The elements in any lens are held together in a strictly regimented fashion and deviations of even a fraction of a millimetre can ruin performance. When you see a dent like that there's always a fair chance of internal damage that transforms it into a glass and metal door stop.

There's a good reason why it's looking so cheap...

It is used sometimes in English - strictly speaking the objective is the lens that is facing the subject, so a lens that is off the camera or not in use can't be the objective.

Not sure how much of that terminology has fallen by the wayside over the years though...

To be honest that lens looks like it's had a very hard life - I wouldn't give it house space if I was paid to, far less pay good money for it.

As Martin points out it's likely to have had a collision at some point and if the elements are knocked out of alignment then it's no longer fit for purpose. The only person who could use such a lens would be someone looking for spares for an identical model.

But it's your money...

Yeah, I must admit I was never brave enough to use the gun stock bit in public...

I could meet you in MK and save you the postage? Go on, you know you want one...

For sale - cheap!!!

ZENIT FS12 FOTOSNAIPER OUTFIT - EXC+ CONDITION JUST £80+ P&P

I'm selling my FS12 kit in another of my clearouts - if nobody here wants it I'll put it on eBay next week where I'll be expecting it to fetch around £100, so if you're after a long fast(ish) telephoto prime for your Pentax you won't go far wrong with this one!

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Included in the kit is the following:

TAIR 3S 300mm f/4.5 M42 lens. Fully working order with exceptionally clean glass (no haze, fungus, etc) and a snappy 18-blade iris (for lovely bokeh). It's quite useable wide open at f/4.5 but benefits stopping down to f/5.6 where it gets very sharp indeed (picture below taken today at f/5.6 and 100% crop of same. While it's not in the DA*300's class, it is a league above Sigma / Tamron 70-300 zooms at 300/5.6. You'll need an M42 adapter but, unlike early K-mount lenses, it's quite easy to use in Aperture Priority mode as well as Manual. Focus is manual (of course) and is adjusted using the wheel at the end of the lens rather than a ring - actually quite a good placing for keeping it steady handheld. One side of the barrel is pretty much mint, the other side (the one pictured) has a few scratches.

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HELIOS 44M-4 58mm f/2 M42 lens. Russian copy of the pre-war Zeiss Biotar, super-sharp lens and useful for portraiture on digital. This one is mint and looks to have never been used (I haven't tbh - I've had plenty of Helios 44's so I know how they behave). Glass is perfect and the iris is snappy - much better than the ones you usually find at car boot sales!

ZENIT 12S SLR camera. Very rare model, only sold with Fotosnaiper outfits and has a secondary shutter release in the base that's triggered by the, well, trigger. Features TTL metering (rare on Zenits itself) and is fully working. I bought this camera new/old stock last year in order to complete this kit (it has a 1984 serial number, just like the two lenses - took me ages to find). It is in completely mint condition and has never had so much as a single roll of film run through it. Built like a tank!

RIFLE STOCK. Comes in two parts and includes a thick leather strap. The trigger acts in two stages; the first operates a lever on the base of the Tair lens to shut it down to the (pre-selected) aperture, the second fires the shutter via a supplementary release on the base of the camera. With a little practice it will allow you to handhold shots quite easily - it's not as good as a tripod but it's probably the next best thing and a lot more convenient to carry.

FILTERS. A set of 5x 72mm filters for the Tair including UV, Yellow 1, Yellow 2, Orange and Green. All mint and genuine KMZ.

CAPS. One rear M42 cap, one front cap for Helios 44, one front cap for Tair 3S. All genuine.

OTHER. Rubber eyepiece for camera (removeable), sturdy rubber hood for Tair lens, two screwdrivers, one bulk film reel. All genuine, smaller of the two screwdrivers quite badly scratched but perfectly useable.

CASE. Steel case with a hammered paint finish, leather handle, rubber feet and slots for a back strap (which is the only part of the kit I don't have). The case is in worse condition than the rest of the outfit and has a few dents, but everything still fits into place and you could probably drive tanks over it without causing any damage to the contents.

SPECIAL NOTE: One of the features of Fotosnaiper outfits is that the lens can connect to the camera in order to achieve open-aperture metering. Unfortunately, KMZ had a habit of changing specifications without notice and depending on what parts they had at the factory at any given time. In my joy at finding an '84 body to go with the '84 lenses I didn't check the connector and I've ended up with a male PC-Sync type plug on the lens and a female 2.5mm socket on the camera (see below). If you can make up an adapter I see no reason why it shouldn't work, but I've never bothered to be honest - as nice as it is to have the whole kit I only ever used the Tair lens on my K10D. The rifle stock could also be used with a Pentax DSLR (with the Tair mounted) but requires the removal of the part that connects to the Zenit's shutter button (easy enough to do, it all just screws together and they even provide you with the drivers!) to give clearance. If you're really handy then you could also rig a Pentax remote into the resultant hole to fire your camera via the trigger on the gun stock.

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That's all I have to say - the first person to say they want it for the above price (£80) can have it. The only caveat is that it weighs in at over 5kg (probably nearer 6 once I've packaged it for posting) so sending it won't be cheap! I will use Royal Mail / Parcelforce or you can arrange collection with your own courier if you'd prefer. Postage will be at cost and obviously depends on which country the buyer lives in, but you can use the Royal Mail website to get an idea.

I think that's a fantastic set, she should be very pleased!

If you're going to use colour filters on digital then make sure the white balance is set to something other than Auto, otherwise the camera will just try and correct for anything you put in front of the lens and you'll be back to square one. Generally most people do any colour shifts in PP these days and skip the filters, doesn't mean you have to though...

That is a drawback of the Nikon lenses, although I'm given to believe certain lenses will, if not quite lock, rotate far enough on to be semi-convenient. Not 100% sure which though as I don't have any to hand...

With the others, as long as you're careful not to drop them then it should be possible to get infinity focus, metering, AF confirmation and shake reduction - all without the need for extra optical elements or an adapter. Better than a poke in the eye!

Good luck!