Quantaray 500mm f8 Mirror
Most Quantaray lenses were made by Sigma and some were made by Tamron and Tokina. This lens performs like a Sigma Mirror lens. It is reasonably sharp if you can hold it steady. It has the typical ringed bokeh we see from mirror lenses. Contrast is surprisingly high. While it is not a Zeiss or even a Tamron in quality, it is still far better than any of the off-brands flooding the market.




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Pentax SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4
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Macro Ratio
Year Introduced:
Tested with...
49mm
m42
f1.8-f16
.45 meters
n/a
1966
Eos 6D - Full Frame

I shot these test pics on a Eos 6D with a m42 to Eos EF adapter. Let me first say that m42 to Eos adapters don't play nice with the SMC 50mm 1.4 Takumar. The adapter blocks the lens mechanism fron extending fully and therefore does not allow the lens to focus to infinity. A side effect of that is a very tight aperture ring. In order to shoot these pics I had to unscrew the adaper until the lens mechanism was allowed to fully extend. If you shoot with a mirrorless camera and use an adapter w/ set screws it should be much easier to use without hindrance. If you shoot with a Canon slr and plan to use this lens frequently you may want to remove the part of the adapter's flange that rubs against the lens.
At f1.4 it is soft and it suffers from dispersion and fringing. At f2 it is sharp, contrasty and fringing disappears. Edge sharpness is poor at f1.4 but good at f4 in landscape shots. Close up shots show poor edge performance at all apertures. Corner sharpness is good from f4 in landscape shots.
Vignetting is apparent at f1.4 and f2 but insignificant at f2.8.
Distortion is typical for a standard lens and easily correctable.
Color rendition is excellent.
Bokeh is very smooth at f1.4 and f2. It remains natural looking as the aperture is increased.
Fringing is very well controlled. I was only able to see a small amount in one high contrast shot at f1.4.
Black and white images are usable but poast processing will be needed to add a bit of contrast to most shots.
Flare is very well controlled. No ghosting was visible in my test pics and contrast was very good.

f2 - no noticeable ghosts

f2 - neutral b/w

f4

50% crops - f1.4, f2 & f4

f1.4, f2 & f2.8

100% crops - f1.4 & f4

f4 - 100% corner crop

f4 - 100% edge crop

f4 - 100% edge crop

f2 - 100% edge crop

f1.4 - minor fringe,
well controlled

f2 - fringe is defined

f2.8 - fringe dissipating