Takumar

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Takumar is the name that Pentax (Asahi Optical at the time) gave to its line of lenses designed to fit its SLR cameras. Named for the Japanese photographer Takuma Kajiwara, the name adorned Pentax lenses from approximately (unknown? 195?) until 1975, when Pentax switched from the M42 screw mount to the bayonet K mount. K mount lenses were simply named "SMC PENTAX".

The Takumar designation was used both on lenses designed for 35 mm cameras and the larger medium format 6x7 lenses. In 35 mm, there were four main generations of Takumar lenses.

  • Takumar lenses were made in 37 mm screw mount for the original Asahiflex cameras.
  • Auto-Takumar lenses were a type of preset lens. The user selected an aperture then engaged a lever to energise the stopping-down mechanism. The camera would then trip this mechanism when the shutter was fired.
  • Super-Takumar lenses featured an early form of lens coating (to prevent flare) and a more sophisticated stopping-down mechanism. There was a switch on the lens to select "Auto" or "Manual" modes. In manual mode, the lens would always be in the selected aperture. In Auto mode, the lens would remain wide open (at maximum aperture) until a pin on the rear of the lens was pushed in. This pin would be automatically pushed in by the camera when the shutter was tripped.
  • Super-Multi-Coated (later SMC) Takumar. These lenses introduced Pentax's lens multi-coating process. They also introduced a lug on the rear of the lens which moved with the aperture selected. When used with a camera body which could read the lug, this enabled the use of open-aperture metering. Examples of such cameras are Pentax's Spotmatic F and the ES/ESII.

The Takumar series of lenses has a very good reputation among users, with very few "dogs" anywhere in the line-up. This could be due to many factors:

  • Standards were higher. Cameras were expected to be made of metal, not plastic, and so the lenses were too.
  • Zooms only became available towards the end of the Takumar period, and almost all Takumars were primes. Zoom lenses are inherently more difficult to design than prime lenses, and embody more compromises.
  • Expectations of photographers were likewise higher. Film was poorer quality and therefore photographers used slower (lower ISO speed rating) film than would be common today. Therefore lenses had to be fast (let in more light.) The standard lens for a SLR in the 60s and 70s was a 50 mm f/1.4 lens, which lets in 4 to 8 times as much light as the f/3.5-5.6 zoom lenses often found standard on SLRs today.

Pentax resurrected the Takumar name in the 1980s and 1990s. Sadly, given the name's history, it referred to a budget line of zoom and prime lenses that lacked the Pentax "Super Multi-Coating", an optical treatment that reduces lens flare. These lenses are marked "Takumar (Bayonet)" to distinguish them from the older screw-mount Takumar lenses.

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