Is this a good deal?

I have sold 2 M series 40mm pancakes in the last 12 months and they fetched around 60-70quid, both sold into Asia, so list worldwide.

I also sold a 100mm 2.8 but mine was an A series and that went for 150quid so the M series must be worth at least 80quid.

And an M series 50mm 1.7 for 30quid, all sold internationaly.

thanks hefty and clarky. as you say best to have a play and decide what I like. I will gte rid of the 50mm as I have the FA 1.4 already. I like the sound of the 40mm but it probably won't be that useful to me. I'll probably end up keeping the MX. We'll see. Holidays soon, plenty of opportunity to have a play.

Don't rush into selling the 50mm f1.7, keep that on the MX and you've a nice set.

If you decide to sell the MX on you'll have the choice of with or without lens, it pays to have a cheap manual lens of this quality as a spare.

I agree about the 40mm. I spent ages trying to get one and wasn't impressed when I did. It's back on ebay now!

If you were disappointed with a SMC Pentax-M 40mm f2.8 then it wasn't up to scratch. These are actually very fine lenses.

I'm surprised you say that. The general consensus seems to be that they are no better than OK. Certainly mine is not stellar.

When they first came out they were lusted after by every Pentax owner, but the price put me off until Ebay came along 30 years later.

It's actually a bit too small for its own good. Rather fiddly to use. I'd much prefer the new DA Ltd version with auto-focus.

Mine spends most of its life on the shelf looking cute.

G

I think the 40mm f/2.8 was brought out to make the ME/MX look smaller so that people would be put off buying Olympus compacts etc. which had decent lenses in them going down to f/1.7. When you look at the size of the elements they do look about right for a compact camera. The 40mm f/2.8 was very soft in the corners unless you stopped down to about f/8. I was sorry that Pentax didn't do what Nikon did with their 45mm GN i.e. link the aperture and focusing so that if you used it with a flashgun it stopped down as you moved closer. I suppose that would have had to be an extra version of the 40mm, but there would have been a market for both.

shim

Comparative shots between the M-40 and 18-55 at the same focal length showed no advantage in the prime, hence my decision to sell.

As a standard lens I feel any of the 50mm manuals out perform the 40mm on both film and digital bodies.

But that's just my thoughts.

I've had several of the 40mm lenses over the years, and all have been fine. Some tests when they first came out put them ajead of the 50mm f1.7 in quality terms, some on a par, but none slated them.

Like everyone else, I can only report what I find, and I've always been very pleased with these lenses.

One thing is certain though, the design may be quite critical in terms of centreing, so it's entirely possible that there are less good ones about.

These lens tests seem to bear out what I said above. The 40mm is the worst lens on the page at f/5.6, but quite usable at f/8 but nothing out of the ordinary.

The PENTAX-FA 35mm f/2 AL on the other hand looks an absolute cracker

http://www.takinami.com/yoshihiko/photo/lens_test/pentax_35.html

I sold my PENTAX-M 35mm f/2 when I found that the MEF 35-70 f/2.8 zoom was a lot sharper than it.

shim

not extensively tested these yet but the 40mm doesn't really stand out for me so will probably sell it. the 28mm 2.8 lens seems to get good results and can see it being more useful having a wider angle for low light which I don't have. So I think the 40mm will be sold first then after some playing with the others in coming weeks maybe sell others.

Just sold my m40 on ebay for £39!!!!

Gutted, still only cost me £40.

How does one add these images into the text, please?

In the your photo section that's explained fully, to give you the sort version.

Upload your photo to flickr or photo bucket for example.
I know photobucket you can simply copy the IMG code and past it here in the comment and your done.
With most of the rest you need to copy the image adress paste it here, the adress needs to end on JPG.
Then simple select/highlight the adress and click on the image button you see below when typing a comment. It will place IMG code around the adress and thats it.

max size of a image is 800px wide.

Thanks, Stefan. I tried the above with an image of mine on ephotozine.com

I copied the url address and image number from my portfolio and clicked the image button.

In the comment it added a box with a cross in it.

On clicking on the box the image appeared with the ephotozine stuff around it, not just the picture.

However, I will have another go following your instruction implicitly.

Thank you again.

Got it!

Thanks again, Stefan.