FWIW, The easiest way to tell a true 8 element is the rear glass element protrudes unprotected. On the later 7 element versions the rear element glass has a metal rim protecting it. jco
On 8/13/2013 2:48 PM, Darren Addy wrote:
Don't know how many will be interested in this, but it is kind of a big deal if you are looking for the original 8 element Super Takumar 50mm f1.4 (or think you already own one). It started when I found this photo on Flickr: 3 versions of Super Takumar f1.4/50mm ?! http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuuan/8312126654 The poster here believes that the middle lens is a hybrid between the 8 element and the 7 element. He goes on to dissect it and prove that it is a 7 element design. But I discovered taht one thing that threw him off is actually a Pentax mistake: If you look at the Red Infrared focusing mark and compare the three lenses, you will see that the spacing of the lines is different on the true 8 element, as compared to the other two. The "hybrid" actually has the wrong line painted red. This gives the impression that it is an 8 element, but if you look closely you will see that they have actually painted the f4 line red on the "hybrid". I don't know how many example of this there might be out there, but if you were counting on the red infrared focusing mark as the identifying feature you might want to look again. I placed a comment in that photo's thread showing the same thing. So the "hybrid" IS a transitional lens, in that they are still using the A/M designation (like they did on the original 8 element) and not the later Auto/Man. But it is in all other respects a 7 element lens. To help narrow it down a bit, in a later post, Andreas gives the serial numbers of the two lenses: 1585445 the 8 element 1591478 the "hybrid" Side note: The majority of people who are registering the serial number of their original 8 element Super Takumar 50mm f1.4s are on crack (or believe they have one since they procurred it from an unscrupulous seller that listed it as such) http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-serial-number-database/?do=viewserials&id=127
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