105 f2.8 Auto Takumar.

I have a great many lenses. None of them could be described as being rare or unusual, but this one is a little different.
This is the first lens I bought, after buying my first SLR, all those years ago. It is a special lens, for me, but I rarely use it.
It was made a few years before I was. When Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister.. Nobody had yet heard of the Beatles, and Britain still had a manufacturing industry. Given that it is so old, I think it is in amazing condition. The focus ring is a little stiff and there are a few tiny specks of internal dust. With most lenses, I would dismantle, clean the glass and lubricate the focus threads. But not this one!. I love it too much to risk ruining it.
It has quite an unusual method for setting the aperture. There is a spring loaded lever on the side. Aperture is set, then the lever cocked to open the aperture blades. When the shutter is pressed, the spring driven iris snaps down like a bear trap!.


Any day now now, my lens test chart will arrive and I will be able to see how many lines per millimeter this, and all of my lenses can resolve. Quite why I need to know that, I don't know!.. But it might be interesting to do.

What are those little boxes with crosses in them, at the top?.. How do I get rid of 'em?

they indicate an attempt to post an image which has resulted in a broken link for one reason or another.

In this case it looks like the OP has made an error when entering the links as they all point at the root directory of the forum topics.

Hopefully he'll correct them and we can have a look at what this venerable lens can do (I'm assuming they were supposed to be sample photos)

Ah.. Yes, My connection dropped while I was trying to upload these three pictures. Didn't do anything else though.
Perhaps a mod could remove those boxes for me.

you should be able to do it yourself, unless there's a deeper software problem at work. Just hit "edit" on that thar post, and remove the [img] tags which don't relate to any real image.

Then go out and take some piccys with this lens so we can see what it can do!

Yes it is a fantastic lens. I have just bought the 'K' version to replace my super Takumar one.seems to be sharp wide open
Pete

The spring loading you describe is a feature of the Auto Takumar series which was made between the Takumar presets (the first Asahi M42 lenses) and the Super Taks with the more standard automatic diaphragm. Lovely looking example of this lens. It would be nice to see some pictures taken with it.

Best wishes, Kris.

[quote:3496ace15f="mowog...It has quite an unusual method for setting the aperture. There is a spring loaded lever on the side. Aperture is set, then the lever cocked to open the aperture blades. When the shutter is pressed, the spring driven iris snaps down like a bear trap!...[/quote]I have its little brother, the M42 Auto Takumar 2.0/55

These two are part of the "Auto Takumar" family, which is really only "semi"-auto, but they are cute and fun to use (as long as you're not in a rush)

The lens coating is OK, in its way, but not as good as on the later lenses and somewhat prone to flare. Resolution (with no sun on the front element) is very good IMO.

To experience the full flavour of these lenses, you should try them with the Asahi Pentax S1/H1, which has a pre-view, stop-down feature, stopping down the lens to the pre-set aperture when you take up the first pressure on the shutter button.

My copy (of the 2.0/55) has 9 or 10 aperture blades, giving an almost perfect circle at wider apertures.