SMC Takumar 1:2.5/135 - another day's lockdown, another lens.

If lockdown has an up side it's got to be the time and motivation to get all your lenses out. From what I have discovered, this
one has at least three variants (four if you include the K 135). Of the Takumars, the final version with eight aperture leaves is
reckoned to be the best. I put it onto the K5 to give that an airing too. It produces wonderful, richly saturated colours and it is
sharp from the largest apertures. None of these are above f4.

1. Who says weeds are unattractive? This lot, lined up in a crack, make quite a nice composition.



2. There have been a few bluebells of late so here are some white ones and some pink ones.



3.



4. Remember that this is a 135mm and certainly not a macro lens. The minimum focusing distance is just over five feet.
I intentionally went for the solitary bee on the clematis but I wasn't even aware of the ant on the peaone, which was
shot from about 12 feet away. It's resolving power is considerable, even wide open.



5.



My apologies for all the flowers recently but I'm stuck with the back garden. It at least lets me use my collection of
old glass.

Lovely set.

Agreed, beautiful moody shots.

Love the lens as well, the long minimum focusing distance is an interesting characteristic to work around.

Superb set, although #5 is the stand out image for me, just needs a slight compositional tweak to bring the chopped off leaves in from the left in to the image

Nice set taken with a great lens - so solid, smooth and well engineered. That short minimum focus is a great feature on a lens that has so few weaknesses.

And....

...no apologies David, just keep em coming

These look very good. I have the K version but haven't used it much yet. I'd break it out but don't currently have it with me where I'm quarantined.

I know what you mean about flower pictures - they've always been a fall-back for when I don't have anything more interesting to photograph, and that applies now more than ever.

Pic 2 and 3 but I'd be inclined to brighten the white a bit to give them more punch in the frame

I'm about 90% sure the flowering plant in the first photo is a strawberry plant.

Nice collection the lens works nicely for you. Number one for me.
Regards Ian

Would that these were strawberry plants! They are all over the place, very tiny and have long runners - possibly related to the strawberry but no fruit.
I agree about the brightening of the white Gareth. This is as bright as I could get it before it started to look silly.
I tried several arrangements of the peaone. Having the whole of the leaves in either pushed the flower too far to the right or entailed having it too small.

Thank you all for your interest, suggestions and comments.

The plant is certainly related to the strawberry plant. They have a great knack for spreading in a similar fashion. In my garden they also produce tiny little strawberry fruits that are very squishy and soft but taste just like their mass grown cousins.

"Mountain Strawberries" is what my family refers to them as. Used to get loads of them down my grandparent's old house along their driveway. They are quite 'weedlike'. The dogs used to love foraging for them, as did I growing up.
Edit: Fragaria virginiana, from a quick search.