It’s rare that I start a blog post even before I receive the gear or equipment I’m writing about, but that’s the case on this one. Earlier this week I posted about shooting with a Contax D SLR equipped with an Industar 50-2 50mm pancake lens.

An Israel-based freelance photographer named Victor Bezrukov commented on the post and suggested that I should consider getting an Asahi lens. How Victor found my blog is a mystery. But he’s got a blog of his own and I could see that he’s produced some beautiful work. A recent post of his documents shooting Fomapan 100 with a Holga. Right up my alley.

I took his suggestion to heart and started doing some research on Asahi M42 lenses. Since I already had an M42 50mm, I was interested in adding something wider. I came across a suitable lens on eBay that caught my eye. It was the Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 28mm f3.5.

I pulled the trigger and bought the one I’d found on eBay.

Online reviews for this lens were good. This review from a few years ago posted on The Noisy Shutter was particularly interesting since it included photo examples of what the lens is capable of. Really nice stuff! The blog owner and content-producer is “bsmith.”

I pulled the trigger and bought the one I’d found on eBay. My total cost after tax and shipping was $84.05.

I’m glad I took Victor’s advice. It’s great having a wide-angle lens back in my arsenal. And this lens was a joy to use. I look forward to using this lens again and will consider adding other Asahi lenses to my collection.

For those keeping track; Contax D outfitted with an Asahi Pentax Super Taumar 28mm, loaded with Ilford HP5+ and developed in Kodak D-76 1:1 for 12 minutes at 70°. And in true transparency, a few of the images were cleaned up using Topaz Photo AI.