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Good or bad lens ?

Snoops27
Posted 13/07/2014 - 20:57 Link
I've seen a lens for sale. Pentax-A SMC 50mm f1.7. Good or bad buy at £60 ?
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davidstorm
Posted 13/07/2014 - 21:20 - Helpful Comment Link
Great lens if it's in good nick, one of the classics.

I'm not sure if £60 is the right price or not, take a look at what they are selling for on ebay.

Regards
David
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Nicola's Apartments, Kassiopi, Corfu

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McGregNi
Posted 13/07/2014 - 21:23 - Helpful Comment Link
Its an 80's lens, manual focus, and has an 'a' setting on the aperture ring that allows the camera to control aperture directly, thereby giving auto-exposure control in Av and P modes, a remarkable aspect of functionality translated from over 30 years ago to todays modern digital dslrs. Build quality from this era and series is very high, and many are optically excellent. There's a few 50mms from the period, there will be different opinions on their qualities, but £60 sounds ok for a good example.
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Algernon
Posted 13/07/2014 - 21:32 - Helpful Comment Link
Excellent lens and £60 is about the price. Mint ones go for even more.

I've got a few of these on some of my film bodies and could let you have one for about £40 posted inc. original caps. I'll send you a PM.

--
Half Man... Half Pentax ... Half Cucumber

Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff

Algi
geordie01
Posted 13/07/2014 - 21:38 - Helpful Comment Link
£60.00 is a bit rich for this unless it is mint condition and boxed you can pick these up for 40-50 or even less if you look around, but still a great lens though.
Just seen Algi's post take his offer up
Edited by geordie01: 13/07/2014 - 21:40
davidstorm
Posted 13/07/2014 - 21:42 - Helpful Comment Link
Here's a couple of examples of what this lens is capable of:

This is with Extension Tubes:

Comment Image


This is with the K-01 using focus peaking to assist:

Comment Image


Regards
David
Flickr

Nicola's Apartments, Kassiopi, Corfu

Some cameras, some lenses, some bits 'n' bobs
Posted 13/07/2014 - 22:17 - Helpful Comment Link
It is a tough decision really. It all comes down to what you want to pay and how much you need the lens. Why? Well lets give you some examples

The SMC-M 50mm F1.7 has a current street value of around £20-40. Probably better built, or at least feel better built. But then again no A mode so green button is needed.

The SMC-F 50mm F1.7 are fetching the most money. The first AF version and current ballpark is around the £120 mark for a good example.

The SMC-FA version, rather rare, but with the FA50 1.4 still available new, may have compressed values a tad. Last one I saw sold for about £80.

The SMC-DA 50mm F1.8. The brand new digital configured lens, that will work on FF, and if you have certain film bodies, will work brilliantly on them. Then again the bayonet is only plastic, but it is very light so that is not an issue. New price? £115.

Personally, if it is top drawer then £60 is more or less right, if not, probably around the £40 mark is a better price.
However it is your decision, and only you can decide the value of what is an excellent lens.
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richandfleur
Posted 13/07/2014 - 23:20 - Helpful Comment Link
Offertonhatter wrote:

The SMC-DA 50mm F1.8. The brand new digital configured lens, that will work on FF

Are you sure about this?

I thought the latest cheap plastic mount 50mm was APS-C only?.


The manual focus 50mm's are quite very cool given they're quite heavy, solid and gives a real mechanical feedback experience. They have a real aperture ring on them also, so this is good for extension tube work potentially. I have opted for the A version, but then again I tend to use full Manual mode when I use this anyway so it's not so much of an issue.

I wouldn't mind an autofocus version, but I feel I'd use that for different work than how I currently use the older manual 50mm lens. The field of view can be quite narrow on APS-C bodies, so I've tended to use the autofocus 35mm instead for this type of work.

Sorry, just a few thoughts out loud there
Edited by richandfleur: 13/07/2014 - 23:20
kh1234567890
Posted 13/07/2014 - 23:45 - Helpful Comment Link
Snoops27 wrote:
I've seen a lens for sale. Pentax-A SMC 50mm f1.7. Good or bad buy at £60 ?

£60 is a bit over the top. £40 or less would be about right. The M50/f1.7 is a nicer lens, it hasn't got that horrible plastic aperture ring of the A series. But you can't control the aperture from the camera.
Posted 14/07/2014 - 06:30 Link
richandfleur wrote:
Offertonhatter wrote:

The SMC-DA 50mm F1.8. The brand new digital configured lens, that will work on FF

Are you sure about this?

I thought the latest cheap plastic mount 50mm was APS-C only?.



I can confirm that yes. I have one and works perfectly on film without any sort of vignetting.
Some Cameras
Algernon
Posted 14/07/2014 - 10:39 Link
kh1234567890 wrote:
Snoops27 wrote:
I've seen a lens for sale. Pentax-A SMC 50mm f1.7. Good or bad buy at £60 ?

£60 is a bit over the top. £40 or less would be about right. The M50/f1.7 is a nicer lens, it hasn't got that horrible plastic aperture ring of the A series. But you can't control the aperture from the camera.

That list is useless It contains 0 from the UK and includes
any ebay sale containing "Pentax 50mm F/1.7" which covers the 'M'
series and Chinons, Ricohs, Yashicas, Porst etc. Very high prices in Germany?

Hope this link works...... Ebay_Completed_BIN_Sales

There seems to be a heavy demand for this lens. Some of the red
no sales are withdrawals. A lot have £5 - £7 extra postage.
Some of the cheaper ones have faults or no caps.
--
Half Man... Half Pentax ... Half Cucumber

Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff

Algi
Edited by Algernon: 14/07/2014 - 10:45
SteveF
Posted 14/07/2014 - 16:11 Link
I paid £50 for mine, which I reckoned was about right.
davidstorm
Posted 14/07/2014 - 18:40 Link
There's one for sale on this Forum at present for £30.

Regards
David
Flickr

Nicola's Apartments, Kassiopi, Corfu

Some cameras, some lenses, some bits 'n' bobs
PIRATE
Posted 28/07/2014 - 00:25 Link
Is M42 or M39 screw-mount an option?

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