Some shots with my 50 EUR DSLR set-up (surprise!)

Even though I have lots of high-end glass, and even a K-5 and Canon 5D, I still enjoy shooting with low budget stuff. For instance with my Pentax *ist DL and 50mm f/1.4 Super-Takumar. I bought both separately as defective.

• The *ist DL (the chrome version by the way) cost me a whopping EUR 25 because the previous owner stated that the sensor is defective. In a sense it is; it shows obvious banding at ISO's above 800. However I have a hard time discovering anything wrong at lower ISO's.

• The 50mm f/1.4 Super-Takumar was also "defective" because it was infested by fungus. There was so much fungus in it that my first test photos were very low in contrast and "misty". However, the fungus was of the non-aggressive variety so I could clean it in less than 10 minutes, all by myself. A very basic disassembling was all that was needed (removing of the name ring, front barrel, and lens groups in front of the diaphragm). The coating was not harmed at all.

So today I went to the village and used this setup during my walk. I fitted a longer than normal hood to the Super-Takumar (to avoid flare), and came home with these.

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Here's the camera (at the left, please disregard the lens attached ):



And the banding at higher ISO's:

If I were you, i'd be buying lottery tickets daily with that luck.

Pretty darn good for that money, or just pretty darn good. Perhaps the original owner didn't know how to use the DL properly and sold it in frustration. You do know how to use it. Great find, especially the lens.
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I'm thankful to still be able to...

chiane said:

If I were you, i'd be buying lottery tickets daily with that luck.

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Thank you! But I don't think there was any luck involved, only perseverance. I scour the local for sale sites on a daily basis so I usually see everything related to Pentax

GPGeneralPhoto said:

Pretty darn good for that money, or just pretty darn good. Perhaps the original owner didn't know how to use the DL properly and sold it in frustration. You do know how to use it. Great find, especially the lens.

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Thank you! The former owner knew perfectly what was wrong (and that it did perform well at low ISO's, but in his view the camera was defective anyway). So he quickly accepted my bid (which was the same as his asking price).

The Super-Takumar is a great lens, no doubt. I even forgot to mention that its elements are very yellowed (since it uses rare earth -radioactive- glass) but that's not a problem for the auto white balance (and definitely not if you're shooting in RAW).

Dang, Peter. I like your style - you have so much fun in photography!

Peter Jonkman said:

The Super-Takumar is a great lens, no doubt. I even forgot to mention that its elements are very yellowed (since it uses rare earth -radioactive- glass) but that's not a problem for the auto white balance (and definitely not if you're shooting in RAW).

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Isn't there a partial cure for that? Not the notorious hammer method, but exposing the lens to direct sunshine for some time. Or is it an urban legend?

Raffwal said:

Dang, Peter. I like your style - you have so much fun in photography!

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Thanks Erkki, nice to hear from you again! My style is not that interesting though; I only want to show the audience how it looks in real life. So don't expect "bang-in-your-face-super-contrasty-and-maximum-clarity" type of shots from me

Raffwal said:

Raffwal said:

The Super-Takumar is a great lens, no doubt. I even forgot to mention that its elements are very yellowed (since it uses rare earth -radioactive- glass) but that's not a problem for the auto white balance (and definitely not if you're shooting in RAW).

Click to expand...

Isn't there a partial cure for that? Not the notorious hammer method, but exposing the lens to direct sunshine for some time. Or is it an urban legend?

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It's definitely not an urban legend; the yellowed Taks can indeed be cured this way. However, in my opinion de-yellowing a lens is not very worthwile because it's VERY easy to correct a yellow white balance in PP. Just shoot in RAW, that's all. Even the preview on the LCD of the camera will look good because of the automatic white balance. The only downside is a viewfinder with a yellow cast to it. I'm sure there will be other drawbacks, but I cannot see them in my shots.

A few leftovers:

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Very nice shots!
I kept my istDL for 5 years, until 3 weeks ago when i got the K5.
A nice little camera it is. My sis is getting mine!

Nicely done with the lens repair, I have one at Pentax service as we speak!