Beautiful shots of beautiful birds I can see why you miss them.
Hopefully they will be back very soon

Looks like a superb mirror lens. "Which Lens?" book in 1988 gave it a score of 79.4 which is very good and the resolution tested at both ends was just over 100 lpmm which is very good for this type of lens.

Another Review here: Ephotozine

Looks like a good buy for someone.

I wouldn't expect the distortion to be any different. It's more to
do with resolution a lot of old lenses especially wide open weren't
much use on film, but quite nice on digital.

I was hoping the 55mm f/1.8 Super-Takumar would have been better.
I've heard of variation in M42 f/1.4's but thought the f/1.8's
were better. It came from ebay and shows signs of having been
dismantled so I might take it apart and put it back together again.

Some lenses that show up good on Digital might not perform as
well on Film, but I think the Auto-Takumar 55mm f/2 will be OK
on film.

Seems to be a lens that has been overlooked f/1.8, f/2.0 and
f/2.2 were basically the same identical lens they just varied
the open aperture.

Edit: I forgot to mention the crops were 100% and
taken lossless from the camera jpgs with no PP.

The colours were almost identical.

Just a quick test taken on a tripod 1.250M from the banknotes to
sensor/film plane K20D 100ISO 45 deg Flash 1/100th sec. f/5.6
Centre of frame only.(quite a large area). Camera square and
level with CL of target.

1959 Pentax Auto-Takumar 55mm f/2 -v- Pentax 'A' 50mm f/1.7
One of the last made SN 502xxx

I was surprised how well this 51 year old lens stood up to
one of Pentax's best high contrast lenses.

Sharpness and contrast were only slightly lower. It was a high
contrast test.... possibly it would be a bit worse under a low
contrast test.

A 55mm f/1.8 Super-Takumar tested at the same time was very
poor

Series A 50mm Lens on Left : Auto-Takumar 55mm on Right (slightly bigger)




From this page link
--------------------------------------
Newest high-speed 6-element lens, utilizing latest optical gloss
advances. High resolving power combines with outstanding brightness
for easiest focusing.

Ideal for exceptional results indoors or at night.

Follower to the f/1.8 and f/1.9 "Zebra" style lens, very similar to them,
black focussing ring, and half stops.

Very nicely made too.

This lens was sold with S2/H2 cameras for standard and still available
in good numbers. S/N range from 200,95X - 502,74X
--------------------------------------------

Some Tests

Nice shot I can't fault it at all If you click on it the original
is sharp enough.

For the forum you should reduce pics to 800 pixels wide otherwise
the board s/ware reduces it and loses definition.

I'm not familiar with the Bronica S2, but the S2A is a superb
camera. I've had mine for 35 years and it's only needed one
repair and that was early on. Since then THOUSANDS of rolls
of 120 have passed through it

The Nikkor lenses are superb (i've got the 50mm, 75mm, 135mm)
usable wide open and as sharp as 35mm lenses.

Some nice ones on this site link

Isn't this Virginia Creeper?
I'd just crop a bit off the bottom of the 2nd shot.

Unbelievable that he will have to wait weeks for the camera
Is there no one at Pentax or B&H with any brains on the selling side? They need to strike whilst the irons HOT!

It's also a disgrace that there isn't a APS-C equivalent of the
35mm lens available and he's having to look at Sigma

No Thanks!!!... if it didn't go on fire all the buttons
would drop off or the lettering would rub off.... all the
colours would be wishy washee!!

I suppose it would be more trade for these ebay vendors:

link1

link2