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Archive 2016 · Pentax K-mount lens suggestions

  
 
visualfx
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Pentax K-mount lens suggestions


I am looking for some MF Pentax K-mount lens for Samsung NX1 with an adapter. Does anyone have any suggestions on K-mount primes and what to look for? I am not that familiar with the older Pentax lenses.


Oct 29, 2016 at 03:55 PM
MDelinquento
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Pentax K-mount lens suggestions


PentaxForums has a huge database of all K-mount lenses.
What focal ranges or lengths are you interested in?

M



Oct 30, 2016 at 03:11 AM
jcolwell
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Pentax K-mount lens suggestions


Seeing as you haven't expressed any preferences for focal length and style of photography, I'll recommend a few that are all excellent performers at reasonable prices, but they're from all over the map.

SMC Pentax-M 20/4, very small, very sharp
SMC Pentax 28/2, relatively big and expensive, "Hollywood North", more very sharp
SMC Pentax 28/3.5, small, very sharp
SMC Pentax-FA 50/2.8 Macro, kind of clunky manual focus, awesome image quality (IQ)
SMC Pentax 85/1.8, sort of small, fast and sharp, very nice bokeh
SMC Pentax-A 100/2.8 macro, excellent manual focus, awesome IQ
SMC Pentax 135/2.5, sort of small, fast and sharp, very nice bokeh
SMC Pentax-M 135/3.5, very small, very sharp
SMC Pentax-M* 300/4, smallest 300/4, excellent IQ

Here's some useful Pentax K links.

Bojidar Dimitrov's Pentax K-mount site: http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/
Reviews:
- Stan Halpin (links at top left), http://stans-photography.info/
- Pentax primes, http://www.jcolwell.ca/Pentax/ref-Alex-primes.pdf
- Pentax zooms, http://www.jcolwell.ca/Pentax/ref-Alex-zooms.pdf
- 3rd party primes, http://www.jcolwell.ca/Pentax/ref-Alex-3rd-party-primes.pdf

Yoshihiko Takinami's Pentax lens tests: http://www.takinami.com/yoshihiko/photo/
Adam and Ole Oest, Pentax K-Mount Lens Series Explained http://www.mosphotos.com/PentaxLensesExplained.html

[leverectomy effect on price] https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1207193/1#11508363
Pentax aperture leverectomy https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/937895/0#8881087
Pentax to EOS alt lens questions, https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/718836/0&year=2008#6498441
Altering Pentax K Mount to Canon Eos 5D https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/574010
Pentax K and M42 http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00ExzY

You can check used lens prices in the Lens Price Database,

Lens$db, http://tinyurl.com/jcolwell-lensdb



Oct 30, 2016 at 09:24 AM
wsu6
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Pentax K-mount lens suggestions


Wonderful info and references, jcolwell!
Thanks!

-Bill



Oct 30, 2016 at 05:38 PM
Frogfish
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Pentax K-mount lens suggestions


Wonderful info from Jim as always !

AS MDeli mentioned above try Pentaxforums, they are very welcoming and friendly and I spent 3 fun years on there whilst using Pentax cameras/lenses.

Go through the menu and you'll find massive review database and opinions plus you may even find a bargain in the Buy&Sell : http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/

Personally the Ltds are some of the finest lenses I've ever used, not cheap though. However the 77 Ltd remains one of my all time favourites whilst the 43 and 31 were superb too.

Don't dismiss the M42 variants (although you wil need to add a M42-K adapter). There are some wonderful M42 lenses in the Pentaxes (Takumars).

Another 135 to consider is the M42 Super Multi-Coated Takumar 135/3.5. I kept the Takumar over the Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar MC 135/3.5. It's very sharp indeed and has nice inoffensive bokeh with colours more akin to Zeiss (cool). Excellent both up close and at distance. Edges are good to very good. Very long and smooth focus throw. It is a bit long on my A7rii though and with the Kipon M42-E adapter, the Pentax Skylight filter that came with it (that I don't use) and an additional metal hood I added, weighs in at 465g or 336g without all the accoutrements.



Oct 31, 2016 at 10:40 PM
rdeloe
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Pentax K-mount lens suggestions


+1 for the M42 Takumars, but you have to be choosy. The SMC Takumar 55/1.8 (and it's nearly identical cousin the 55/2) is remarkably good. The 35/3.5 is nice when stopped down a bit. I tried the 24/3.5 and the 28/3.5 and so, so wanted them to be good because mechanically they are so nice... but they were duds on my A7. It was just asking too much. The 135/3.5 is also dirt cheap and amazingly sharp when stopped down even just a bit (so I second Frogfish's endoresement).

In terms of K mount Pentax, everyone raves about the 28/3.5. I note that in Jim's list it does well. I have that one and I agree that at f/11 it's wonderful for landscapes -- sharp and good into the corners. However, it's terrible at f/3.5 and f/5.6, and not great at f/8. Could be mine is a bad copy, but other people say the same thing on the Pentax Forum (which gets another +1 from me as a fantastic and helpful site). You just have to double-check what cameras people are using because the film and digital reviews get mixed together (and some lenses are great on film but bad on digital).



Nov 01, 2016 at 08:54 PM





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