My latest acquisition is a low budget, wide-angle manual focus prime lens. The Pentax Takumar Bayonet 28mm f2.8 lens is a member of Pentax’s low budget Takumar Bayonet line of lenses, and debuted in 1984. Optically it’s identical to it’s older, and more expensive, brothers in the Pentax M and A lines, and it’s even built to the same high mechanical standards.

But, yet, it’s very much an underdog because, as a low budget lens, it lacks the Super-Multi-Coating (SMC) that is found in Pentax’s higher end lenses. The lens is coated, but the lack of SMC makes it prone to flaring, among other things. But, used within its limitations, this lens can turn out some great results.

Example 1. This photo is straight out of the photographer’s camera. Not bad. All I did was crop out a cloud and some tree leaves on the sides.

Example 2. The same photo after a super quick edit in Photoshop. I decreased the exposure and increased the contrast both a smidgen, just enough to make the colors pop a little.

Not bad at all for a 26 year old underdog “budget” lens, huh? To see more pictures taken with this lens, check out this PBase photo gallery that I found.