Attack of the Lumi-Tax

The Pentax-A 50mm f/2, my other manual focus lens from the film era. I bought it at Service Merchandise back in 1988; the price was $60. Oh, why do I remember these useless things?



Before digital came along, it was my weapon of choice. Actually, it was my only weapon. Unlike the Takumar, which saw little action, this lens had won enough victories through the years to earn itself a future spot in optical Sto'Vo'Kor. Don't know what that is? Better brush up on your Klingon.

First, a quick recap of its illustrious service record. Ottawa. Kodachrome 64 (Gosh! How I loved Kodachrome!)



Montreal. Kodachrome 64



Las Vegas. Ektachrome 200



Paris. Kodachrome 64



To fight again in the digital age, it will now merge with the camera and form Lumi-Tax!!!



Here's the test shot



At f/11, it is a paragon of optical excellence.



Even the corner is razor sharp.



The center retains excellent sharpness even at f/4



But the corner gets progressively softer as you stop down. By the time you get to f/4, the corner is already pretty blurry.



Things gets very interesting at f/2. The DOF is very shallow, and the image is clearly soft. Purple fringing is visible, but not so bad that that it fouls up the whole thing.



And look at the corners. This is not good.



Some more real life test shots. Ferrari 458 Spider in Bellavita. The event was invitation only, so a proletariat like myself could only admire the car and the bourgeoisie from afar. Thank goodness for the 2X FOV crop, which effectively turns 50mm into 100mm.



Completely distortion-free. Every line is straight as an arrow.



The bokeh. Hm..... it looks good, but not "dreamy" enough.



And it works well in a dimly-lit restaurant such as Wine de Kanpai. Gotta say, if you are an alcoholic wine hound, this is the place for you. After forking over the $50NT/person corking fee, you are free to bring and open as many bottles of wine as you like.









Finally, a bokeh-filled video.



So, there you have it. Is this lens an example of optical perfection? Nope, not even close. But it will provide razor sharp images from f/11 all the way down to f/4. Granted, it's a bit soft at wide open, and the corner is what it is. But even there, the output image is more than tolerable. On a 5x7 print, nobody would notice a thing. But the truth is, I was hoping for more. In essence, this lens is no better than the Takumar, which means Pentax made no progress between 1971 and 1988. Bummer.

But, to to be frank, optical perfection is beside the point. This lens is a reasonably priced piece of hardware for the masses that delivers very, very good results most of the time. For $60, I guess I have no problem accepting that.