Some Rare Pentax Items at MrCad..... good prices

MrCad have quite a lot of rare Pentax stuff at reasonable prices. I've just received a Pentax Rear Converter-A 2x-S off them for £79..... cheap price and it looks Brand New I already have the 1.4x-S so that's the full set. These can be used with most lenses on digital without any problems, they can vignette on film with certain lenses.

Look through all the Pentax sections particularly Pentax PK.... Hundreds of items.

One thing that caught my eye was quite a few M and A 35mm f/2.8 lenses for £30 to £55 The A version is rare and must be worth much more than that.

Most of the prices look a lot better than the inflated BIN's on ebay.

shim

With a site that loads a slowly as that, people probably give up before they find what they want!

yep i gave up too.

It's not too bad for me, but I have mentioned on here before that retailers in this country have ZERO interest in actually selling stuff. The same could be said of the Pentax Gallery..... so slow it's painfull.

What I normally do on a slow site is right click and open page 2 under another tab... then when I've finished with page 1 click to load page 3 and whilst that's loading go and look at page 2 and after I've read that click for page 4 and move back to page 3. So two tabs open one for odd pages the other for even.

shim

Mr Cad not far from where I live and I pop in now and again. It's a great place to look around but unfortunately, not only is their website slow, it's also terribly inaccurate. Whenever I've spotted more interesting stuff on the web, it's usually vapourware when I've got to the shop.

They had a huge load of Pentax stock which I think they bought some time ago when whoever was in charge of the Pentax UK operation changed. The only really rare thing I've seen that remains is the 1000mm lens. Other than that, they have lots of 35mm, 50mm, 200mm and a few zooms. Also some cheap "Chinex" lenses and 35mm bodies (they get the occasional LX for people who are interested). Actually their M42 mount stuff is quite often a lot more interesting.....

You MUST be careful buying from them. They have loads of poor condition and very well used items. I would only buy from them if I could handle the goods first, I would never buy from them again sight unseen.

cheers Steve.M.

The old manual focus primes are something I'm now considering, especially with the imminent Pentax price rises.

How does the SMC Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8 & SMC PENTAX-A 50mm f1.7 stand against the newer DA/FA lenses..I'd be using them on the K20D

thanks

Simon

The SMCP-A 28mm 1:2.8 is mediocre, the SMCP-A 50mm 1:1.7 is a legend. Beware of sticking aperture rings. Unless you need to set an aperture manually on the lens (can't think why you would) leave it on the A setting.

Thanks - the 50 is probably a more useful focal length anyway, 28mm on crop sensors is probably a little bit odd?

I've also discovered the Pentax 35mm f2.8 PK, anyone rate it?

thanks

simon

Hi Simon - I use the SMCA 28 f2.8 on occasion and quite like it! Especially as a small and unobtrusive lens for street shots.

It's pretty sharp almost from wide open and on APS-C sensor is almost the perfect standard lens (at 42mm equiv). The downside compared to a real standard lens is that it was originally designed as a wide angle, and it does have some barrel distortion. Not much fringing though (less than on some of my other older primes).

The colours definitely have a look that is similar to some of the other older primes and I feel my pictures with it have a slightly more film/less digital look, although some people don't love the colour from this lens as much as from some of the others.

Mine cost £35 from Ivor Howell in South London, and for that money I'd buy one again. I'd think twice if the price was much more than say £50 though.

PS - enjoying your old Sigma 10-20 - but it's a steep learning curve!

cheers Jon,

glad to hear you're having fun with the Sigma, as you say it does take a while to make best use of it, look forward to seeing some shots !!

Simon

Unfortunately this has been my experience as well.

Never again

R