This Old Lens: Takumar 135mm f/2.5 K Mount

Preface

I have bought and sold this lens so many times I cannot honestly tell you if I currently own it or not with 100% certainty. I do not think I have it… but I would not be surprised if it showed up in the bottom of a bag.

Pentax was the first SLR system I learned on many, many years ago as taught by my father. I still have a couple of Pentax SLRs to this day (ME Super and free to me gifted SF10).

As previously stated with these posts there will be no spoilers as I will like all of these lenses.

Asking Price

There are many variations of this lens for K and M42 screw mount and I have owned a couple of variations including f/2.5 and f/2.8 examples. I have not seen any notable variations between any of them. All tend to run around $100 or less.

Value

$100 for this level of performance is a great deal. Though I will admit that 135mm is a bit longer than I like for a manual focus lens when adapting lenses. Plus a new Sony E mount manual focus lens will run hundreds of dollars more and I would rather have this.

Why I (Had) Bought It

Why do I keep selling it? It is a great lens that is dirt cheap, but I end up not using it for some reason.

Why do I keep buying it? It is a great lens that is dirt cheap, so I figure what is the harm in keeping one around after looking at some old sample shots.

Rinse. Repeat.

Image Quality

Takumar makes an impressive lens. Very sturdy build and a good looking lens. I will largely copy my prior Takumar impressions below.

• Flare
  • Have not witnessed any flare with this lens.
• Sharpness
  • Very sharp with film and digital.
• Colors
  • I really like the colors this lens produces.
• Bokeh
  • Huge win. Not only in the amount of bokeh available but in the quality. No squirrely distractions like some other lenses. Just creamy backgrounds and foregrounds. A fantastic portrait lens.

Samples With Film (No samples here.)

With Digital

Conclusion

Another great legacy lens. As mentioned above you could spend far more for modern mirrorless MF lens but I prefer this one. If you enjoy shooting on film and digital this lens is a great option.

-ELW