Hi Listers, Apologies it's not Friday for this listing - am selling my K15/3.5 and will offer it here first before putting up on eBay later. See eBay description below. Reason for sale: it sits unused and need the cash for car repairs. Going up on ebay with a BIN of 373 GBP but will offer it here for 350 GBP. If you are interested please reply off list and we can work out postage etc, or I can email the pics direct.
Cheers, Cotty This is a genuine vintage Pentax SMC 15mm f/3.5 lens in excellent condition - with a unique ability: it has been adapted for use on Canon EOS cameras! The basic lens itself dates from between 1977 and 1984 and is in beautiful condition with a couple of small exceptions: a very small dent on the aperture ring (pictured - does not hinder aperture ring operation in any way - small enough that you have to look hard to see it), a very slight amount of brassing on the end of the built-in lens hood and occasional edges, and a small mark on the lens barrel underside (pictured). The glass is clean and free of imperfections and dust. There are no internal problems of any kind, always kept in a room- temp and dry environment. Focus ring is free and smooth, aperture ring and iris operating perfectly, as well as the built-in filter wheel. Now for the interesting part - the lens modification. The rear of the lens was disassembled and the aperture lever removed. This is the part that would normally make contact with the mech in a Pentax body to allow wide-open (open-aperture) metering, and then stop the lens down to the selected aperture during taking. Canon EOS cameras do not have this system and so no aperture lever is required, nor is there room in some EOS bodies to accommodate it. This means that this lens, when used on a Canon EOS body needs to be used in stop-down metering mode. In practice, this means opening the lens wide, framing and/or focussing, then stopping the lens down in either manual mode, or aperture-priority mode, for taking. This may seem slow, but in practice, it's as simple as holding the camera up to your eye, focussing, and stopping down to shoot (or not - f/3.5 max aperture). With a minimum aperture of f/22, everything from 8 inches to infinity is in focus - a great street lens. The actual mount has been custom-fabricated by a professional lens specialist and is screwed onto the back of the lens body in place of the original Pentax K mount flange. The flange-to-focal-plane distance is absolutely correct for the Canon EOS system - so the lens behaves in exactly the same way as if it was an EF lens attached. It focusses perfectly and hits infinity where it should. The modification was made 15 years ago before any Canon EF - to - Pentax K adaptors were available. This lens was used on a Canon 1DMII body originally for landscape photography as a cost-effective alternative to the Canon EF 14mm f/2.8. As such, it was mounted on a tripod and used with slow shutter speeds and hyperfocal focus. It was perfect for this and achieved stunning results - see included picture. Why was the lens adapted? Aside from a cheaper solution than buying an expensive Canon lens, the Pentax SMC K15mm lens is a classic high performer. It was designed by Pentax in collaboration with Carl Zeiss, as the optical formula is the same as that of the Zeiss Distagon 15mm lens, along with the Leica Super-Elmar-R 15mm lens. So the Pentax K15mm has a top pedigree, and it shows in the results. I have nothing but praise for this lens and you will not be disappointed by what you can achieve. Obviously the best results for this rectilinear ultra-wide angle lens are best seen on a 'full-frame' sensor DSLR such as the Canon EOS 1Ds, 5D or 7D cameras. On a 1.3x sensor like the 1DmII the lens has the same angle of view as a 19mm lens. On a smaller sensor like the 60D, it works out to about 23mm. Either way, this is your chance to own a unique part of history. Not many will find a classic manual focus lens like this rare Pentax 15mm on their Canon DSLR! Lens purchased by me used in 1992. Until recently lens was used occasionally on a 1DmIIn as a landscape/wide action lens. Purchase of an EF17-40/4 means the Pentax is now no longer required. Auction includes lens, rear Canon cap and genuine front Pentax metal cap - sits smooth and tight on the lens and does not fall off when lens is held vertically. No box but see packaging details below. NOTE - lens is effectively an 'EF15mm f/3.5' and so will NOT fit on Pentax or K mount bodies without adapting back to K mount. This is possible - simply source a suitable K mount flange for the rear and swap with the EF mount. NB - aperture lever still not present so lens only suitable for use in manual or aperture-priority modes. For more info on the SMC Pentax 15mm 3.5 lens see: http://kmp.bdimitrov.de/lenses/primes/ultra-wide/K15f3.5-ii.html -- 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.
