Who needs a big white one?

Wayhay!!!!

Big black one

Shame about the ruler not being included

Very nice indeed, but I don't think I could hand hold it.

Is it me or is it cheap? At the moment it's hitting £620 (with 4 minutes to go).

Went for £695 in the end. I would suspect the seller's low feedback depressed the price.

Perhaps a bit low in price but it was old glass as they say. Not so bad for film but anyone considering it with a DSLR may find problems with chromatic aberration in some lighting situations, modern sensors sure resolve the shortcomings of an optical system. I think an 'ED' or 'APO' somewhere in the lens designation would be a welcome addition for use with DSLR's.

Mike

Just no interest in Pentax long lenses
Despite the low sellers feedback he has some good stuff for sale

"modern sensors sure resolve the shortcomings of an optical system" do explain further.

I expected much, much more. I hope this isn't an indicator that anything I'm selling will right now will struggle to reach a decent price.

I keep being told variants of this one. All I can say is that basic lens designs haven't changed in the best part of a century. Coatings have improved and machining tolerances have been tightened but the best older glass can still compete.

I wouldn't bother with things like old non-brand zooms but SMC Pentax ("K series") lenses are still worth owning.

Although film as you know is capable of the highest resolution the emulsion upon which it is based scatters light softening the potential highest resolution the film grain technology is capable of and can cause halation around brighter objects which also softens, masks or blurs both the positive effects of a lens... it's maximum possible resolution and the negative effects ...in this case chromatic aberration.

DSLR sensors are not emulsion based but do have the anti-aliasing filter though its effects on light scatter are minimal but perhaps Pentax also considered this into the equation when doing away the anti-aliasing filter in their 645D.

Mike

Go back even further, there are a lot of good m42 lenses out there.

I would, but my experience of M42 lenses on my K-m isn't great. I found the three I tried produced major exposure errors. I do suspect this was related to the aperture though - when I tried the 55mm f1.8 from my SV it was much better than the f3.5 lenses I'd tried before.

Prices of rarer K lenses seem to be all over the place. I get the impression that some stores just charge what they paid plus their normal markup, while others set mad BIN prices and push the market price for that particular lens up.

On a crop sensor a 1500mm equivalent lens of little use over and above curiosity value to any but the most specialized of photographers.

As someone who hired a Nikkor 2000mm lens to photograph an IRA siege in my Fleet Street days, I can seriously say don't bother. The main use for a lens such as this, other than surveillance where just getting an image is the point, would be wild life photography. And do they use lenses like this? No, they don't.

The impossibility of keeping it still, atmospheric haze and limited aperture make it a toy for rich boys and dreamers. On the other hand, if you are one of those, why not?

Because I'm not both perhaps?

Consider me a dreamer, I love mine.




Greg