NX100 + Zenitar 16mm F2.8

I bought a Pentax K mount Zenitar 16mm F2.8 recently and got around to trying it out with an adpater on the NX100.

I haven't bothered correcting the distortion on these photos. All processed in Capture One 6 Pro.

It does suufer from considerable CA particularly in the corner areas and focussing is a bit of an art, particularly in lower light. There's little point referimg to the focus distance scale on the lens, it seems to work best set at around 1-1.2 metres on the focus scale except for close work. Using the Focus Assist on the NX100 helped a lot but I did find it easier to focus on my Samsung GX-10 (Pentax K10D clone)

When focussed correctly, it seems nicely sharp from F4 to F8. From F11 onwards it starts gettiong soft again probably due to diffraction. Using F2.8 seemed very hit and miss with some keepers but others being very soft and in some cases generating a lot of "bloom" around sharp lines.

All in all, considering I paid £99 for it from ebay, I've enjoyed using it and will probably keep it in my armoury.

Full resolution copies are available to view on the Flickr set (which includes output from the GX-10):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilmacg/sets/72157629528194751/with/6996825947/

looks to be a quite good lens

Tom,

Thanks for the positive comments. Appreciated.

I don't make a huge amount of use of my manual lenses, but there has always been one exception and that is the Pentax SMC-M 50 F1.7 which I have always liked since I got it for my GX-10. It's quite easy to use and produces excellent images and bokeh.

The Zenitar is a very different beast. It is capable of producing excellent sharp images, but needs to be coaxed into doing so. I do think however that it will probably stay in my collection - particularly for those landscape sessions where the distortion is not an issue or is a positive asset.

...and it's a pity that I haven't managed to fly much in the Auster this last year. Like the Zenitar, it takes a particular skill to land without incident and if I don't use it frequently I can't fly it again until I spend time with a skilled pilot/instructor (unlike the Cessna that is more like getting in a car and going).

Good work with the manual focusing. Liked #3 best of the colored photos and really liked the last. Sweet.

Thanks for sharing.

I have the Zenitar 16mm in Nikon mount form. It is an incredibly sharp lens and a great value (at least it was several years ago). Focusing is a bit of a challenge, but the NX200 focus assist magnification does simplify things. On a full frame sensor or 35mm film the lens has a 180 degree (diagonal) field of view with considerable distortion. I haven't really noticed the CA that the OP discusses. My biggest problem with the lens is that it doesn't "lock" into my Nikon-NX adapter and I have to be very careful when changing f/stops. There is quite a bit written about this lens on some older web pages.

I like the mood of the 5th one, very nice!

Thomas