Pentax smc M 50mm f4 Macro (K mount)

Does anyone know what one of these lenses is worth? I am in Guangzhou in China and spotted one today in mint condition. After 30 minutes of haggling I had got the shopkeeper to drop the price from £100 to £85, but he wouldn't go any lower. Very sharp lens it seems from the pics I took with it. They also had a 40mm smc M f2.8 pancake lens for about the same price but the pictures I took trying it out have no contrast for some reason, very milky looking, so won't bother with that one.

Not much to go on with completed ebay sales. Only one went recently for about £45 but the January slump in prices may have got it. Some S-M-C and Super Takumar versions have gone for £85--£110 though!

Seems an OK-ish price to me, but not a bargain.

K.

That seems a fair retail price. You could probably get one a bit cheaper privately, but at least you can inspect that one first.

Top Lens should have Limited written on it

Looking at these tests, it looks better than anything else at f/4
plus it's sharp centre and edge and has very high contrast,
hardly any CA and almost no distortion..... Give him £250

I have a copy and can endorse the earlier praise for the lens. I'd say £85 is top end for this lens - how much do you want/need it?

I don't really need it I guess as I have a Tamron 90mm for macro and a 50mm A f1.4. On those MTF figures it doesn't seem to outperform my f1.4 by much. Looks like a nice lens though. I tried to get it for £50 but he wasn't having it, so I probably won't bother. Strange shop, lots of old lenses in there, and price didn't seem to vary much with quality. There was a 50mm M f1.2 with a bit of fungus he wanted about £80 for.

PS thanks for the info!!!

Assuming you mean a 50mm K f1.2 I would snap that up and get it cleaned!

Really? I may go back tomorrow after all. The fungus seemed to be on the inside of the rear element and covered about two mm on one side. Is it easy to get that cleaned? He had another one on a K1000 body for about £60 with the camera....I didn't look at that one. How much are they worth? He also had a few 35-70mm's that I didn't look at, and a Pentacon 50mm f1.8, is that worth looking at too?

Be carefull that you don't confuse the f/2 for the f/1.2?
Happens a lot on ebay.

Check it is a 50mm f/1.2 not an f/2. The f/2s are worth peanuts, the f/1.2s are very expensive (£200 plus for the K version).

K.

I've got the 50/4 SMCM and it is a lovely sharp lens. But I think the price is too high - I bought mine in absolute mint condition from West End Cameras in London (not usually cheap) for £75 including a warrantee.

Jon

if they are F1.2s buy both of them!

I'll head back there in the morning and check them out properly......but the lens on it's own was deffo a 1.2 (said 1/1.2 on the lens?)

If it is an SMC Pentax 50mm f1.2 then buy it. Cleaning fungus from a 50mm is dead easy, although with that one I'd probably get a professional to do the job rather than wading in with my usual cotton bud and vinegar. Assuming it's built similarly to the 55mm and the M 50mm then you won't even need to disturb the focusing mechanism - the element groups simply unscrew from the rest of the lens and can then be further dismantled to get at fungus on the inside. That said, in my experience it usually seems to form on the front element of the rear group or rear element of the front group, presumably as these are exposed to the air via the aperture lever slot. Damp can get in but unless the owner stores the lens somewhere warm and dry after it won't leave.

The problem with the 40mm may be separation of the rear elements, I've read that this can be a problem although mine doesn't display it. If you're patient ebay UK prices are usually £70-£100 for a tidy example. I would not have paid the £150 I've seen elsewhere but for £70 I'm happy, it's a neat little lens.