General Purpose Zoom Lenses for the Super Program

Hi Everyone,

An amazingly generous professional photographer and regular contributer to this forum, has offered me a SuperProgram body to play with (thus introducing me to the world of K mounts).

The thing I missed out on the most in the M42 universe, was access to practical, modest zoom lenses.

I'd love to hear your opinions on a few zooms that would exploit the Super Program's qualities and abilities to the fullest.

Thank's for your consideration as always.....

Probably the 35-70 4.0 A - constant aperture, good reputation, and has the 'A' setting so you can use program and shutter priority modes. It also has a good close focus ability (25cm). It is not all that common on the SH market. The 35-105 3.5 A also has a good reputation but is rarer still and rather a heavy beast. There is also a 35-70 3.5-4.5 A which is compact, reasonably common, and fairly well regarded. There are any amount of 28-80 3.5-4.5 A lenses out there but this was not one of Pentax's greatest lenses - though it is no 'dog'. There was also a Takumar 28-80 A lens which is not SMC - Pentax at that stage used Takumar to indicate budget lenses. Best avoided.

A good way of getting hold of these lenses is to look for P30s on Ebay - they go for a song and usualy have a standard zoom attached!

I guess you already know about
http://stans-photography.info/

I think the ideal zooms are:

SMC Pentax-A 35-70mm f4
SMC Pentax-A 24-50mm f4

The constant aperture is useful and the quality is excellent.

Thank you both very much.

I'm off to search these lenses out.

Ah, George, they've got me into K mount land, where I swore I wouldn't venture. Good thing I didn't have a New Year's resolution to break, eh?

What's next? Auto focus? Digital?

Newfangledfalderal...mutter...grumble

(hee hee)

Mac,

Don't worry about resolutions - I can confirm from personal experience that they are easily broken*. There's nothing easier, in fact.

To the other recommendations I would add the following if you want something a bit longer:

M 75-150mm A really super lens.
A 70-210mm Heavy, but better than most modern zooms of the same range.

The Super Program (Super A in Europe) was Pentax's best manual-focus body with a full range of exposure modes. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

G

* I fell for an absolute bargain. A 50mm macro in as-new condition. SMCP-A 1:2.8, so it's perfect for macro work on a D.

George,

I remember you highly recommending the Super Program way back when I joined this forum. I was looking for an Spotmatic F (done), and an MX at the time.

Isn't it funny how fate works? Before I could get my mitts on an MX, this Super Program body drops out of the blue. You must be in cahoots with my guardian angel. This has been predestined! I taste Pulitzer!

Woohoo!

Why not just go for one or two of the excellent Pentax AF zoom's available, they'll work well with your Super Program. After all, now that you've graduated to 'K' mount, you'll move up to Autofocus soon enough, and then . . . who knows, maybe even digital. Nah, probably not.

My own Super A (European version of the Super Program) which I bought in 1983/84 has had a Takumar-A 70-210mm lens on it for most of its life. I couldn't afford a 'proper' Pentax zoom lens when I bought the camera but I have been well pleased with the results over the years.

The AF idea is quite a good one. However, most of the good AF zooms go for a lot of money, and the ones that don't, aren't (good).

An exception is the F 70-210, which is first rate, and another exception is the FA 28-70 1:1.4. However, the latter is cheap because it sometimes falls apart. Don't pay too much.

And good luck with the Super Program. It's very pocketable when fitted with an M 40mm pancake. (Can't resist a little morsel of temptation!)

G