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luisalegria
Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Posts: 6627 Location: San Francisco, USA
Expire: 2018-01-18
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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 7:41 pm Post subject: S-M-C Takumar 300mm f/4 |
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luisalegria wrote:
Super-Multi-Coated Takumar version.
A very lucky find, I got this at an excellent price. I have been looking for a cheap one for years.
This had a bit of fungus, fortunately just on the surface of the front element, and no coating damage. It came with a very nice Pentax 77mm filter though, that has extensive scratching and coating loss, so it seems to have served its purpose as protection.
Otherwise somewhat worn, but in excellent functional condition.
Family picture - the more common automatic Takumars - back row - 135/3.5 (with hood), 200/4, 300/4; front row 28/3.5 (with hood), 35/3.5, 55/2
This is most definitely a Takumar. It is smooth, slick, sophisticated, quality machinery. For a 300/4 it is extremely compact and light, as in the Pentax tradition. This is a smaller and lighter lens than many third party 300/5.6 lenses, or many @200mm zooms of its time and later.
It has a built-in hood thats actually quite good of its kind, though I actually use it with a longer screw in hood.
The tripod mount is removable, fortunately, as it interferes with mounting on DSLR's, and even on my old Pentax SV when the meter is attached. Its the same standard removable mount used on the 200/3.5 and 300/6.3 presets, which is useful.
As for usability, its only drawback is a rather long minimum focus of 6 meters - 18 feet. That seems to have been the design tradeoff to make it compact. Bokeh is also fairly busy. This is not a Sonnar.
Focus throw is very long, typical of its time, which is helpful in getting precise focus, though not so good for quick focusing.
Performance - this is sharp enough in the center at f/4, at closer ranges, to hit the limit of my Pentax K30 sensor. That should be more than good enough for any digital camera for nature photography and make it perfectly usable at f/4 for most purposes. It is not so sharp at infinity wide open though. It gets much better at f/5.6 at infinity. It can show extreme color fringing under the worst circumstances, and a limited degree of CA. All in all, for its day, a very impressive piece.
Samples - all at f/4
Color Fringing extreme case -
The bird -
Crop -
_________________ I like Pentax DSLR's, Exaktas, M42 bodies of all kinds, strange and cheap Japanese lenses, and am dabbling in medium format/Speed Graphic work.
Last edited by luisalegria on Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:47 am; edited 2 times in total |
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mikkokan
Joined: 17 Apr 2012 Posts: 170 Location: Finland
Expire: 2015-12-02
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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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mikkokan wrote:
Wow, looks great! _________________ Canon EOS 1Ds mkII, 1D mkIV, 1D mkII, Fuji X-E1
Takumars 28mm 3.5, 50mm 1.4, 135mm 3.5, Helios 44-2, Tamron 70-210, Domiplan 50mm, Trioplan 100mm
AF-lenses:Canon 24-105L, Sigma 50mm 1.4HSM, Canon 135mm 2.0L, Canon 24-105L, Sigma 12-24, Sigma ART 35mm 1.4 |
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Lightshow
Joined: 04 Nov 2011 Posts: 3669 Location: Calgary
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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:55 pm Post subject: |
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Lightshow wrote:
Very nice, you are missing some good lenses in that family shot...
50/1.4, 55/1.8, 85/1.8, & 105/2.8 _________________ A Manual Focus Junky...
One photographers junk lens is an artists favorite tool.
My lens list
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightshow-photography/ |
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luisalegria
Joined: 07 Mar 2008 Posts: 6627 Location: San Francisco, USA
Expire: 2018-01-18
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Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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luisalegria wrote:
Missing more than that.
I have a 50/1.4, its on loan to a friend.
Most of the others are fairly expensive.
I have to find a bargain.
I have had most of these since I was a kid actually. _________________ I like Pentax DSLR's, Exaktas, M42 bodies of all kinds, strange and cheap Japanese lenses, and am dabbling in medium format/Speed Graphic work. |
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Lloydy
Joined: 02 Sep 2009 Posts: 7775 Location: Ironbridge. UK.
Expire: 2022-01-01
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Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 12:54 am Post subject: |
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Lloydy wrote:
Very impressive, both the lens and the pictures. _________________ LENSES & CAMERAS FOR SALE.....
I have loads of stuff that I have to get rid of, if you see me commenting about something I have got and you want one, ask me.
My Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/mudplugga/
My ipernity -
http://www.ipernity.com/home/294337 |
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shapencolour
Joined: 03 Oct 2013 Posts: 270
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Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 10:28 am Post subject: |
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shapencolour wrote:
I've tried this lens lately,but excessive CA deterred me.They are so pronounced that after correction sharpness suffers too much. _________________ shapencolour |
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Gerald
Joined: 25 Mar 2014 Posts: 1196 Location: Brazil
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Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2015 5:46 pm Post subject: Re: S-M-C Takumar 300mm f/4 |
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Gerald wrote:
I too have a Super Takumar 300mm F4, which is the exact same Luis' lens except for the coating that is single layer. I agree with just about everything Luis said, but I would like to add some additional information.
In virtually every super telephoto lens, including the modern apochromatic ones, the residual chromatic aberration can be visible in certain situations. It is up to the photographer to control it. As we know, there two kinds of chromatic aberrations. The longitudinal chromatic aberration cannot be easily removed by post-processing, but it virtually disappears when the lens is stopped down to F5.6 or F8. The lateral chromatic aberration, on the other hands, remains more or less the same regardless of the aperture, but luckily it is easily eliminated with post-processing.
luisalegria wrote: |
Performance - this is sharp enough in the center at f/4, at closer ranges, to hit the limit of my Pentax K30 sensor. That should be more than good enough for any digital camera for nature photography and make it perfectly usable at f/4 for most purposes. It is not so sharp at infinity wide open though. It gets much better at f/5.6 at infinity. |
The peak performance occurs for F5.6 to F8, but in my lens, the difference in sharpness between wide open and F8 is small, barely visible, regardless of the focusing distance. It seems to me that Luis' lens is in need of a small adjustment of the infinity focus. This is done by unscrewing the three small screws on the focusing ring.
To give an idea of the difference in sharpness between wide open and F8, please see the 100% crops of photographs taken from a house 1500m away. The images are from camera's JPEG without pp sharpening.
F4 (wide-open) center 100% crop:
F8 center 100% crop:
Comments: The F8 image is certainly sharper than F4, but the difference is slight for my yes. _________________ If raindrops were perfect lenses, the rainbow did not exist. |
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aoleg
Joined: 22 Feb 2008 Posts: 1389 Location: Berlin, DE
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Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2015 2:19 pm Post subject: |
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aoleg wrote:
I used to own an SMC version of this lens. Got rid of it for its quite excessive CA. _________________ List of lenses |
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