Asahi Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 135mm f/3.5 Review

Asahi Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 135mm f/3.5 Performance

Centrally, sharpness is good at f/3.5, becoming very good from f/5.6 through to f/22. The edges are good at f/3.5, very good from f/5.6 to f/11, good at f/16 but softening at f/22. This results overall in nice crisp images and it does mean that the lens is very usable on DSLRs.

How to read our MTF charts

The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges.

The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution as LW/PH and is described in detail above. The taller the column, the better the lens performance.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Pentax K-1 using Imatest.

Central correction of CA is of a very high order, but the edges are rather less well corrected. This could be tackled in software, and to be fair many subjects will not be a problem anyway.

How to read our CA charts

Chromatic aberration (CA) is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software.

Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more.

For this review, the lens was tested on a Pentax K-1 using Imatest.

Distortion correction is very impressive, being a modest +0.09% pincushion.

The bokeh of the lens is a bit more disappointing. It does come from an era where bokeh was not a term used and the quality of the out of focus areas was not discussed in the same way that it is now. The result on digital is a rather “busy” appearance, but again this will depend on the subject matter as well.

The SMC coating was a revelation is 1971 but has constantly progressed and developed since then. This lens controls flare very well, perhaps not quite up to modern standards, but certainly, it is more than adequate. Flare is unlikely to be a problem, especially when the effective lens hood is used.

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