Pentax Lenses for cinema
Why is nobody using Pentax lenses for cinema uses? Did y'all just forget that Pentax existed?
My first ever 35mm film camera was a Pentax k1000. With it came a classic 50mm lens, and this one also came with a 28mm. When I first got started in filmmaking I was able to adapt these lenses for my little mirrorless camera so that I could have a variety of focal lengths when I was just starting out.
Looking back though the characteristics of those lenses are still some of my favorite. Maybe it’s a sense of nostalgia but honestly Pentax was not to shabby in their glass department. Modern Pentax users swear by the older M and A series lenses of the 35mm days, and with good reason. They are pretty sweet lenses!
Seeing this untapped field of bringing pentax lenses to the cinema world, I decided that it would be a good idea to put together a set of my own. If the 50mm and 28mm I had from them were my favorite lenses, why not get a whole range of Pentax focal lengths?
To do this I went to the popular Pentax Forums website where I was able to get a list of all the possible lenses that fit my needs. They needed to all be from the same era so the coating would be similar, and I would need to get lenses with f-stops that made sense within the context of the whole set. The website was also very helpful in the fact that for each lens there are at least a dozen reviews from longtime Pentax users describing their experience using each one.
With all this information, after several days of searching and surveying my options I came to the following line-up:
SMC Pentax 15mm F3.5
SMC Pentax-A 20mm F2.8
SMC Pentax-M 28mm F2.8
SMC Pentax-M 35mm F2
SMC Pentax-M 50mm F1.7
SMC Pentax-M 85mm F2
Once I managed to accuire all of these lense I went ahead and de-clicked the iris’ and added metal focus rings from Simmod to each one. I also adapted each of the lenses to EF mount from their native K-mount. (I am pretty sure no one is shooting movies on any K-mount cameras)
I am happy with the selection I chose. This list I made comes with the option to add more focal lengths in the future though. I have another list of lenses that I want to add in the future but for now I though a set of six would be enough. I went a little heavier on the wider focal lengths but that is because of my preference as a cinematographer to use wider lenses and just get closer to subjects. I like the feelings that that style evokes.
Below I am going to put a selection of stills I took from footage shot with these lenses on the Sony Venice with the maximum sensor size. All the shots were done with the lenses wide open at their respective apertures and compensated for with ND.
Individual Stills:
I went out for a day and shot some stuff around Seattle and this is what I ended up with. I am really happy with how the lenses look. I liked the qualities each focal length was able to provide, and frankly I think they all fit together quite seamlessly as a coherent set.
I did also want to shoot a test in a sort of controlled way. With a stationary subject and repeating the shot with each focal length to truly see the differences between each of the lenses.
The stills below are once again shot wide open with ND to compensate for the different apertures of the lenses.
Controlled Stills For Testing:
Once again I am pleased with the results coming from this set. One notable factor that I would like to point out is the lack of color shifting between lenses. All the lenses carry a pretty neutral color shift with no tendency towards either magenta or green.
The 15mm also seems to be the only lens with that much of a noticeable vignetting. The 20mm maybe has a little but I wouldn’t say it is that much of a hindrance on the image.
Final Thoughts:
All in all I am extremely excited about my new set of lenses. Pentax lenses were some of the finest on the market in the 35mm film days and I think that they honestly hold up incredibly well for manual focus lenses of the era. Pentax was known for their coatings back in the day so especially when dealing with flares these lenses come through quite nicely. They have a noticeable flare but not one that washes out the image reducing contrast and saturation.
These lenses have a really nice level of saturation that is quite punchy but not in a way that feels overly artificial or anything. The contrast levels are quite nice as well.
I am super stoked about these lenses!
Final Final Thoughts:
In summation, nobody was using Pentax lenses in the video world ever and I was the first person to do it!
This is of course sarcasm. There are a very rare couple of sets of Pentax lenses out in the wild. Most of them are merely cinemodded sets like my own, but companies like White Point Optics and Zero Optics are starting to hop on my train and get with the Pentax lovers. Notably though the lenses that they are choosing to rehouse, and that most others have cinemodded, are the Takumar series of lenses, one generation older then the lenses in my set. While the Takumars are amazing in their own right, I think they take a more traditional approach to vintage lensing with a more prominent vintage aesthetic relying on more optical imperfections than my later generation lenses.
Basically I am very special and unique. Also super humble.
Really though this entire project for me came from a desire to use some of the first lenses I ever owned in the professional setting I now occupy. I am happy to have done that.
If you want to rent these lenses from me please feel free to reach out. They will be moving to New York with me in the fall but will always be able to be shipped wherever or to a rental house of your choice.