rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

When I moved back to Pentax by purchasing a K-30, I mounted the Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7 {that was kitted in 1983 with my Super Program} on it, and quickly established that it was the sharpest of several lenses in my bag.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Right on! Not only will I never sell them but I am always on the lookout for a few rare models. There was a slightly shorter focal length that was especially designed for medium format work work that will be more adaptable to my current DSLR systems.

ChuckMc Loc: Prescott, AZ

I have three lens that mounted on a Konica. Assuming that no DLSR would accept that mount, I went without for a long period of time after the digital cameras took over and about 3-4 years ago bought an SX50. But, am I correct in that assumption?
tks,
Chuck

East Banana

There's a lot that could be said about someone who announces they hate focusing I'll say that much, probably not much to say regarding their work though....

I use an AR adapter, Canon FD adapter, Olympus adapter, Rollei adapter, M42 adapter, Minolta adapter.... my best landscape lens is a 20mm 1.7 II Lumix.

However my Hexanon 28mm F3.5, it has to be a specific version and not the last 5 element version, I have that one as well ...is the best manual focus landscape lens I've used in 50 years of shooting.....my cleared Minolta MC 28mm F2.5 has the most appealing quality of any 28 I have ever used, and Nikkor 28's are like clinical standards. In 35mm I prefer the convex SSC 35 f2 Canon, very decent wide-open.

But that's what I found using my Panasonic gx8 and this should be the most important part, your results may vary.... it matters everything towards what camera you choose, some lenses like some cameras and some cameras don't like certain lenses. To sit here and be honest? The most useless info out there is some person spouting off how great a lens is while providing no reference to what he is shooting with? Those Chinese adapters are a crap shoot...many people don't even realize how bad and terribly inconsistent the quality control is ..."the worst" there is, it's China for crying out loud China - Cheap - Crap

What I shoot, how I shoot, what I shoot with and my techniques are not something anyone can duplicate and add in the variables of my particular samples I obtained along with all these years of experience, how does someone new and inexperienced know they have a good sample? I say ...my goals shouldn't be yours and your results shouldn't be mine .... why does it matter if I like a lens to someone? how does that matter? I never understood the relevance or importance in that. ....price is usually a fair indicator of "good" in this field and relying on that factor you have a consistent guide, not perfect because my logic still can't explain the Minolta Mirror 250mm, the worst IQ for the money on earth ....

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

Have only just gone back to this thread today. I have the Sony 5000A ILCE. Still waiting for the adapters for Pentax and Leica 39 screw lenses to arrive. Me, at 82 years old/young, like waiting for 'Santa', and it's still September!!.. Regards...

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

I had to do a quick read on the 5000 as I'm more tuned in to the Sony A-mount cameras (A300, A37 & A58) and I still think you are going to have fun with diff. older lenses. By the way congrats on still shooting, I'm just a young whippersnapper at 67, and hope to be doing as well when (and if) I get there! There are so many lenses out there for you to pick up as you get time and inclination. remember, with that model you will have the 1.5X magnification factor, so for wide angle you will need to go for really wide, as in a 18 mm wide turns into a 27 mm, or a 150 mm turns into a 225 mm, etc. and if the adapter has a magnification factor, that 150 could become a 337.5 mm, and there will be light loss.

I know what you mean about the waiting for "Santa" factor, I buy a lot from E-bay and some sellers use the "slow boat" shipping. As for adapter quality, on the low end there can be issues quality wise, but you can still end up with interesting combinations. Not every old lens (or camera) I've bought has worked out like I imagined, but I still enjoy collecting them and keeping them on display. I wish you good luck and hope you enjoy the venture into "older lens", they are kinda like us, maybe not as fast, maybe not as pretty as we once were, but still able to capture a mood, produce something worthwhile!!!!

Take care, olemikey

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Another lens, another set of images. My collection is mostly made up of the old Super Takumar M42 lenses because of their ease of use on Canon Bodies. The below shots were taken with the old Super Takumar 200mm f3.5 preset lens, I have read that the production of this lens ended in 1961.

What is amazing about this lens are not only the 18 aperture blades located at the front of the lens, but this lens only had 4 elements each in its own group as opposed to modern lenses of today, the 135mm lens I recently bought has 13 elements in 10 groups. The lens is not only a beautiful piece of mechanical art, but the images below suggest that it is a performer as well. The images were taken this morning, the first image of my pup has been resized for posting, the close up of Lucky is a 100% crop taken before resizing. the crop should be downloaded to evaluate its quality.

(Download)




(Download)

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Very nice, looks like a "keeper" to me!!!

vkb

I have several manual Pentax lens...and a Vivitar Series 1 70-210 which was amazing then and now...I have put it on my dslr Pentax just to see how it is doing with the same terrific results. Brings back good memories of old times when we had to work to take a quality photo.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I have two different copies of that old Vivitar Series 1, the Komine and the Kiron versions.

Bipod

Konica Hexanon prime focus lenses are very sharp and contrasty--worth using if you
are willing to put up with some inconvenience:
* You'll need the proper adapter (which may or may not be available, and which may or
may not have to contain an additional simple lens -- see below).
* Autofocus won't work. So the DSLR must allow you to select manual focus mode
and you will have to focus manually. You'll be dependent on the focusing aids
present in the DSLR -- which vary from very good to non-existent.
* Meter coupling won't work, so (1) you will have to select manual exposure mode and
(2) you will have to stop down to the exposure aperature for metering (one normally
uses widest aperature for the viewfinder, so this is equivalent to depth-of-field preview).

Step 1. Figure out which Konica lens mount you have (there were three).
The mostly likely case is a Konica Autoreflex S1 or S2, since many of these were sold.

Step 2. Find out if there is a DSLR you're interested in that has an adapter which does not
contain a simple lens and the lens can still focus at infinity.

Explanation: only a DSLR that has a flange-to-focus distance (FFD) considerably
shorter than 45.50 mm is adaptable to the Konica bayonet mounts with an additional
simple lens. (without it, it would act as an extension tube, increasing the focal length
of the lens at the price of not being able to focus at infinity).

If you cannot find such a DSLR, then you have three choices:
* Chose a DSLR that has an adapter with an optical element
* Consider a mirrorless camera--those all have very short FFDs. However, they have electronic
viewfinders which you might hate.
* Simply continue to shoot film. All the above Konica cameras are very good, the Fs are rare and collectable
and the Hexar rangefinder is among the sought-after film rangefinders.

Step 3. Make sure the digital camera you choose:
* Supports manual exposure mode
* Supports manual focus mode (turns off AF)
* Has a focusing aid that you like

I would find somebody who has that digital camera and will let you try manually focusing it
and manually stopping it down for metering. That way, you'll find out first hand what's
involved. It ranges from pretty simple to too much bother to impossible.

Step 4. Buy the adapter (make sure it's returnable!) and try it with the lens on the camera you intend to buy, if possible.

That way, if there is something bad about the adapter, you'll find out before you buy the camera.
The adapter will only cost around $40, and if it's returnable you're not out any money if it turns out
there is something bad about it.

More information:
https://www.shutterbug.com/content/how-mount-vintage-slr-lens-dslr-simple-guide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_mount

Good luck!

ChuckMc Loc: Prescott, AZ

Bipod - You've given me several tasks there. It would be really nice to be able to use theses lens again. But you may want to go into hiding when my local minister of finance says, "You're going to do WHAT? Who gave you that idea?" ;-}
Seriously, thanks muchly.
Chuck

Bipod

Well that sounds interesting. Yeah, it's a bother testing to see if stuff
works together, but I've been burned so many times....

BTW, my choice -- overwhelmingly -- would be to continue to shoot the Konica film camera.

It comes down to what kind of film you shot and what you did with your pictures.
If you shot landscape in B&W and made your own enlargements to 8 x 10 or larger,
you'll find it difficult (bordering on impossible) to make a print with the image quality
you're used to. And you can spend upwards of $5000 trying.

If you shot color slides, you may or may not be statisfied with the digital image.
No more slide projectors, and the replacment is vastly expensive (big screen display
or color digital projector). So is any color printer capable of print 16 x 24". A slide
projector did a lot for very little money. Digital color can be very good (if you white
balance your camera and don't go into PhotoShop and click on the "make it look like
a dimestore postcard" filter) but is only as good as the display device.
Most people don't bother to white balance their monitors.

If you shot color negative film and let Kodak develop and print it (and more recently,
scan the negatives to digital), then you're probably very happy with the Canon
PowerShot SX-50. It's a good camera. Just keep using it and sell me those Konica
Hexanon lenses.

But seriously: if you're happy using the SX-50, then I doubt you'll be happy
going back to manual focus and fooling around with stop-down metering.
It comes down to how long you usually spend making one exposure. For different
people and types of photography, that can vary from 10 seconds to over an hour.

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

I use most of my old film-days lenses on my dslr, I'm not a pro but they take photos like the ones you posted!!

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

i'll be short and sweet, I use top-of-the-line Minolta maxxum and canon fd lenses with great results on my sony alphas and slt's. I also use vintage pentax 645 lenses on my pentax 645D also with great results.