Hi Matt

Thanks for the comments.

When you set up your Coolscan IV I wonder which colour space setting you chose, and why. I thought sRGB looked too severe and the wide gamut choices very flat, so opted for Adobe RGB on the logic that I was using Adobe Photoshop. I'd be interested to hear your own train of thought.

After much deliberation, Sue and I have made another move towards digital photography. We've purchased a Nikon Coolscan IV (so where's the pentax scanner?) and I reckon that gives us around 12.3 megapixels from our slides and negatives. We keep the pentax film cameras, we keep the true wide angle of the lenses and we keep an archival film copy of every photograph. When scanners get better, we can scan again.

The results so far are very encouraging, and now we can put to practical use all the tips we have been getting from our camera club digital nights. (Every Tuesday in addition to our regular Thursday night meetings at Atherton, near Manchester.)

Here's a tip: print a b/w portrait from the green channel only of an RGB file - it acts just like a green filter on b/w film and gives superb skin tones!

To answer the last question first, f22 will increase the depth of field but will reduce the resolution because of diffraction effects. Sharpness will suffer.

Some of the later Super Takumars actually were multicoated but not marked as such. See the "Screw Mount Guide" for details. Both ranges were substantially the same optically although some lenses were redesigned at various stages.

More important, use of a lens hood (preferably the dedicated one) will ensure the lowest levels of flare and improve pictures sometimes dramatically.

Ideally, I would look out for Super Takumar, Super-Multi-Coated Takumar or SMC Takumar lenses in mint condition. I have used the 28mm and 35mm lenses from these ranges by pentax and they are excellent. The 24mm would have been my preferred choice, although it will be bulky compared to the later (bayonet) M series lenses.

These days we are so used to looking at wide angle pictures the 24mm no longer looks ultra-wide and is, I think, a superb wide angle. When Kevin MacDonnell was asked if he could only have two lenses what would they be he replied, as concise as ever, "24mm and 100mm" and I think I would agree with that. Of course, depending on your photographic interests, you might have a different point of view.

I personally would not choose a zoom as a replacement for the excellent Pentax lenses of the period - it will be slower, of lower quality and not as well corrected as regards distortion. Also, vaiable apertures will be a nuisance as every time you zoom it will change the aperture value and you will need to re-meter.

Finally, should you obtain any earlier bodies than the Spotmatic don't forget that you need to be careful about fitting the Super Takumar 50mm f1.4 lens to some of them, because of the protuding rear element.

Enjoy the camera!

I have read a review of this lens, and also handled one, but not actually used one. I understand it to be a professional quality (and expensive) lens that should be critically sharp. At open aperture you will have a huge advantage in light gathering power, but also very shallow depth of field.

Over the years I have tried many lenses, and I have concluded that it is far better to stick to the manufacturer's own lenses. The aperture rings all work in the same direction (saves time and confusion), the colour balance is uniform across the range (colour of all slides looks the same when projecting) the manufacturing quality is higher (lenses last longer without mechanical failure), the resolution and general performance tends to be consistently higher (especially noticed when printing in Monochrome).
You could easily find a first class SMC Pentax-M 50mm f1.7 lens second hand for as little as £20.
Generally, though, you get what you pay for....

You have the first Asahi zoom lens, the Super Takumar-Zoom 1:4.5/ 70-150mm. This monster weighs in at 1,060g without its tripod bush, and 1,200g with. I would not put it on a tripod mounted camera lest it rip out the lens mount! It is intended that the lens is tripod mounted. It takes 67mm filters and was in production from 1964-1971. Construction is 14 elements in 11 groups.

The optical performance of this lens is reputed to be very good. The K mount adapter should be screwed onto the lens, and then the whole thing bayoneted into the camera. The lens is removed by unscrewing from the adapter. The adapter can then be removed from the camera using a pen point to release the locking catch.

To focus, make sure the lens is set to manual diaphragm operation and that the aperture is opened out to F4.5. After focusing the lens will need to be stopped down to the working aperture and metering takes place at the stopped down aperture value. When stopped down, the image will be dim and this would not help focusing, especially in low light.

Other than that, the only other thing that could make it impossible to focus could be a faulty lens perhaps with a damaged mechanism or a loose and mispositioned element.

Do please let us know how you get on with this.

SMC Pentax 35mm f2.8 and 35mm f2 lenses are regularly offered by various second-hand dealers who advertise in Amateur Photographer.

The range of Pentax lenses has always been a particularly good one - clean, sharp and cost effective.
I would be interested to know which lenses in particular have been found to be especially good.
I would rate the following particularly highly:
15mm f3.5 Very sharp and good drawing for its focal length
20mm f4 M Superb and compact, slight barrel distortion but it only adds to the effect
40mm f2.8 M Very compact and probably better than the 50mm lenses
100mm f4 Macro M Outstanding macro lens
100mm F2.8 M Compact, sharp and excellent contrast
24-35mm f3.5 M Outstanding wide zoom

Disappointments have been:
50mm f1.4 M High contrast at expense of fine detail
85mm f2 M Not crisp enough at full aperture
120mm f2.8 M Poor open performance (deliberate?)

Disappointments have been rae, but it would be nice if the literature descibed the design purpose of a lens. For example, I would not but a short telephoto with poor open aperture performance, but it could be designed that way intended as a portrait lens. Where is this sort of information?

One of the advantages to going bayonet was an increase in the throat size from 42mm to, I think, 45mm. This enabled wider aperture lenses to be designed, such as the 50mm f1.2.

There isn't a ready made adapter to use bayonet lenses on your Spotmatic, but you can use your Spotmatic lenses on any of the K mount cameras using the Mount Adapter K. If you want bodies that are as close as possible to the SP, then look at the KM, KX and MX in particular.

As has been mentioned elsewhere in this forum, it could be conceivable that SRB could make the adapter you are seeking, but I imagine the cost could be quite high - the bayonet bodies are not too expensive to buy!

Alternatively, the SMC Takumar 28mm f3.5 screw mount lens is an excellent lens...