I have this lens on my 1st flim camera tucked away in my old camera bag for years. In one spontaneous weekend, I took it out for workout with my previous dSLR with Pentax K100D.
I thought I would never use this lens as the focusing ring is very slippery and the focus throw is quite short. But the short and slippery focusing ring actually comes in handy for those seagulls moving in fast speed as I have little time to get it accurate, I just shoot best efforts in focusing and hope for a few to come out okay. Overall, I am very surprised with this M42 lens. I find the focal range in 28-70 working out more useful than my kit's lens for candid and walk around purposes. I make quite a number of mistakes in fast movements, shaky shots not with sharp focus. In Av mode, I find underexposure by a full stop to +1.7 Ev compensation. In the shooting, I used stop-down metering with adjustment for shutter speed for 1/3 of a stop.
Impressions & Notes
- This is a rare M42 lens that work with Praktica camera. The Praktica cameras share the same M42 mount before evolving into Praktica Bayonet mount
- Praktica cameras were made in the past from East Germany but this lens may have been manufactured in Japan
- The lens focus throw, though short about 1/4 turn, is very loose and I find it great for fast focusing. I used this lens successfully in shooting birds in fly with seagulls. The smooth and loose focusing ring help in the fast focusing needed to track the birds in manual focus.
- The lens is in petite size, smaller than the Pentax DA 18-55 kit's lens
- Macro is believed to be in 1:4 in the 70mm end ratio though I have not test macro on this M42 lens
- Filter size is 52mm
- This M42 is in a 2 touch zoom design with separate zoom and focusing rings.
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