Flowers is a nice way to test new lenses, in my opinion. At the moment wood anemone (anemone nemorosa) is everywhere where I live. So I have tested the preset, early lens Asahi Takumar 105mm/2.8 on wood anemone, with an extensionring. Oh, and this also illustrates the hazards with photographing flowers – I put my chin on very nasty ants (myrmicinae) who bites ;)

So, finally spring is coming here in my part of Sweden. These flowers (Hepatica nobilis, kdineywort, “blåsippa” in swedish) are fighting their way up. This is the first image I like from the early, preset Asahi Takumar 135mm/3.5 I showed my earlier post. Havent had a chance to test it very much yet, but it looks promising.

Springtime. Inspiration sets in. And for a little extra boost of inspiration – some “new” (or very old ;) ) lenses. I bought two lenses from Daniel, the old preset Asahi Takumar 135mm/3.5 in mint condition and a preset Asahi Takumar 105mm/2.8. He even sent a long an extra Pentax-camera.

At the moment I can’t test the lenses very much since I have a work deadline today and a bad caugh that wants me to stay inside :( But I wanted to show you the beauty 135mm:

For me this is a typical piece of swedish nature shot with old Asahi-lenses (Super-Takumar 28mm/3.5 and S-M-C Takumar 55mm/1.8), and an extension-ring. Lingonberries, heather and mushroom. Late summer/early autumn. The Takumar lenses are so nice for closeups, good sharpness and good bokeh. Slim and light, which is really good when you crawl in the woods ;)

And you need to crawl to get good closups. It’s most often not fun looking at pictures taken with the ground as background.

If you click on the images, you go to the Flickr-page – just click the browsers backbutton to get back here.

My friend Daniel insisted I should have one of these, so I went and bought one from UK on ebay. Can you have enough of normal or short tele primes? ;) I started collecting Takumar lenses, so of course I needed the 135mm. Lets see if it’s any good…

Super Takumar 135mm/3.5, angleview

The purchase
As usual with these old manual lenses it wasn’t that much hat I payed, £8.50 + shipping £9.00. Later on I also got a hood from ebay, it need an original hood – makes a lot of difference. The hood was £7.95 + shipping £3. So if you buy a lens like this, get a hood too. Since I bought from a good seller in UK, there was no problem with shipping or the purchase. Avarage price on Pentaxforums.com is set to $38. Read the full article "Review of Asahi Super-Takuma…" »

Today it’s snowstorm here. The last few days I have had the idea to do a 50mm battle (my armada of 50mm lenses is growing), but I never seem to get out and do it. Well, I have some images on storage since last shoot so… heres fluffy catched in backlight with Asahi Opt.Co. Super-Multi-Coated 55mm f1.8 M42-lens on the camera Canon EOS 350D:

Fluffy sunset with this Pentax-lens

A couple of takumar-lenses used in the darkness of the night in this photographs. The first with Asahi Opt.Co. Super-Takumar 135mm/3.5 and the second Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.8, both on Canon EOS 350D.

Parkinglot shot with Super-Takumar 135mm/3.5

House shot with Auto-Takumar 85mm/1.8

Yesterday I sold my Asahi Opt.Co. Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 300mm/f4. Needed the money and was my most valuable lens but the one I used the least. It was sold on swedish ebay “Tradera” for estimated $230.

Asahi S-M-C Takumar 300mm/4

I bought a Pentax Super Takumar 35mm/3.5 from a friend on the net, zewrak. It looks and feels very nice! Gave it a couples tries, today with macroring and one of our sunflowers.

Super Takumar 35mm/3.5

Sunflower