Manual Focus Lenses - M42
Back in the old days, when you bought a camera, it came with a 50mm lens. This viewpoint is approximately equal to what you'll see with your naked eye and is probably best for a beginner. My first lens was a 55mm f1.8 which was very sharp.
M42 55mm f1.8 - This one is lost in the mists of time. [UPDATE] No it isn't! I found this lens again after going back to Ireland for Christmas 2001. Apparently it's been sitting in a box for a few years. I've dusted it off and will run some slide film through it to see how it works on a K-Mount body.
80-210 zoom, variable aperture - Don't know the manufacturer as the paint has been worn off with use. Prinzflex, I think.
M42 35mm f3.5 - One of the classic Pentax screw mount lenses, I use this one my K-Mount cameras with an adapter. It's a little fiddly, but otherwise ok.
In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular . . . sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice. --Ansel Adams
Manual Focus Lenses - K-Mount
Even back when I bought my ME-Super, I got a 50mm, this time a K- Mount SMC-M f1.7. Nice lens and very fast and very small.
of course, I'd started down the dark side of zoomlust at this time and I also bought a Tamron 28-200 variable aperture.
Tamron 28-200 f3.5-4.7 - Don't waste your time. Dreadful lens this. I suppose it was ok when I got it, and I didn't really know any better. It's very slow and soft and the focus creeps due to the weight. Mine stopped focussing to infinity after a while. OK for snapshots and I've taken some good shots with it, but when I started to get fussy about my photos, I realised that it was a bit of a handicap.
Sigma 19-35 f3.5-4.6 - A nice lens, but it could be faster. I find in myself a tendency to use zooms at their extremes. With this one, it's nearly always at 19mm. If I was to get another wide angle, it would be wider and faster. 18mm, or maybe down to the 15mm.
Vivitar 500mm mirror lens - An odd lens; tricky to focus, fixed aperture, dark, odd bokeh, but has its uses. It can make a nice portrait lens, but you need a lot of working space. It'll focus quite closely.
Sigma 400mm f5.6 lens - A nice light lens. Good for outdoors, as the minimum focussing distance is 4m. Reasonably sharp.
There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer. --Ansel Adams
Manual Focus Lenses - 6x7 Mount
105mm f2.4 - This is the lens that came with my 6x7. It's big and heavy with a very smooth focus action and is very sharp. It's roughly the equivalent of a 50mm lens for 35mm format.
55mm f3.5 - I picked this up second hand recently (Sep 2000). It's very, very big, with a 100mm filter diameter. The coverage is approximately equal to a 28mm lnes in 35mm format. Initial slides appear to be very sharp, although I haven't really used it on a tripod yet.
Auto Focus Lenses - K-Mount
When you buy a new camera these days, unless it's a real top of the liner like an F5 or Eos 1, you'll get some kind of consumer zoom with it. That was the case with my MZ-5, I got the Pentax SMC FA 35-80 f3.5- f4.6.
Pentax SMC FA 35-80 f3.5-f4.6 - Not a very useful range for a zoom as far as I was concerned, 35 is too long and 80 is too short. Also, f3.5 isn't very bright. Still, it's an ok lens, not too bland and it focusses very quickly.
Tokina 20-35 f3.5 - Only just got this. Nice range and I use it more than the MF 19-28. Like the 28-80, the focussing is very quick, mainly due to the short throw of the mechanism.
Tokina 28-80 f2.8 - I like these. This one is my second one. They're cheap - I got mine for HKD 1000 second hand - very fast focussing and reasonably sharp.
Sigma 100-300 f3.5-4.6 - got this for photojournalism-type use, but it's too slow.
Pentax FA*80-200 ED(IF) f2.8 - This is awesome. One of the best lenses on the planet. Also weighs 1.5kg! Very fast (and heavy). Very sharp, but cumbersome. Did I mention the weight? This mounted on my PZ-1p weighs the same as the (lighter) Nikon 80-200f2.8 on an F5. It feels great to use, though. The autofocus can be clutched on and off from the lens barrel, so that the focus can be adjusted manually if required. (Given the relative crudity of the PZ-1p's AF, this is more often than I'd like.)
Pentax FA 50mm f1.4 - just got this, December 1999 and exploring the world of 50mm again. Prime lenses like 50mms tend to be very optically sharp.
Pentax FA 100mm f2.8 Macro - I picked this up in early 2001. It's quite a large lens, very sharp and focuses right down to 1:1. i.e. an object on the film is the same size it was in real life. The close focussing distance is 0.300 m, about 1 foot.
Pentax FA 17-28 f3.5-4.6 fisheye. The only fisheye zoom. Great fun, but a little specialised.
You don't take a photograph, you make it. -- Ansel Adams