Between 1978 and 1985 Pentax sold the Pentax Auto 110 (and later, the Auto 110 Super), a miniature SLR system built around Kodak's small-format 110 film cartridges. The 110 system is no longer with us, but thanks to an almost identical frame size, its lenses are a perfect match for the Micro Four Thirds system. Join us as we discover the joy of using vintage Pentax 110 lenses on a modern digital camera.
Thanks for the post ----- But Pentax 110 Lenses come with a high cost! +1+ Financial - they have proved to be "trendy" and the action prices have been rising. +2+ Useability - the lack of aperture control === Solution - for similar "small footprint" lenses for M4/3 - take a moment to look at the truely tiny lenses made by Cheecar/Fujian in c-mount: available in 25mm, 35mm and 50mm. They have advantages over the legacy Pentax 110 lenses while maintaning the Pentax benefits. = Advantage of the Fujian mini lenses: [1] Available new for £10-20 GBP / $15-30 USD with C to M4/3 adapters from many auction websites [2] in the perspectives 25mm, 35mm and 50mm [3] All have variable apertures [4] with faster F1.4 to F1.7 apertures than Pentax 110 [5] Are new build - so fungus, haze and dust are not a problem
My advice is to start with the 35mm Fujian F1.7 - and if in doubt, just google "35mm Fujian F1.7" for some reviews and inspiration on You Tube and beyond.
I have the full Pentax 110 kit and also a Pentax Q7 with three lenses. I got an adapter to use the 110 lenses with the Q (incidentally a very good camera considering the sensor size). The 110 and Q lenses are very good - what do you expect from a Pentax prime? So I disagree with your derogatory comments about the quality of these lenses. Old doesn't mean bad - I still use mainly Minolta lenses on my Sony A7.
I do like the landscapes, and how they are not overly sharp. They appear much like the eye sees -- an eye cannot be focused on close to infinity all at once. On the portraits the lack of sharpness is distracting.
I get similar effect using Russian Industar 50-2 (M42) with a Canon or Fujifilm adapter. M42 lenses are fun to play with, they are dirt cheap, and adapters are easy to get. They are not for everyday shooting, but they can give you just the right kind of vintage look with the je-ne-sais-quoi that is hard to fake.
Another idea for fun videos: if you switch to 35mm sensors, how about delving in the world of vintage Leica M39 screw mount lenses? It's still huge, and besides high quality products such as original Leica lenses there are a lot of funny cheap Sowjet lenses out there, some of which are surprisingly good and others are technically so bad that it is really fun to see the artistic results the can create.
Leica M39 (or even M mount) on a MFT like the Panasonic GX8 is "interesting". With a Viso adapter (to M Mount) and a M Mount to MFT adapter a Leica M39 400mm Telyt gives surprising results. The IBIS I think helps quite a bit and using a monopod or bean bag on a car door you can experiment with some pretty extreme distance wild-life shots. Most noticeable is the different colour rendering compared to say the Panasonic 14-140mm.
Great pictures. The sharpness or lack of doesn’t bother me at all. Not sure how much post if any has been done, but lack of sharpness and the color profile gives them real character. Looking at the shot of the fence in the snow or the blue corrugated surface with the flash of orange you’d be forgiven for thinking the images didn’t come from an Olympus m4/3. At a time where we complain if a camera can’t do everything brilliantly, it’s great to see what enforced limitations (and a sense of fun) can produce. As a kid I owned a Fuji 110 film camera. It was very plasticky, the rear door was really loose and....it took the best photos! My dad had the Agfa equivalent, an exquisitely made and designed object that just never delivered the same results as the cheap little Fuji.
Makes me wonder why all my M43 lenses are so 'big' when these tiny things cover almost the same image circle, and at f2.8! Yeah OK, no diaphragm, AF, or OIS, and pretty average optical performance, but still, the size difference to current M43 primes is a little startling, no?
Well, look at the M- Series Pentax 50mm f/1.4 vs. the latest 50mm f/1.4 Pentax offer. I suppose the difference in volume is comparable. I guess getting high quality wide open is a big factor. Besides, the 25mm and 18mm for Pentax 110 are kind of fiddly as soon as you want to control focus and/or aperture. Pocketability über alles, but personnally a don't mind a wee bit of ergonomics
They're not that much smaller than the f1.7/1.8 prime AF variable aperture m43 lenses. I guess a better comparison would be the Olympus body cap lenses. Those things are designed from a similar vein.
Better pics than usual. The little Pentax lenses seem to be a great job but no surprises as they made good gear.
Flare resistance seems really good too, I wonder did they use SMC coatings on 110 lenses?
My cousin had rich parents (my aunt and uncle) and they bought him a Pentax 110 system, I remember he had it in 1982 when he was about 10/11. He went on to be a pro photographer and now teaches photography.
Is there any way to simulate the aperture which was built into the 110 bodies so that the lenses can be effectively stopped down for use on digital? I suspect that image quality would increase significantly if there were a way to stop them down to f/4 or /5.6, and they'd still let enough light through to be useable.
If delving into old/adapted lenses is truly an adventure, you have to play with the Zeiss Jena series of glass. I loved using it on a lot of different bodies, but I suspect that audiences would most appreciate its pairing with a Fuji body.
Pure enjoyment on a cold and lazy Sunday afternoon... and I always learn something new when I watch the Chris & Jordon show :D I also appreciated many of the technical DIY'ers who have added interesting facts to the comments below... and I'm sure there will be more. Thanks Chris/Jordon... keep up the good work!
What I think about a MFT Pentax? Well, actually I have been thinking that would be a quite logical move with their long history of offering performance in a small package. If they were to bring something like the ME or the MX in MFT, that would be awesome! I'd trust them to bring on some fine lenses too. And compared to other options to complement the SLR sales, it would be a pretty low risk one.
Adapted lenses I'd like to see revolve around what AF is actually possible through adapters. I know you don't want to hit some of the more common adapters in favor of something "wacky" but knowing if there are any actually workable non-native AF choices for that T4 you were shooting with would be cool.
Interesting and fun, thanks. If the economy goes the way I expect, articles on stuff that's inexpensive but fun might be a good idea.
There used to be much more of this; using window screen to make star effects, fisheye lenses made from door peepholes, cheap lenses used with T adapters, old view camera lenses, etc. Stuff like Lens Baby used to be priced appropriately, and it was fun to experiment with.
I enjoyed the video. But I think it's only fair (to the now-mostly-retired Pentax engineers who designed this system), to emphasize a point that only a few others are making:
In this experiment, the lenses are being used in a way never intended. Not "wide open" but beyond that. They're really wider than f/2/8 but were designed to be used with the Auto 110 body's built-in shutter/stop that controls the opening. Optically, it's no fair to go without the stop that makes them f/2.8 as engraved.
If you went inside a modern lens and removed the aperture mechanism including associated rings and baffles, you'd be shooting through edges of the elements and the sharpness would take a noticeable hit. I think that's part of the story here.
Though perhaps not razor-sharp, I think their reputation is going to suffer unfairly because of these stop-less adapters on digital cameras. By adding various stops, you'd find the sharpness is better at actual f/2.8, probably much better at f/4 to f/5.6.
I used the Auto 110 lenses for a while and found that an adapter with aperture could be created from a broken camera. Here is one adapter that utilizes the original aperture/shutter of the camera, it can be stopped won manually (little lever on the side) https://www.flickr.com/gp/gnarlydog/44bQ6B The speckled highlights however are weird (square balls) therefore I retrofitted some lenses (50mm and 70mm) with a round aperture iris: https://www.flickr.com/gp/gnarlydog/mG4t6e The 70mm is actually a rather good lens: the bokeh is old school with a hint of swirl and the render is very decent. It shines for portraits more than most modern lenses (especially zooms). The 50mm wide open doesn't work that well at infinity but at 10 m is good.
I have the whole set of these Pentax auto 110 lenses that I got for cheap years ago. I only had one native lens at the time so these and other dirt cheap legacy glass seemed attractive. I mounted them on the Panasonic GF-1 and the results were okay optically. They look comically cute being dwarfed even by the m43 bodies. Eventually however I just decided to go with native lenses.
I contemplated grabbing a Pentax Q. With the 70mm would make 385mm or 329mm on the Q7. Alas, I think I would get better photos if I just grabbed a Stylus 1 which is a 28-300mm and similar sensor.
I didn't really understand the appeal of interchanageble lens 110 and don't get why you would want to use fixed aperature lenses on digital... With so many other options..?
A neighbor had the Pentax 110 and in the late 1990's he used it one last time and commented that the photos looked better than when the camera was new and he was correct, the film got better so the photos were better.
I have a set of these lenses along with the camera, and I use them on micro four thirds. I also have the magnetic aperture disks.
f/2.8 is what they would do with the Pentax 110 camera's dual internal aperture - some of these lenses measure all the way down to f/2.0 in the real world.
Yes, Pentax should make a digital 110. Pentax should make a micro four thirds camera. This will never happen though, since Pentax has trouble making DSLRs and has tried twice already with mirrorless.
I saw the video and let myself encourage to give DPR a suggestion for a future test: Quailty vs weight optimization. What system, sensor size and lens will give the best image quality per kg equipment. Assume same FoV, lighting, shutter speed and so on.
m4/3 with a f/1,4 lens vs a FF camera with a f/2,8 lens and so on.
Lately I've come to realize color science is more important that a bit more noise or a little less DR. And some m43 cameras hit above their weight anyway. We talk about trying to eliminate noise, but keep secret how much time we take to fix bad colors, or create color profiles for every scenario. I really appreciate Canon, Olympus and Fujifilm that give us such great looking stills SOOC, and RAW files that default to such pleasing colors.
I really appreciated the fact that the Fujifilm X-T4 was used to shoot this episode (presumably intentionally) giving us an opportunity to further evaluate the performance of the newly introduced IBIS system and video AF. More valuable even than the initial review of the X-T4 in this matter...
The same applies to a previous sponsored article here at DPReview (exploring creativity with the X Pro 3, that did not allow for comments) which in fact I enjoyed mostly as a showcase of the wonderful video capabilities of the X-T3 that was used to film that video.
I have to say that, colour in this video filmed with the X-T4, in my personal opinion, looks to be so much more natural than previous videos shot with the Panasonic SH1. Just a personal opinion of course. Therefore, I would greatly appreciate a video comparison of your take on video colour science of various companies and models of hybrid cameras currently in the market.
As always you guys make awesome videos, and this one only shows how much fun you can have using those fully manual lenses even in an non cooperating landscape.
One great advantage of mirrorless systems is this ability to use old lenses full of imperfections but with magical rendering.
While we're on the subject of "ancient" lenses that are both tiny and still gorgeous today, let's not forget the old Zuiko 200mm f/5, a truly "pocket" sized 200mm lens if ever there was one. If you're looking to "get to 400mm" on your fancy new E-M1 mk3, and don't mind manual focus but want insane sharpness at f/5-8 before diffraction gets too nasty, then that's a unicorn of a lens.
I rediscovered my several Zuiko lenses from various OM SLR and adapted them to Sony A7 with low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality, including resolution. And as you say, they are lightweight (not having to bother with focus motor, iris connection , etc.) and solidly built to last.
I recently used the Zuiko 200mm f/5 on the A7R3 on a 4-night backpacking trip where weight was a major concern. It was the sharpest landscape photography lens I've ever tested that hits 200mm. Knock it to ~f/8 and WOW... Even at 42 MP and no AA filter, that lens is utterly bonkers sharp. I'm now very curious to try some other Zuiko lenses (Maybe a ~85-105mm?) that could possibly save even more weight for my ultra-light full-frame travel needs...
Pentax could be an interesting addition to m43, particularly if they made bodies incorporating their 4-shot whole-pixel-shift function - which neither Olympus nor Panasonic do (why?).
These lenses belong firmly in the past though. They are terrible.
@cosinaphile - they are fixed-aperture f/2.8 lenses. All shots are at f/2.8. Off-axis the images quality is awful, and the bokeh in the one shot where that is relevant is nasty.
the 110 cameras had a 2 piece aperture baffle in the camera that acted to discard the peripheral aspect of these 2.8 optics and provide stopping down
they are better than this in practice when used as intended which means with an aperture baffle .... i use one in my adapters .... they are sharp enough for an 8x10 or 11x 14 remember these are being mounted on 10 dollar sweat shop adapters... seeking the fun of using these gems rather than perfection and sterility of computer designed 50mm lenses the size of a beer stein is the key
The X-A7 is Fujifilm's latest, and most polished, entry-level APS-C mirrorless camera. With improved autofocus and a large touchscreen interface, we found ourselves really enjoying it.
With a fast lens, GPS and useful tracking features, and Raw support, Olympus's flagship rugged compact continues to be the best waterproof camera on the market.
While improvements like HyperSmooth 2.0 stabilization are truly impressive, the latest GoPro generation really only offers incremental upgrades – and that's looking like a trend we can count on in the foreseeable future.
The Lume Cube 2.0 is much improved on its predecessor, but we do have concerns about its smartphone app. It's also pretty pricey among its competitors, but its feature set and quality of light may win you over. Find out more in our full review.
The X-T4 brings image stabilization and a larger battery to the X-T series, but dig a bit deeper and you'll find a host of improvements and tweaks. See what we've discovered in the X-T3's sister model.
Whether you've grown tired of what came with your DSLR, or want to start photographing different subjects, a new lens is probably in order. We've selected our favorite lenses for Sony mirrorlses cameras in several categories to make your decisions easier.
Whether you've grown tired of what came with your DSLR, or want to start photographing different subjects, a new lens is probably in order. We've selected our favorite lenses for Nikon DSLRs in several categories to make your decisions easier.
Whether you've grown tired of what came with your DSLR, or want to start photographing different subjects, a new lens is probably in order. We've selected our favorite lenses for Canon DSLRs in several categories to make your decisions easier.
The fixed lens camera market may be a bit niche, but it's here that you'll find some of the best cameras you can buy. Sensors ranging from APS-C to full-frame are designed to match their lenses, which cover ranges from 28-75mm equivalent, so image quality is top-notch.
Although a lot of people only upload images to Instagram from their smartphones, the app is much more than just a mobile photography platform. In this guide we've chosen a selection of cameras that make it easy to shoot compelling lifestyle images, ideal for sharing on social media.
Marrying technologies invented over 150 years apart, U.S. photographer Shane Balkowitsch used the wet collodion process to photograph a sitter in London as she posed in front of her phone camera
The update addresses a lock-up issue multiple 1D X Mark III camera owners were experiencing when shooting with the electronic level was on in the viewfinder display.
HDR isn't always a popular term in photography circles, but the latest high-DR TVs could free your photos from the standard DR constraints you didn't even know you were working to.
Tamron first teased the 70-180mm F2.8 Di III VXD for Sony E-mount last October. Now, we have confirmation of its price and the expected shipping date, pending any further interference from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new EF to L-Mount 'Fusion' adapter offers full EXIF data support, as well as communication protocols to support autofocus, aperture control and image stabilization on supported lenses.
Our testing shows that overall, the new lens in the X100V is much improved over the previous version found in the X100F and previous generations. Read on for our full analysis.
We think that the Nikon 50mm F1.4G and 85mm F1.4G are great all-around picks for APS-C and full-frame Nikon DSLR portrait shooters, respectively. Read on for more recommendations and all of our top lens picks for these systems.
The Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 DG DN lives up to Sigma's 'Art' standard, giving first-party lenses for E-mount and L-mount a run for their money. We put it to the test and came out impressed.
Our team at DPReview TV just finished reviewing Sigma's newest 24-70mm F2.8 lens and they found a lot to like. Check out these sample photos captured while filming their review.
Following our recent microphone pre-amp shootout there was a lot of controversy surrounding the results from the Sony a7 III. Our team tested a second a7 III body to verify the results and discovered some important things that could impact the rankings – depending on what microphone you use.
The patent shows how users could capture light field images with depth data to create immersive experiences that can be viewed on mobile devices or head mounted displays.
The Olympus AF-10 Super is by all stretches of the imagination, a very basic film point and shoot with limited features. But sometimes limitations can inspire creative workarounds – and creative workarounds can lead to really interesting photos.
NVIDIA's new RTX Studio-branded laptops combine NVIDIA's newest RTX Super GPUs with Intel's latest H-Series CPUs to deliver improved performance for creative professionals on the go.
Intel's new 10th generation Intel Core H-series mobile processors promise processing frequency up to 5.3 GHz. The six new chips range from four to eight cores and promise incredible mobile computing performance.
With a top prize of $13,000 worth of Zeiss lenses, plus a grant for a photographic project, competition for the Zeiss Photography Award was at a high. Here's a gallery of winning and shortlisted photographers from the fifth annual contest
Despite a nearly identical form factor and very similar specs, the Feiyu Pocket retails for just $249, an impressive $120 cheaper than DJI's Osmo Pocket.
The Phocus 3.5 for desktop app has received a number of new and improved features, while the 1.0.1 update for Phocus Mobile 2 is much less substantial.
Anamorphic lenses aren't typically used for still photography, so we decided to try it out using accessory lenses from Moondog Labs and Moment. As one of our editors discovered, it can be a fun, creative challenge.
We think the Canon EF 50mm F1.8 STM and Sigma 85mm F1.4 Art are the best all-around picks for APS-C and full-frame Canon DSLRs, respectively, but we've got more recommendations to meet a range of budgets.
Glimpse is a fork from the free and open-source GNU Image Manipulation Program, more commonly referred to as GIMP (although Glimpse's creator is hoping to change that.
Lots of people are suddenly working from home. For many, that means creating online videos for others to watch or logging time on video calls. We review some simple techniques to make your videos look and sound great, so you'll look more professional.
The X-A7 is Fujifilm's latest, and most polished, entry-level APS-C mirrorless camera. With improved autofocus and a large touchscreen interface, we found ourselves really enjoying it.
Comments