# Modern DSLR with manual Super Takumar lens



## Will Fly (Apr 10, 2012)

I've been playing around with fitting an old Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 52mm lens to my Canon 70D DSLR - and using a x3 converter ring for macro photography. The problem was getting the right focus - which I solved when a copy stand I ordered from eBay arrived this morning. The Super Takumar lenses from the 1960s were exceptional quality. Here's a specimen of the outfit - the movement of my Elgin "Father Time" RR pocket watch.


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## mitadoc (Sep 25, 2010)

They are really fine lenses, back in the days I had 50/1,4 and it was a cracker.

Just the plain DOF is sometimes tricky.

Cheers

D.


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## dobra (Aug 20, 2009)

I think your shot is ace, Will. Are you setting manual focus and looking at the depth of field? 
Mike


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## Will Fly (Apr 10, 2012)

Yes, it has to be manual focus because the old Super Takumar lens has no electronic connection to the camera mechanism - the Mode is AP - Aperture Priority. I set the aperture to f11 and the ISO to 200 - not too grainy. I suppose I could have set the aperture to f22 or higher and the ISO to 100, but this was really a first, average test.

I used the 2 second timer to take the exposure, which stopped any camera shake (can't remember the actual shutter speed but I could check it in LightRoom). I also forgot to switch off the image stabiliser - which you're supposed to do when using a tripod or a copy stand - but it doesn't seem to have made any difference!

The major change I made in Lightroom was to alter the White Balance - the original raw/DNG (Digital Negative) file was a little too blue and icy, so I shifted the balance slightly up the yellow end of the blue-yellow slider.


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## bowie (Mar 12, 2005)

I don't know what you are talking about but the picture is superb. :thumbsup:


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

Will Fly said:


> I used the 2 second timer to take the exposure, which stopped any camera shake (can't remember the actual shutter speed but I could check it in LightRoom).


 1/25 of a second. 

Later,
William


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## Will Fly (Apr 10, 2012)

bowie said:


> I don't know what you are talking about but the picture is superb. :thumbsup:


 The jargon can be mysterious if you're not used to it! Some simple (I hope explanations):



Point and click compact cameras are incredibly useful - I have 2 myself - but, for total control over what a picture looks like, plus high quality, a manual Single Lens Reflex (SLR) or Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) can't be beaten. For the picture above I attached an old SLR manual lens to a modern DSLR camera body.


The manual lens will only get so close to the subject of the photo before it starts to blur - so, by itself, is no good for "macro" (close-up) photography. So I've put a x3 spacer ring in between the lens and the body to increase the magnification by 3 times.


Because the manual lens cannot be controlled by the camera electronics in the same way as digital lens, the focussing of the lens has to be done by hand. This involves screwing the camera to the copy stand and lowering the stand until the subject is as clear as possible - final tuning being done by the focus ring on the lens.


All lenses have a light range which is controlled by how wide or how narrow the lens aperture is opened or closed, and the size of the hole is denoted by the letter f and a number. The old lens I used for this shot had a range from f16 to f2, with f16 being the smallest aperture (least light let in) and f2 being the largest aperture (most light let in).


All cameras have a range of shutter speeds, ranging from microseconds to several seconds - the faster the shutter, the less light let in - the slower the shutter, the more let in.


So there's always a trade-off between shutter speed and aperture setting to get the optimum light for a photo. Movement in a subject requires a faster shutter speed and a wider aperture - a static subject can use a lower speed and a narrower aperture. The narrow aperture allows more of the picture behind and in front of the subject to be sharp - known as Depth of Field.


The first job was to set the camera "mode" from Manual to Aperture Value (AV) - which means that the lens setting took priority over the shutter speed. Whatever the lens was set to, the shutter speed automatically compensated for it. I set the lens to f11 as a trial.


Physical film was known as "slow" or "fast", depending on how much light it needed to capture an image, and this is measured by a setting known as ISO (used to be ASA years ago). A fast film - say ISO 800 - will capture the image quickly but be very grainy and coarse when enlarged. A slow film - say 100 ISO - will take longer to capture the image but can be enlarged a lot because of its fine grain. Modern digital cameras mimic this ISO function and I tested out the shot with the camera set to 200 ISO.


Any camera shake caused by the finger pressing the shutter button while taking the picture can be stopped by using the self-timer. I used a self-timer speed of 2 seconds - the camera bleeps for 2 secs and then takes the picture, with me nowhere near it. Macro photography and long exposures can easily cause camera shake, so a shutter release wire or self-timer is very useful.


All done and ready to shoot: lower the camera, get a rough focus, refine the focus with the lens focus ring, set the aperture to f11, set the mode to AV, set the ISO to 200 and - press the shutter. Picture taken!

As for Lightroom, it's just a piece of post-production software which allows you to alter colour, tone, hue, etc.


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## bowie (Mar 12, 2005)

Thanks for that Will i just do not have the patients to do anything like that i have a Olympus stylus 1 and lumix tz70 just point and shoot always in auto never tried in manual.still seems all gobbledegook to me. :yes: :wacko:


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