Pentax 200mm and 90mm LS lens comments

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well, its been about a year since I got off my lazy butt and did some mountain hiking...I took my new 67 body, 90mm LS lens ( circa 1974 ) and my 200mm old style lens ( also circa 1974 )...both lenses are Super Multi coated...both were cleaned by Steve Grimes internally of all internal/atmospheric dust that settles in there over the years...I left my brand new 135 and 45 lenses at home....comments ? WOO HOO !! The 90mm lens is simply one of the sharpest lenses I have ever used ( and I do use Contax in 35mm )...it may not have the unreal super high contrast of the Contax planar lens, but it certainly has very good contrast and it certainly matches the planar in resolution....I used Reala print film ( rated at 80 )....I took a shot of my wife holding a bottle of water...the bottle was tiny in the overall neg...I just got back an 8x10 print and I can read all the writing on the bottle !! simply wonderful lens ! AND this shot was take at F 5.6 hand held. The 200mm lens.....I love the out of focus nature of the lens....makes whatever is in focus just pop....I found this lens to be more than adequate in sharpness and contrast was very good although not excellent. I hand held this lens as well, no slower than 1/250...and I shot wide open to F 5.6 only....I bet another stop to F 8 would continue to improve this lens' performance....I am torn about getting the new 200...I know it focuses closer and it has 5 elements as opposed to 4, but I havent heard that it "blows - away " the old style 200...comments ? I really like this focal length for 67 - I think its the biggest tele you can hand hold easily....PLUS - you can pick up the old style 200 for about $ 300-350 off of ebay....new style will be about $ 600

-- Dan (dcolucci@aol.com), September 16, 2000

Answers

There have been loads of favorable comments about the 200 Takumar. It is no dog. Yes the newer five element version has had higher scores in the tests but it reminds me of the comparison between the 400 Takumar and the 400 Pentax. The newer version can beat the Takumar at f/4 but everywhere else, they are similar. ED glass only corrects one aberration but the overall sharpness of an image is determined by at least seven aberrations. The 200 Takumar design is closely related to the 150 Super Takumar/Takumar. The five element 150 is a super lens. It was also discontinued. I love the older lenses and never hesitate to buy them. SR

-- Steve Rasmussen (srasmuss@flash.net), September 16, 2000.

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