Return of the Takumar

The year was 1971. To celebrate my arrival and capture my adorable smiles, my father smashed the family piggy bank and bought a camera. Not just any camera, but the most advanced camera of its day, the Pentax Electro-Spotmatic. It was the first camera in human history to feature aperature-priority auto-exposure. While that doesn't sound like much now, it was a revelation back then. To give you an idea what a big deal it was, it took Canon another two years to launch a similar product. 



Truth be told, this particular ES never saw much action. Three reasons

1. It was an awfully expensive piece of hardware Adjusted for inflation and income parity, the cost is more or less on par with a Canon 5D2 today. Naturally, my father was reluctant to use it for field work, fearing he might cause damage by bumping or dropping it.
2. It was a brick. Wearing it around your neck for a day will cause irreparable spinal injury.
3. Color film and print cost quite a bit back then. Only lottery winners could afford to snap away at will.

Oddly, though, it was the lack of use that did the camera in. After sitting in the cabinet for 10 years, the camera became a fungal paradise and got real moldy. The shutter mechanism quit working because of it. The mirror would often get stuck and fail to return to its original position after a shot was taken.

In theory, even though the body was dead, the lens could still be used. It is, after all, just a piece of glass with no electrically driven parts. There is no reason why it shouldn't last forever. But alas, in the mid 70's, Pentax adapted a new bayonet-style lens mount, and the old screw mount was swept into the dustbin of photographic history.

And so, the lens languished in a forgotten corner for 30 years alongside the camera. But now, with mirrorless cameras gaining popularity, this old lens is getting second life. The beauty of modern mirrorless systems is that they tend to have very short flange distances, which means it is very easy to graft a wide array of old lenses onto them. Buying a cheapo M42-to-m4/3 adapter ring was all it took to get this piece of antique ready for action.

The lens in question here is a Pentax SMC Takumar 50mm f/1.4. It was designed in a time when the Germans dominated the optics industry. To beat the Germans, Pentax threw into it everything plus the kitchen sink. It featured Pentax's own Super-Multi-Coating technology, which supposedly reduced partial reflection and glare. It was a stop faster than the top dog back then, the Leica Summicron.  And in a bid to further increase refractive index, the glass was doped with a radioactive substance called Thorium Oxide, which, get this, has a half-life of 14 billions years.

Yes, radioactive. How can you not love 20th Century tech?!

So, let the show and tell begin. This is what the Takumar looks like.



Aperature diaphram.



M42 screw mount. Invented by the Germans, popularized by the Japanese. One has to wonder, what's with WWII aggressors and the optics industry? Anyways, due to advanced age, the Thorium-doped glass is yellowing. Word on the street is that it will become clear once again after a few hours of UV exposure. Another interesting tidbit is that the back-end is where most of the radiation leak is coming from. So, I guess you wouldn't want to press this lens against your eyes. All it takes is one lucky gamma particle to cause cancer.



Attaching the cheapo adapter ring.



And finally, the lens and the camera merge to form Taku-Pan! I must say, Taku-Pan looks gooooood.



Here's the basic test image.



At f16, the image is slightly soft. This is expected behavior.



At f8, excellent sharpness at the center



Ditto for f4



f1.4. This is where things get hairy. Purple fringing is clearly visible, even though the contrast of the scene isn't that high. And the image is VERY soft. This doesn't bode well for real world use.



And here's a real life test shot.



Again, at f4, the sharpness is quite good all around.



f2. Still half decent.



f1.4. Soft city.



And check out the corner at f1.4. This is not good.



Some more real life test shots. At f1.4, the bokeh is quite dreamy. But it hard to put the subject in focus, and the image is quite soft.



Close-up shot at f5.6. Overall sharpness is quite decent.



Same scene, at f1.4. Gosh, it's soft. Did I say it's soft?



But, you can do some interesting things with that f1.4, despite its shortcomings.



And it works quite well in dimly-lit restaurants.







And there you have it. Despite the heroic effort, Pentax just couldn't beat the Germans in 1971. Pitting the Takumar against a Leica Summilux is like putting Mazinger Z in the ring with Grendizer. But then again, the Takumar cost a fraction of what Leica charged for a Summilux, so what do you say to that? I guess in a time when making 3x5 color print was the primary application, Pentax felt they could fudge things a little. But, we live in a 16 megapixel world now. Poor optical performance sticks out like Shaquille O'Neal in Chinatown.

That said, shooting with the Takumar is the most fun I had in awhile that doesn't involve alcohol, narcotics, or firearm. When something has been in the family this long, I cannot help but assign a certain amount of sentimental value to it, and the mere act of bringing back to life arouses a palpable sense of nostalgia. Reconnecting with the past, that's some real fun stuff.

Next item on the to-do list. Ready my old Pentax SMC 50mm f/2.0 for digital service.