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Which prime lens for the K-3?


Oskar Forsten

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Hi guys!

 

I just bought the Krasnogorsk-3 (with the stock Meteor-5-1 lens), which I am about to modify to an Ultra16 and now I'm trying to make up my mind about which prime lens to buy.

 

I've been reading older posts about the K-3 and prime lenses, but still I'm unsure of which one to start with. So, I thought I might as well ask some K-3 owners for some advice.

 

Which prime lens is your favorite and for what kind of shooting do you use it for?

 

I'm looking for an all around prime lens. I know that the SMC Takumar 50mm / F1.4 is a pretty popular lens, but it's quite expensive - it costs almost as much as I paid for the whole camera.

So I've been looking at the SMC Takumar 55mm / F1.8 and the SMC Takumar 28mm / F3.5. I have even looked at the SMC Takumar 35mm / F3.5 but is it too slow?

 

Any kind of feedaback or thoughts are welcome.

 

- Oskar

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I am a bit surprised at what you say. I just checked completed auctions on eBay and you should have no problem finding a 50mm f/1.4 Takumar for under $100. That's cheap for a lens of this quality. How much did you expect to pay for good glass?

 

You are totally right! I'm new with this Ebay business and when I skimmed through Ebay.de for some Takumar lenses my head just registered the really expensive ones. My bad - but now when my eyes are open to all the inexpensive choices I have to ask you all this:

 

Which one is more of an all around lens; the 55mm, 35mm or the 28mm?

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You are totally right! I'm new with this Ebay business and when I skimmed through Ebay.de for some Takumar lenses my head just registered the really expensive ones. My bad - but now when my eyes are open to all the inexpensive choices I have to ask you all this:

 

Which one is more of an all around lens; the 55mm, 35mm or the 28mm?

 

 

The 28mm would be considered the "normal" focal length in 16mm. 55mm is in the telephoto range.

You have these focal lengths on your Meteor zoom already, so you can see if it's worthwhile to get primes in that range.

Personally, the first lens I would buy is a Peleng 8mm, they are not that expensive and will give you a true wide angle.

Look for them in M42 mount.

 

Cheers,

Jean-Louis

Edited by Jean-Louis Seguin
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Look for the Pentax Super Takumar lenses. I have a 50, 35 & 24 and love them all. Some of the best footage I ever shot was with the K3, 50mm 1.4 and Double-X B&W. 24mm is probably the most practical.

 

The other good thing about these lenses is that they cover the Super 16 area if you widen your gate, even if you don't recenter the mount.

 

Another lens worth considering is the 8mm Peleng which isn't nearly as fisheye on the 16mm camera as on a 35mm. It's wider than the meteor lens that comes with the K3.

 

peleng-fisheye-3-5-8.jpg

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Pentax made two series of Screw mount lenses, the Super Takumar and the Super Multicoated Takumar. Some of the Pentax still film cameras like the Spotmatic F need the Super Multicoated lenes as they also have a cople of extra levers on the back to engage the metering system on those model cameras.

 

The Big difference is the Super Multicoated lenses have a very modern anti-relection coating (up to 14 layers the sales manual claimed) so they should have more contrast and less flare. Both are great lenes.

 

One other quirk is that some of the 1.4 units have a thorium Glass element, which will yellow over time. This effect can be reversed by leaving the back of the lens in the sun for a couple of days. (being careful not to start fires or expose the lens to rain) these are sometimes called the "radioactive lenses")

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Be sure that the lens has an A(Auto) and M(manual) switch.

Don´t buy an electric version, e.g. the Zeiss Pancolar 50mm 1,8 exists in 2 versions.

The pins of the electric version could(not all) snag with the 4 srews of your camera mount. I have made this experience.

I have a Tokina 17mm 3,5 ,20mm 2.8(!) Zeiss Jena Flektogon (expensive), a 28 mm Revuenon, the Pancolar and a Zeiss Jena Tessar, a Pentacon 135 mm 2,8.

They all are sharp, but produce different colors. The wide angle lenses(which ist normal in 16mm) are of course more expensive.

I wouldn´t widen to ultra16 but super16.

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