Which lense for Pentax K1000?

[brianod]

I love those old K-mount lenses, introduced in 1975, I have several lenses which I bought off of ebay for small amounts of money.

Here are other cameras that have used the k-mount system in the past:
Pentax
Ricoh
Cosina
Chinon
Vivitar
Miranda
Zenit
Porst
Sears
Petri
Topcon
Carena
Exakta
Revue
Centon
Flexar
Mingca
Kenlock
Phenix
Nova

Also, Pentax and Samsung make a line of digital slr cameras starting at about $500 that take these k-mount lenses (although autofocus won't work on them). Also, because of the smaller imager size on the digital cameras there's a 50% focal length increase on a k-mount lens. So a 28mm becomes a 40mm but also a 200mm becomes a 300mm. It's really hard to get a wide angle lens on this digital camera because you would have to go down to a very expensive 16mm lens to equal the 28mm lens on a 35mm camera.

I never had a K-1000 but I did have (and still have) a Pentax MX, which was the upgrade to the k-1000. Totally manual. The only electronics on the camera body is the LED light meter. It's a great camera.

[Russkiy]

Pentax K-1000 is completely manual. It has no auto nothing on it. So... what kind of lense should I get?

[augustus]

Any K-mount lens which has an aperture control ring. Take a look at here (http://www.bdimitrov.de/kmp/lenses/index.html) .

[Russkiy]

What's an aperture control ring? The thing that allows it to be manual focus/zoom, right?

[grantmoore3d]

You might want to start by reading up a bit on manual photography, and what the terms mean. It would honestly give you a much better idea of what you're looking for. Not to mention, you'd know how to use the camera.

Quick note : apture is how much light the lens lets through the camera lens. If the apeture is small (meaning a small hole of light) everything will be in focus, but you will need to expose for a much longer time... while if the apeture is set to wide open, only the object you focus on will be in focus, and you will have to reduce the exposure time. (Take quite a bit of practice to learn how to use them effectively).

I actually owned this exact camera in the past... I had a bad 35mm lens, and then a 200mm lens. Neither of these had any zooming capabilities.... however, if you go on ebay, and search for "k-mount zoom" you should find lots of zoom lenses. I've gotten a few lenses off ebay for really cheap too, and their is nothing wrong with a used lens, until you get into super-high quality photography/prints.

What you will probably want for everyday use, is a 35mm-70mm lens. This will give you the "average" zoom range found on most automatic cameras. If you want something that can zoom in a little closer, try a 100mm - 300mm lens. Anything lower than 35, and you start to get the "fish-eye" look.

Hope that helps!!

[Russkiy]

Hmm, thanks! My bigges problem is that I can't find anywhere information on how good can the lens zoom in. I've read up on manual zoom lenses and it talks about angles and what not, but nothing on zoom capabilities. On auto cameras it says x5 or x10, how would I know by how much can the object be enlarged with the lens I'm getting?

[augustus]

Zoom factor's calculated by dividing maximum focal length to minimum focal length. This number doesn't really show you how close you can get with that lens though, it's more like an information about the range of the lens.

Do not rely only the zoom factor though. How sharp that lenses are? How fast? How much distortion they cause? At least, look for some reviews for the lens you want to get.

[brianod]

Augustus has given you a correct answer (200/50 = 4). 50mm lenses are what come standard with most 35mm film cameras. The human eyes see things at about 42mm (approx). so use that as reference as to guage magnification.

It's all kind of moot because for an old camera like that you have limited choices in a decent price range. 70mm - 200 is your best price performance lens. I have an k-mount zoom I might be willing to sell. Contact me offline and I'll tell you about it.

This has been interesting but this whole subject really doesn't belong on this forum or any other on this web site. There are many photography forums on the web that would answer these questions better.

[grantmoore3d]

This has been interesting but this whole subject really doesn't belong on this forum or any other on this web site.

Photography and it's associated equipment is key to understanding a lot of things in 3D/2D. If you understand photography, then you understand how to use camera in 3D apps properly. Not to mention, reference photography is a gold mine for creating textures, so getting a good lens is important. Don't be so quick to dismis other art-forms.

[Russkiy]

Yeah.... photography is part of CG. I've used this forum to get help with picking almost every piece of hardware I own (tablet, digital camera, film camera and now I'm looking for the lense).

brianod, I sent you an email to your cg account to get more info on that lens.

[Russkiy]

Right now I'm picking between:

Tokina 75-300 4.5-5.6 telephoto zoom manual/auto (new).
Sears 75-300 4.5-5.6 macro zoom manual (used).
Sears 60-300 4.0-5.6 macro zoom manual (used).
Sigma 70-300 4.0-5.6 dl maco zoom auto/manual (used).
Vivitar 70-210 2.2-4.5 macro zoom manual (used).


Which one is the best choice? I am not sure about the companies and stuff.

I'm also probably going to get a x2 or x3 teleconverter later on.

[ThirdEye]

Right now I'm picking between:

Tokina 75-300 4.5-5.6 telephoto zoom manual/auto (new).
Sears 75-300 4.5-5.6 macro zoom manual (used).
Sears 60-300 4.0-5.6 macro zoom manual (used).
Sigma 70-300 4.0-5.6 dl maco zoom auto/manual (used).
Vivitar 70-210 2.2-4.5 macro zoom manual (used).


Which one is the best choice? I am not sure about the companies and stuff.

I'm also probably going to get a x2 or x3 teleconverter later on.

Are you sure you need such a long focal length? What do you have to do, birdwatching?

[Russkiy]

It's not for me, it's for my girl.... I kind of want the best for her. Right now she has a digital camera capable of x10 zoom... but since she wanted this camera, might as well get her a lens that comes close to her digital zoom.

She does a lot of close ups.... so a micro zoom lens would probably be good... but I'm not sure if the ones I listed are true micro (1:1 or at least 1:2).

A fisheye would be fun for her, but I can't find one of those.

[augustus]

There is no zoom macro lens can do 1:1. True macro lenses are all prime (fixed focal length) lenses.

[woutb]

what u need :

a 24 or 28 mm lens
a 50 mm
an 80 mm

if u really want a zoom and macro try something like this :
SUN 35-140mm macro Pentax K-mount

i have 2 k1000's, love them.

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