Five Frames With An SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8, Street Squares

Analog Diary - Film photography favorites with an SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8 mounted on a Pentax MX, square-cropped images.

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Had the Pentax MX mounted with an SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8, and spent about an hour scouting this downtown area, with a limit set to half a roll of a 36-shot film canister. I already had my mind set on using the other half-roll of film on another camera.

Pentax MX, SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8

The SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8 is a marvel of a lens actually, a full-frame lens that comes in an incredibly compact form factor with a depth of only 18mm.

At 110 grams of body weight, the lens is much lighter than other primes of that era. It is well made, with metal and glass throughout, with a well-damped focus throw, snappy aperture stops, with a very smooth focus ring.

With a 40mm focal length, the lens is a wider than a standard 50mm prime, and a little bit narrower than the wide-angle 35mm, and to me, is just about right for general-purpose photography and is equally suited for street photography where spaces are sometimes slightly tight and where your surrounding is rather confined.

Pentax MX, SMC Pentax-M 40mm F2.8

Reportedly, the lens is not as sharp when shot wide open, with the tendency to show light fall-off and color-fringing towards the corners of the image. For my shoot, however, I was not bothered by the effects as I was on an aperture range between f/5.6 to f/11 on a beautiful, bright, and sunny day. Converting the images to black-and-white, and the crop to a 1:1 image aspect ratio adds to the finesse of the images.

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