…ll comes down to what you are trying to get out of your camera/lens setup. Pentax at F1.2 (100% crop) Canon at F1.2 (100% crop) Bokeh: Flares produced by Pentax-A SMC 50mm F1.2 are nothing to write home about, but let’s not mistake it for a modern lens alternative; overall it still has that vintage feel, most of which actually comes from the bokeh it produces. There’s plenty of it, but I find it extremely difficult to describe. It’s both, super sm… Continue Reading
…he softest lens wide open, but all bottom 3 look almost identical at F5.6. PENTAX is certainly a winner in this round! Contrast/Saturation/Colors/Tones: Again it’s safe to say that Pentax has the highest contrast & most saturation. As I explained before, this can be good or bad, you can decide that for yourself. My personal opinion is that in every day shooting situations (especially sunny exteriors) I’d like a bit less contrast to give me more ro… Continue Reading
…ens to be completely wide open, so I’m glad I kept the Tokina and sold the Pentax. Tokina much cheaper than Pentax and much more flexible thanks to it’s convenient zoom range. Pentax is still a great lens, but probably a bit overpriced even for a vintage lens. I love great value for money lenses and Tokina is exactly than, so this is the one I highly recommend to anyone. These are my opinions. I would love to hear yours. Pentax SMC 200mm f2.5 on e… Continue Reading
…00mm f/2.8 ? Well, YES and NO, it really depends on what is your priority. Pentax produces really sharp images even wide open and doesn’t really need to be stepped down by a stop like Tokina to get a decent sharpness. Contrast, clarity and colours are also really good. On a downside of course is a higher price, no flexibility of a fast zoom lens. There is also quite a lot of red chromatic aberration in many lighting situations, stepping down the l… Continue Reading
…ig lenses must be better and more expensive. That is how I bought a little Pentax 20mm F2.8 twice cheaper than a Sigma 400mm F5.6 from the same charity shop, even though that Pentax is 4 times more valuable than Sigma. Another good reason to check out these places is ability to see and inspect lenses yourself to see if they are really worth their price. It’s a good idea to check are all the rings, aperture functionality, external optical condition… Continue Reading
…iking results possible with a Canon 5Dmkii, these four lenses and the sun… Pentax, Nikon, Mir and Helios lenses. PENTAX Super-Takumar 28mm f3.5 The 2nd version of this Japanese lens was made from 1966 to 1971. There are three variations of this lens and this was the last one to not have multi coated optics. The Super-Takumar has an orange tint to the glass and creates crazy orange pentagonal flares and a full frame orange haze when pointed into a… Continue Reading
…east another 4-5 200mm lenses to test and review including a very exciting Pentax 200mm f/2.5, which is one of the most expensive vintage lenses I bought, but still very cheap comparing to any modern equivalent, so expect another 2-3 videos on 200mm lenses. Next up though, I will do a quite test of Nikon 50mm f/1.4 and more group test of 28mm and 50mm lenses. If you guys want see any other specific tests, let me know. I try my best to make this we… Continue Reading
…eras, which include Canon EF, Nikon F, Olympus OM, Minolta MD, Contax C/Y, Pentax K and a few other mounts. If you search of one of these adapters on ebay, you’ll notice that some of these adapters also have the SHIFT functionality, turning any lens into a proper tilt/shift lens, but these adapters are expensive, slightly defeating the purpose of this post, as it’s all about adding an additional creative element to affordable vintage lenses. If yo… Continue Reading
…r under $100 grab it! Krasnogorsk Primes (top row), Kiev-16U (middle row), Pentax-110 primes (bottom two) P.S. Many people will now wonder which set is better, Kiev-16U or Krasnogorsk? To answer that question for myself and anyone wondering, I’ll be comparing both sets, so expect to a comparison soon. I do my best to make this website a great resource for people interested in vintage lenses for video use, so I hope you’ve enjoyed this & other post… Continue Reading
…believe that these lenses were produced in Nikon F, Canon FD, Minilta MD, Pentax K and Olympus OM mounts, so no matter what camera you’re using, you will probably find a right lens/adapter combination for your camera (Canon EF users should avoid FD and MD mount due to poor compatibility) Like most vintage lenses, this lens seems to have plenty of cons and pros, so let’s round them up: PROS: Parfocal Zoom Good focal range as reasonably fast F-stop… Continue Reading
