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Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.

Explore the world of vintage lenses through repair notes, real test shots, and detailed archive threads packed with images.
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Asahi's oldest SLR lens on the newest camera
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:23 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:23 pm
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I have tried this lens before when I bought my Pentax *ist DS new back in 2004. But not in a serious way as I was more of a collector than a photographer back then. The lens is the 50mm f/3.5 Asahi-Kogaku Takumar (type I) which was the standard lens of the Asahiflex I from 1952. As you may know, the Asahiflex I was the first Japanese 35mm SLR.

I thought it was fun to use Asahi's oldest lens again on the newest camera. I'm sorry, only flowers and plants this time Smile

What strikes me is the very smooth bokeh of this little lens!



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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:30 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:30 pm
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Beautiful all of them!


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:42 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 6:42 pm
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So cool topic. impressive how crysral clear results this oldy can produce.
#4 is mine ...

Cheers
Tobias


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:02 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:02 pm
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wow! Shocked


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:30 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:30 pm
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Thank you, makes my heart glad...


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:42 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:42 pm
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Sharp as hell!


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:19 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:19 pm
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Peter, you really can shoot!!
And your way of presenting your results is very nice.


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:25 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:25 pm
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Your pics are simply fantastic ...

Did you perform any PP on the pictures ?
Your lens should have an M37 mount. Where did you find the adapter for your camera ?


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:25 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:25 pm
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Simply astonishing!


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:37 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:37 pm
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indianadinos wrote:
Your pics are simply fantastic ...

Did you perform any PP on the pictures ?


Thanks! yes, I always shoot in RAW and do some adjustments where necessary. But of course the basis must be good, so you'll soon learn to "expose to the right" (if you know what I mean; if not then see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposing_to_the_right).

Quote:

Your lens should have an M37 mount. Where did you find the adapter for your camera ?


I got the ultra rare original Asahi M37 to M42 adapter. That's the bad news; but the good news is that I have been working with Alex (HK300 on this forum) to have a number of copies machined. Actually I used one of Alex' copies here and it looks like this:









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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:48 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:48 pm
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Spotmatic wrote:

Thanks! yes, I always shoot in RAW and do some adjustments where necessary. But of course the basis must be good, so you'll soon learn to "expose to the right" (if you know what I mean; if not then see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposing_to_the_right).


I know what you mean, i try (and not always succeed) to do the same ...


Quote:

I got the ultra rare original Asahi M37 to M42 adapter. That's the bad news; but the good news is that I have been working with Alex (HK300 on this forum) to have a number of copies machined. Actually I used one of Alex' copies here and it looks like this:


The adapter looks really fine, this is really feeding my ABA, after my LBA ...


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:14 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:14 pm
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These images are spell bounding...holy smokes....

What can you tell about the difference between this type I and the later one pictured in this link.

http://www.concentric.net/~sherfy/spec12.html

Unable to link...but, what is the differnec between your version and the other widely seen of the same lens, but it looks different.

Last edited by pcarfan on Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:50 pm; edited 1 time in total


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:50 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:50 pm
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Impressive results there.


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:58 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:58 pm
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pcarfan wrote:
These images are spell bounding...holy smokes....

What can you tell about the difference between this type I and the later one pictured in this link.

[url=http://www.concentric.net/~sherfy/spec12.html]

Unable to link...but, what is the differnec between your version and the other widely seen of the same lens, but it looks different.


Thanks for your nice comments!

Don't know which picture you meant to link, but there are three versions of the 50/3.5 (I have them all) and optically there are no differences. The 58/2.4 is nice to have too (because it still is the only 35mm SLR standard lens of the Heliar design and the fastest one of all formats).


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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:19 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:19 pm
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Cool. I went ahead and bough one of the version in ebay. hopefully Alex can make me the M42-M37 adapter. I had sent him an e-mail. Hopefully your image is not going to cost me much more Smile

Peter, what was the aperture settings with these images?

Iso 800 images are astonishingly well rendered too..


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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:58 am
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:58 am
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pcarfan wrote:
Cool. I went ahead and bough one of the version in ebay. hopefully Alex can make me the M42-M37 adapter. I had sent him an e-mail. Hopefully your image is not going to cost me much more Smile


Oops, that was not my intention. This picture posting habit of mine is an expensive one (for others) Laughing

Quote:

Peter, what was the aperture settings with these images?


Hard to say as the aperture scale of my Takumar is off. Most were around f/5.6 I think, but #2 was definitely shot wide open.


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Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 5:42 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 5:42 pm
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I got the lens and the K-7 is here as well...patiently waiting for Alex to get the M37-PK adapter to finally use this gem of a lens. It looks like a piece of jewelry than a lens. I am in love.


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Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 7:03 pm
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Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 7:03 pm
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You're not the only one who is in love :

Congratulations with the K-7. It's a marvelous camera.


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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 6:45 am
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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 6:45 am
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Wow!

Impressive samples...
Now seems to be the time to switch over from the *istDS to the K-7... Wink

Jes.


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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:14 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:14 pm
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Peter, now that you've got me hopelessly hooked, tell me what other asahi-Kogaku lenses are worth persuing. Do any of them match the rendering fo the 50/3.5?

58/2.4, 83/1.9, 100/3.5, 135/3.5...with the K-7's LV, I might be ok with manual focus now.

Thanks.


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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:11 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:11 pm
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Just get them all... Very Happy Although you won't find any differences between the same lenses with M42 mount (and partly black/silver finish instead of all-chrome).

I've used the 135/3.5 A-K Tele-Takumar in August of last year, and here are the results:

http://forum.mflenses.com/asahi-kogaku-135mm-f-3-5-tele-takumar-t9752.html

By the way, the 58/2.4 is a must-have because of its unusual Heliar design (it's still the only 35mm SLR standard lens of the Heliar type and also the fastest one of any format).


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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:17 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:17 pm
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Very, very cool!

Thanks

Jules


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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:44 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:44 pm
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Spotmatic wrote:
Just get them all... Very Happy Although you won't find any differences between the same lenses with M42 mount (and partly black/silver finish instead of all-chrome).

I've used the 135/3.5 A-K Tele-Takumar in August of last year, and here are the results:

http://forum.mflenses.com/asahi-kogaku-135mm-f-3-5-tele-takumar-t9752.html

By the way, the 58/2.4 is a must-have because of its unusual Heliar design (it's still the only 35mm SLR standard lens of the Heliar type and also the fastest one of any format).


Can you share any images taken with the 58/2.4 or the 83/1.9, and what is a decent price for these. I paid way too much for the 50/3.5 I think, but it is worth it ($250 US).


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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:51 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:51 pm
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You actually paid that much? Wow. Shocked

I do not have the 83/1.9 (yet!) but the 58mm f/2.4 is in my collection. I used that one in this thread:

http://forum.mflenses.com/asahi-58mm-f-2-4-takumar-heliar-type-t14817,highlight,heliar.html


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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 10:34 pm
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Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 10:34 pm
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Thanks...

Those 50/3.5s don't come for sale often, so what the hey!
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