without touching the focus I put the camera back on the tripod. With the string I could tell where the focus in the image is.

I put selftimer on and ran back to the chair. Took the string to my eye (so it would be in focus). The lights were like I wanted them after several attempts. It’s a bit trial and error. I don’t have good flash or studiolights so I have to use whats available, but I think it turned out ok:

Selfportrait with Asahi Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.8

• Factory with S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8
• Retrocamera lost in cyberspace?
• My wife on colourfilm, scanned and converted to black and white. Daydreaming?
• Review of Asahi S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8
• Review of Pentacon Electric 135mm f2.8 M42

Asahi Auto-Takumar 85mm f1.8 on Pentax Spotmatic

• Good read about M42-lenses
• Asahi Super-Takumar 135mm/3.5 on Pentax Spotmatic – beautiful old camera
• Portrait of a magic lens
• Review of Asahi Super-Takumar 135mm/3.5 M42-lens
• Review of Asahi S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8