infrared photography with takumar lenses.

The colour images where using the Velvia colour rendition. The below images are JPG’s out of camera with minimal if any edits. Here are a mix of samples I have taken with the lens mounted on my Fujifilm XT2 via the K&F Concept (M42 – FX) adapter I purchased off of Amazon for approx $35 Canadian. Stop it down to f2.8 and the lens is great. Naturally it shows its more soft characteristics when wide open, but it certainly is usable wide open. For a cheap vintage lens, I find it to be quite sharp. It depends on the scene and what is in the background. Nothing that a a bit of work in post is couldn’t minimize. When shooting with this lens, there has been the odd time where I have found a bit of purple fringing on the background elements. I personally find the aperture ring to be a bit loose, but that may simply be my copy of the lens. The lens is small, light weight, built tough being all metal, has a super smooth focus ring and is a pleasure to shoot with. What I have experienced with this lens is more-or-less the same as many others. Like the other vintage lens pages I have on my website, this isn’t a full review of the lens but me sharing my experiences with this lens. Here is a comical but informative Youtube video on the subject. The lens suffered from the common Thorium yellowing condition, but several days under a LED desk lamp and most of the yellowing had cleared. The lens hood was a separate eBay purchase via a photography enthusiast in the USA. I purchased this lens sight-unseen from a Kijiji seller out of the Toronto area. At $60 Canadian I was happy to take a chance on it. Having done some research online I learned that the Asahi Optics (before they changed their name to Pentax) Super-Takumar 55mm f1.8 is a great, low cost option.

I was looking for a low cost, manual focus portrait lens for my Fujifilm XT2 that would yield approx 85mm full frame equivalent.

Infrared photography with takumar lenses.