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Pentax Program Plus 35mm SLR Camera Takumar Zoom 28-80mm 3.5-4.5 Lens - $89 (Bloomington)
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The serial number 5639426 corresponds to an early 1970s Super-Multi-Coated (SMC) Takumar 50mm f/1.4 or Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 55mm f/1.8 lens, produced by the Asahi Optical Company (Pentax). These M42 screw-mount manual lenses are widely beloved in the vintage photography community for their excellent center sharpness, gorgeous color rendition, and smooth mechanical build. Key Features & Optical Performance Aesthetic & Bokeh: Wide open at f/1.4 or f/1.8, the lens renders images with ethereally soft edges, a narrow depth of field, and a smooth, painterly background blur. It is heavily praised on Pentax Forums for being an excellent tool for emotive portraits and subjects that don't require surgical edge-to-edge sharpness. Sharpness: Center sharpness is solid even wide open. If you need landscape-level sharpness across the entire frame, the lens hits its absolute peak when stopped down to f/5.6 or f/8.Flare Control: The "SMC" stands for Super Multi-Coated, which was revolutionary for its time. It offers superior flare resistance and contrast when shooting into bright light compared to older single-coated predecessors. Radioactivity & Yellowing: Certain Takumar lenses from this era utilized thorium-doped glass for superior refractive properties. This does not pose a health risk for normal use, but it does cause the glass to yellow over time. Fortunately, this can be reversed easily by leaving the lens upside down in direct sunlight or under a UV lamp for a few days. Build Quality: These lenses are built like tanks entirely out of metal. The manual focus ring is incredibly smooth with a long throw