Pentax/Soligor glass and a k-mount option?

danny dale

danny dale

Well-known member
I have a SMC Pentax-M 50mm F1.7 lens and a Soligor 85-205mm F3.8 macro+zoom lens that went with my dads Pentax ME camera... are these lenses worth investing in the k-mount? I checked on eBay and they are going for $40-50, which I'm sure I'm going to spend twice that for an adapter. I've searched around the forum and Saaby is the only one saying good things about Pentax glass. Or, should I be looking for Canon FD's or Nikon's? I don't really know that much about glass except that I should be looking for fast lenses, but don't really want to spend $400-500 per lens.

About the k-mount... I saw that Cosina announced a k-mount for MFT, but can't find anything else on it. Anyone have any info or know of another option?

Any help would be appreciated - thanks.
 
The Pentax lens is good, not so confident about the Soligor.

The problem with Pentax is that like Nikon, the K-mount is essentially the same since the 60s. This means that the older lens could still be in demand. The reason many here are going for FD lenses is because it's a dead system (Canon now uses EF lenses) so the old lenses are going for cheap.
 
They're still...sorta in demand. The lens mount has stayed the same, but Pentax was kind of the SLR game back years ago, and now they only have like maybe 2% of the dSLR market...so there's tons of old glass out there...relatively few people looking for it now. Case in point...I'm the only one around here with Pentax glass.

So is it a good choice? Well...have you ever noticed that people always ask "What kind of lens did you use?" -- lenses definitely impart a look on a photo, don't get me wrong, but I think that the differences between a good piece of Pentax glass and a good piece of Nikon, Canon, or...dare I say...Lecia glass are down to pixel peeping. I think the Pentax lenses offer phenomenal value-for-money. Where they fall short in the photography world is a lack of long, fast glass (Like this baby). I don't see a lot of demand in video for 500mm lenses. What I do see is demand for Prime lenses...an area where Pentax receive a lot of praise, especially for their line of "Pentax Limited's" high-end prime lenses.

I think a real consideration though is what are you going to do in the photo world? Are you planning a more photo-oriented dSLR any time in the future for stills? I have an older K100D and love it. I am almost absolutely sure that it will eventually be replaced with a Pentax K7, so for me it made perfect sense to go for a Pentax adaptor, as it allows the greatest overlap of lenses to use between my dedicated stills camera and my GH1.

That's my opinion, for what it's worth. You can find a lot more information about Pentax lenses and cameras, including a pretty extensive review library of both Pentax and third-party K-mount lenses, over at PentaxForums.com. There's always flickr too!

PS -- I think I have that same 50mm 1.7 lens. It's kind of a sleeper, not as highly regarded by the measurebators as the 1.4, but a fantastic lens IIHO. The construction and super compact design make it a delight to use. With adaptor on the GH1 it loses some of it's "small factor" -- but on my Pentax body it's almost like a Pancake lens.


Edit: Yeah, that 1.7 is the same one I have. Love it. More info here. Couldn't find any info on that other lens.
 
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hey just noticed I'm finally a "Senior Member"... :thumbsup:


Martti Ekstrand said:
ciecio7 who made my excellent FD adapter has a K-mount adapter as well - haven't heard anything about it though.

http://myworld.ebay.com/ciecio7/
Click to expand...

cool - thanks for that link.

Saaby - I'm mainly going to use these for video. Do you have any recommendations on other primes that I should be looking for? Something wider (20-28mm) and maybe an 85mm?... or can I ask what other lenses do you have?

thanks to everyone for the help.
 
i have a 24mm and 55mm pentax lens and bought the adapter... i find they have one big problem for video... they focus the wrong way round compared to video lens and other lenses (clockwise from close to infinity)... i just can't get used to it. this is ok for photo, but if you have to shoot video with a minimum of movement for me it's useless...i always get the focusing wrong even if i concentrate hard....
now i have a complete FD collection and i'm not using the pentax any more.
want a nearly-new adapter ??:happy:
 
Danny,

Did you ever make a decision? I just have 4 lenses in my little lens family.

The Kit lens for my Pentax dSLR (Which I've never put on my GH1, as the GH1s kit lens is similar range and aperture)
50mm 1.7, same as you have
80-200
Lens Baby Control Freak
 
henryciullo said:
... they focus the wrong way round compared to video lens and other lenses (clockwise from close to infinity)...
Click to expand...

Maybe this is why I'm always madly twisting left or right and totally confused...my mixture of glass from different companies.
 
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