M42 lens

J

JayD

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Hi all, bit of advice please. 15 years ago I inherited my grandads camera equipment. A Pentax camera, various lenses, flash etc, a few more bits and bobs. I have been informed that one of the lenses, a Super Takuma F2 55mm, is an excellent lens and can produce stunning results. Now for the advice. Can I get it to fit my Canon 400d with an adaptor? What sort of adaptor? I presume it will be manual focus but what about exposure? Will that still be automatic? Any other info will be gratefully received.
Thank you.
 
Hi, that is indeed an excellent lens :)

Adapters are really cheap on ebay, certainly less than a tenner. You just need an M42 to Canon EOS adapter.

Exposure should be OKish, but probably not perfect. The lens is manual focus and you will need to change the aperture on the lens itself.
 
Thank you. I will mostly have the aperture on the fastest setting, especially at this time of year when everything is so dim.
I'm now looking for an adaptor, and can't wait to see the results.
 
As above. Your camera will work in M (manual) or Av (Aperture priority) mode with the M42 lens & adapter fitted. Tv won't work because the camera will not be able to control the aperture, you have to change it by physically moving the ring around on the lens.

It's worth getting an adapter with "focus confirm". This means your focus point will flash in your viewfinder to confirm focus, very useful for manual focus lenses.
 
Yay, just ordered an M42 to Canon eos adaptor with AF confirm. Cost me 8 quid. This is gonna open up a whole new world of superior quality lenses without having to rely on Canons rather shabby kit stuff.
 
I always use Aperture priority when using old lenses. You can use the Live View mode to look at what you are taking a pic of then zoom in for critical focus so the focus will be spot on.

Good luck with it, it's great fun!!
 
Great stuff, have fun - by all accounts that's a cracking lens.
 
Just started playing with M42 stuff myself, bought a couple of lenses from eBay and LCE to try. Don't forget to apply the crop factor. I got a 135mm f3.5 which is really sharp, not that impressed with the 55mm, but I like my 28mm, even if does look silly!

BB
 
Yeah, they do look a little small on a large body.
Makes me wonder what's happened though, a few years ago quality lenses were much more plentiful, now, the kit lenses especially are rubbish. Why has everything gone down market? You'd think Canon would want you to get outstanding results from their cameras to keep you coming back, but the results I'm getting with the kit 18-55is lens are decidedly mediocre. Even compacts give you an outstanding lens, my Panasonic has a Leica lens which is top notch. And a camera is only as good as its optics. Well so be it, I'm buggered if I'm paying hundreds of quid for an all singing, all dancing lens when I can get an older manual lens from the film era which gives fantastic results and costs less than a ton for a Zeiss lens.
 
I have to admit, a selection of lenses for under a tenner each do give you a felling of bagging a bargain, but I do miss IS. Must go and look for another bargain......
 
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