This blog is nothing if not inconsistent. In fact, that may be its only claim to consistency. I do like to provide my perspective on gear through reviews, though mine are based on impressions much more than systematic testing or specifications. Sometimes I am able to get my hands on new (or newish) product releases to write about – but that only happens when I make a personal gear change, because I am not anywhere near close to a gear reviewing site which might get test cameras or lenses. In fact, I can say with some confidence that that will never happen.
I won’t claim to have a handle on all of the latest and greatest gear. But that’s not my sole area of interest, either. In fact, I’ve spent more of my photographic time with older gear, and I know there are plenty of other people like me. This all serves as introduction for this post, as well as upcoming posts, where I set out to review some older lenses, specifically the early Pentax autofocus lenses, called the Pentax-F series. These lenses were first released in the latter half of the 1980s, and new models were released into the mid-1990s, after which the Pentax-FA series took over. Because some FA lenses are still current to the Pentax lens lineup (with slight changes to body style or coatings, but otherwise unchanged), the FA series in general is more often on a Pentaxian’s radar. But the Pentax-F series contains some overlooked, and sometimes brilliant, lenses. Best of all, these are often inexpensive and may not be as sought-out, making them a bit more accessible.
Near the beginning of the year, I purchased a large collection of Pentax-F lenses from a Pentaxian on a web forum (the excellent, first-and-last resource for Pentax users, pentaxforums.com), comprising 13 lenses, for the sum of $700. The collection contains some lenses which go for a bit more money than others, but it was a good deal overall. I bought these to provide a longer-term period of exploration/experimentation, on both of my (very different) Pentax DSLRs, the K-1 mark II and the K-3 mark III Monochrome. Oh, and, lest I forget! I also own an autofocus Pentax film SLR, the Z-1p. This camera was released in 1994, near the end of the Pentax-F line, so it lines up squarely as contemporary with these lenses.
I also own the excellent Pentax MX, which is an all-manual camera dating from 1976 and onwards. It’s well-loved, for good reason. However, my Pentax-F lenses won’t spend as much time on the MX, despite being fully compatible. That’s because the Pentax autofocus lenses (in general, but especially the F-series) aren’t particularly good at manual focus. Some of them are, in fact, quite bad. the focus rings are usually tiny, and the range of rotation for adjustment between most-used focal ranges, like 1-2 meters to infinity, is usually quite small. This isn’t unique to Pentax: most autofocus lenses don’t have the optimized focus throws that manual lenses were designed to have. But there are some which are worse than others, and the Pentax-F series is on the worse end of the spectrum. Not to say that manual focus is impossible. it can be done. It’s just not pleasant.
At any rate, I plan to write a series of posts where I briefly review individual lenses from my recent purchase. Hopefully this can be useful, and possibly even inspire someone to seek out a little-known bargain from the past century. If nothing else, it might be a trip down memory lane. Stay tuned!
The Sprocket Docket 