I thought Pentax had a world wide Guarantee. At least it was like this some time ago.
So if you buy from a reputable seller, you should be able to go to any Pentax agency and claim it.

I would say no matter where you buy , It would be half price to anything you buy in GB.

Do you really have 100% import duty? on buys trough Ebay?

With this type of import duty GB must be rolling In money.

Regards, Horst

I wish you people would sell international. Its not that hard you know.

or is it only good enough to sell to the poms?

Join Paypal, and you have your money in an instant from all around the world.

I would buy them now.

Wake Up.

Regards, Horst

Thank you Maria.

I mainly wanted to show, what this 50 year old lens is capable of.

One has to play around a bit to get what you want out of it, but the lens can do it.

It takes mainly patience . It is not a point of shoot lens.

Regards, Horst

Hi, I received the SMC Takumar 85mm f1.8 lens a couple of days ago.

here are some imaged taken in my back yard with this lens.

I will take some portraits with this lens, But due to the lack of some beautiful, glamorous models,
I have to wait until my grandchildren visit me

It would be nice to hear from other who used this or a similar Takumar lens.

Regards, Horst


This was taken with 21mm extender at F1.8. I actually focused on the the rose bud in front of the rose.
This made the rose somewhat softer.




Taken without extender also wide open




Now the same with the extender but at f2.8




The colours this lens reproduces are just fantastic. F2.8




There was a lot of background to be seen, except at f2, it disappeared nearly completely. The rose is lovely and soft.




The last pictures shows how sharp this lens can be. the aperture was F8. The image was the house across the road.
Notice the lovely out of focus part of the flowers on the left.

It does stop light getting in to the sensor through the viewfinder and hitting the sensor, because the mirror flips up .

Normally the light reading is taken before the mirror flips up . This way it does not matter, because the original reading is saved. Only the light which hits the sensor from the lens is used for thaking the picture.

Regards, Horst

The 8 element variant can be identified on the location of the infrared focus mark: The mark is to the right of the numeral 4 on the DOF scale


Regards, Horst

I just found out the solution to a problem which bugged me for a long time.
The problem with light entering in to the viewfinder window when taking shots from a tripod.

I had all sorts of suggestions, but they all required something to be stuck on or covering the viewfinder window.

But the other day, I was sitting on the throne and reading my K5 manual and I found the solution:

when using the tripod, after focusing, leave your eye on the viewfinder window and press the > AE-L<
button. This stores the exposure time and no matter how much sun shines in to the window, The exposure value from before is used to take the picture.
I tried it, and it works.

You know the old sayings: If all else fails, read...........................

I hope this helps others too.

Regards, Horst

I lived about 200yards from the Zeiss Ikon Factory in Stuttgart.
My uncle worked at Zeiss Ikon as a foreman

I visited him during my Apprenticeship often and was always amazed by the workmanship of the super fine components produced. By the people who worked there. No wonder the shutters and cameras are still fully operational today.

My Uncle son (my cousin) worked at Kodak Dr.Nagel (Manufactures then of the Retinas) in Stuttgart and did his apprenticeship there.
On His graduation to Specialist metal worker, we where all invited to Kodak and there to, the workmanship of the components where just superb.

However I have to say, My Spotmatic and later Super-A cameras still work like new.
Pentax must have had similar craftsmanship then.

But, I don't believe the later Pentax plastic cameras and lenses will be working still in 50 years or so.

I would say this improved again with cameras like the K5 etc,, if the batteries are still available.

Regards, Horst

I have to agree with you.
My first Pentax was a Spotmatic. I believe it was the most beautiful and elegant of all cameras ever made.

It had everything. Smooth outlines which did not collect dust. it was technically on top.
Mine came with a 55mm f1.8 Super Takumar lens. I was told, it was better than the 50mm 1.5 when making close ups.
Both Items, the lens and Camera where a joy to use and look at. The Spotmatic fitted in my hands perfectly.
The Spotmatic and My Leica M3 both has a similar feel which would have given me at least 1 F-sop extra.

Now I have a bunch of Takumar lenses , which I only where able to look at in the leaflets in thouse days of bringing up a family ,
Now I slowly collect them to enjoy the super craftsmanship and feel which went in to this lenses.
Also Humans actually created this lenses. Each type of lens had some individuality.

Having Said all this and ended up in tears and self pity . I have to say, I do prefer the modern digital age where I can experiment with all the various lenses old and new and gadgets and see instantly the results.
My K5 and K20 are also a work of art. (just the bloody viewfinder is to small) I am waiting for the second generation FF's.

Regards, Horst

The Pentax SV models also known as H3 Honeywell Had on the early models a green R on the rewind knob.
They could not be used with the 8 Element 50mm f1.4.
The later Modes SV and now H3v had a red R on the rewind knob and where able to use this lens.

Regards, Horst