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super-takumar 200mm f4

super-takumar 200mm f4

focal length: 200mm (long telephoto prime)
aperture range: 4 - 22
aperture blades: 6
min. focus distance: 2.50 m / 8.2 feet
construction: 5 elements in (?) groups
weight: ~ 550 grams
filter size: 58mm
mount: m42 (screwmount)
serial #: 17*****
purchase price: (???)
others: dedicated metal hood

with a minimum focus distance of 2.5 meters, this lens does not really get much use from me as it is too long for indoor close-ups, yet a little too heavy for me to frequently want to carry it along for outings. adding extension tubes helps to shorten the focus distance, but then it became front-heavy, and at this focal length is not easy to hand-hold without good lights.

the lens extends roughly 2cm on focusing from infinity to closest focusing distance. the front element does not rotate during focusing. it takes 58mm filters rather than the 49mm size common on most takumar lenses. the front element gives off a bluish reflection, while the rear element is deeply recessed into the lens body, similar to super-takumar 135mm f3.5 lens.

 
photos: body markings, and rear view.

based on the serial number which starts with '1', i believe this unit is from a very early production run. even the dedicated metal hood only has marking for takumar 200mm f4, whereas in most photos of the lens that i've seen, the hood has markings for both takumar 200mm f4 and 135mm f2.5 which both share the same hood.

i'm actually thinking of selling off this lens if there's a reasonable offer, since it's just sitting there unused most of the time. anyone interested? or maybe i should try to use it more...

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not in the mood to step out from the house today, but the camera is going to start sporting spider webs soon, so... random photos from simply pointing the lens out from the window; blue background is from a vehicle parked nearby. the early morning sun always cast interesting glows on random things.

from the few times using the super-takumar 200mm f4, i must say that i don't quite like the colors from this lens - they look washed out and lacking contrast (the 2 photos here have been quick-tweaked in Picasa). the lens also has a greater tendency to overexpose badly compared to the other takumars that i have - so much that i have to switch to manual mode because the EV compensation is not even enough. i'm not sure... am i doing something wrong?

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long hiatus since the last post. still have a bunch of photos from the bangalore trip eons ago sitting in the hard drive that i'm too lazy to go through and edit... and a recent crash of the notebook's drive also dragged along a bunch of photos with it..

anyway, photo's from a quick test of the super-takumar 200mm f4 that just arrived in the mail... bokeh wide-open appears to be quite harsh, but a little better than the 135mm f3.5 at least. but looking at the size, i'll probably not be using it much due to laziness to carry it around. the min focus distance - at 2.5m - also limits its usefulness, and adding extension tubes to an already pretty long lens is guaranteed to attract a lot of stares from passer-bys...

also a first try with editing using Picasa. options are pretty much limited, e.g. contrast adjustment are auto-only with no custom settings, and the so-called 'lucky' one-click adjustment mess up the colors more often than producing something nice... what i'm after is a lightweight freeware for quick minor adjustments instead of having to fire up memory-gobbling Photoshop for the tiniest of things, but i guess Picasa isn't what i want - although, to it's credit, it's pretty fast in use, and feature-wise will likely appeals to many. also, it irritates me for insisting to scan 'my documents/my pictures' folders for images and doesn't let me skip these folders. not everyone likes to store stuff in the default windows folders, and there are stuff in there that i don't want them showing up in Picasa browser...