Old lens. Good lens. Cheap lens. Sharp lens. You'll have to blame some other link in the chain....

Swim towels #1

I took possession, yesterday, of a used Pentax 75mm f2.8. A lens originally designed and produced for use with the brand's original, manually focusing 645 format film body. It's small, light and still focuses smoothly and quickly. I put the lens on a Fuji GFX 50Sii camera and shot a few photographs this afternoon. The lens is very sharp, delivers great details contrast, and makes a really nice companion for this current medium format digital camera. The focal length is the equivalent of a 60mm lens on a full frame camera which is just about right for the vast majority of casual stuff I like to photograph.

The folks at B&H had this particular sample of this ancient lens and it was priced at $275. I consider it an incredible bargain because of its performance and compactness. Even with an adapter (Pentax 645 > GFX) attached it's a convenient and non-obtrusive package. Every medium format GFX shooter would benefit from picking up one of these. Just perfect. 
 
Through the curtain

Swim towel #2

Swim towel #3


Comments

JC said…
The bottom photo of the green towel caught my eye, because I was swimming yesterday and I left my swim towel hanging over a pool chair in bright sunlight. I got my Nikon ZII and 50/1.8S, did my best handheld autofocus and manual focus shots at ISO 100 and f8, put them in Photoshop without any changes and put them on my Mac Studio screen side-by-side with yours...and found (1) autofocus for me is slightly sharper than I can manual focus, I think. And I think my shot was at least as sharp as yours, and maybe a tiny bit sharper, but yours had "more stuff" in it, which I can't really explain, but that's what I thought when looking at the two side-by-side. But I may have been hallucinating, because I kept changing my mind. I do think yours may have had more "presence," if that makes sense. I'm not sure if the difference was large enough to make me think about changing cameras. In your opinion, do you have sharper lenses for that cameras than the Pentax?
September 13, 2024 at 1:48 PM
Biro said…
Nice... lens and images, Kirk. You've mentioned more than once that the Fuji GFX 50S II might be sold off. But I doubt it, given the fun you're having and results you're getting. Unless a GFX 100 is in the pipeline.
September 13, 2024 at 2:15 PM
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