Soligor 400mm f6.3 M42

Hello
A friend clearing out his loft has generously given me an old Soligor 400mm f6.3 lens in M42 mount. It is in pretty good condition. Has anyone any experience of this lens? Is it worth using with my K10D and K-5?
Many thanks.

Hello

I don't know that lens but I do have an old NPS 400mm m42 lens - I have a set from it on flickr.

Pictures from the NPS have low contrast, however, by tweaking the blacks and contrast on the raw files pictures come out pretty well - mine is best at f8 to f11 and are really helped by the use of a lens hood.

Whilst they are not the same lenses the above advice may or may not help but I hope it does.

Best used with a monopod or tripod though.

Regards

Stu

I have a copy of this lens on my desk at the moment..long, heavy, slow and a bit soft. Best on a tripod as most of the light entering the wide end tends not to arrive at the narrow.
I've used it on the K10, K20 and on the K5 with a Pentax 2x TC - interesting that!

Oh - and the M42 mount (which is held in place by three tiny grub screws)tends to work loose and the lens invariably turns up-side-down just as one is about to set the aperture..

Incidentally, as with the DA300 and Bigma variations, unsupported it's probably heavy enough to pull the front off the K digital

Roger

Thanks everyone.
Although the lens appears to be in good condition optically, its former owner in his infinate wisdom decided to paint it green & brown to camouflage it. I don't know why, he just did. Some paint seemes to have seeped in and has unfortunately made the auto/manual ring impossible to turn. It's stuck on auto so I'm unable to select anything but full aperture. Before I try to turn it with a bit more force, could someone confirm there are no locking buttons preventing me turning it. I can't see any but there's always chance one has fallen off.
Many thanks again.

I took this with one, with good light its not bad but needs a bit of PP to get it right.

Sounds as if the previous owner was a twitcher! though most would buy the camouflage fabric sleeve to slip over the lens?

There are no locking buttons for you to worry about. Just in case you are not aware, the front (chromed) ring is not connected to the aperture mechanism, the rear (black) one is. Choose your aperture on the front ring and the rear enables you to switch between the chosen aperture and f6.3 for clearer focussing. Obviously the rear ring cannot be set to a smaller aperture than that indicated on the front ring but both rings rings can be moved together.

So gently does it

Does the lens still focus OK?


Roger.

Thanks Roger. Luckily the lens does still focus ok. Bit of perseverance required.

I have a Vivitar (Tokina) equivalent of this lens with TX-PK or T4-m42 mount. Its's quite sharp when you stop it down to about F11 (approx).
cheers
bb2

Would some kind of Loctite on the grub screws help, or is there too much risk of that getting somewhere it shouldn't?