Found some old Pentax gear

[scott-devon]

I was cleaning and repairing my Mom's house and came across the following which she told me to take since I might find a use for it.

A Spotmatic camera with a Takumar 1:1.4/50 lens on it. A lens case with a Takumar 1:4/200 lens including both end caps and hood. a set of 3 metal extension tubes with end caps to fit this set, a black's 58mm pl filter, a box with a ta45 flash which works, and some sort of camera mount frame with a trigger in the handle operating a remote trip cable. Plus the origional camera manual. Still some film in the camera as well, so I'll have to play with it all and see what I come out with.


Are these good lenses? Would it be worth getting adaptors to use them on my K20?
I'm thinking I'll probably put the lot of ebay once I get a better idea of their value but the 200mm has me wondering about how useful it would be with an adaptor.

[ozbuc]

Looks like a great find!

[ken1953]

A treasure trove(sp) for sure!!! Not sure about the Taks...but, if in good shape they're probably as good as some of the cheaper ones of today. Spend a few $$$ and take them to a reputable repair facility and have them all checked out. Best few bucks I ever spent was when I bought a yard sale Pentax and lenses for $10. Found out the camera needed only seals, the 50mm lens was in perfect condition, and the KMart zoom lens was not worth fixing. But could be if I wanted to spend the $95.
Good luck and let us know how it all comes out!!!

[Dougjgreen]

A treasure trove(sp) for sure!!! Not sure about the Taks...but, if in good shape they're probably as good as some of the cheaper ones of today. Spend a few $$$ and take them to a reputable repair facility and have them all checked out.

Actually, they are much better than that. The 50mm f1.4 is a classic (BTW, the glass might have yellowed due to - I kid you not - radioactive decay of a rare earth element within it). If that's the case, you can fix it by leaving it so that the front glass is exposed to bright sunlight on a windowsill for a couple of days, then turn it around and let the rear element get the same treatment. I have both of those Taks, the 50mm and the 200mm, that I use with adapters on my Olympus DSLR bodies. They are very fine lenses - although they need to be both focused and metered manually on modern cameras. The 50mm f1.4 was really at least as good, possibly even slightly better lens than it's competitors from Nikon, Canon, Minolta, etc of the same era. It's the equal of current-day 50mm f1/4 lenses optically and better than the modern ones mechanically. The 200mm is a bit more pedestrian, but still plenty decent.

A lot of the Spotmatic cameras from that era that have sat unused for 20 years now have broken meters and/or slow shutters - in which case they are not worth the repair (and good luck getting a battery for the meter - although there are workarounds) but the lenses are quite likely to still be completely functional.