Well, given the replies, I don't really know which lens I have. It's a Pentax M42 thread mount, the bezel says "Super-Multi-Coated TAKUMAR 1:3.5/135" "ASAHI OPT. CO. JAPAN" "5243920". Takes a 49mm filter ... To my amazement, I found I had almost the original lens hood sitting in a drawer (for the 100/4, 100/2.8 and 120/2.8 ... a little short for FourThirds format, but better than nothing). But no matter. It's irrelevant as to what it's better or worse than, for my use. I can see immediately that it is a better performer than the single-coated Takumar K-Mount 135/2.5 I had once upon a time ($22 from KEH...), particularly wide open.
The lens is that beautiful old design and feel, mechanically: solid, tight, smooth in operation on all controls. Very satisfying to handle and use. It's a nice fit on the G1, L1 or E-1 bodies, will be good as a long lens to carry for travel work. This one has a six-bladed iris. I took it out this morning and did some testing. CA on all exposures is pretty restrained, corrected with about +13RG/-14YB using Lightroom's tools consistently across all apertures. First set, one at each lens opening from f/3.5 to f/22, was of a flat brick wall and garage door. I screwed up and had Auto ISO set so the last three exposures showed ISO gain up to ISO 400 and consequent intrusion of noise, but overall I'd say its performance peaks about f/5.6-8 on center and around f/8-11 at corners/edges, holds that to f/16, and drops off beyond that. I then shot a detailed target against a blank white sky to stress for fringing etc ... well constrained light green fringing wide open but not much of it and just about gone by f/8. Detailing at f/5.6-f/11 is very high, good contrast. Bokeh is very nice overall ... a couple of small specular highlights on one shot are a little hollow shaped wide open and look nicer a stop down but they're so small that I only noticed them at 2x magnification on screen. I also fitted it onto the Olympus EC14 1.4x teleconverter and did some tests there. Like with every other lens I've tested this teleconverter with, there is no apparent degradation of the lens characteristics or sharpness with this teleconverter that I can see. Same CA correction, everything else same. (Amazing teleconverter, probably the best I've ever used!) Nice lens. :-) -- Godfrey godfreydigiorgi.posterous.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
