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Super Takumar 55mm f/1.8 M42: What to Know
This listing has the fewest words and the most useful ones. Its entire bullet list is two lines: Good Condition, Well Rated Lens, and Adapter Required. That second line is the single most important fact about any vintage lens on a modern camera, and it is the one every other listing in this guide leaves the buyer to work out. Credit where it is due.
The lens itself is the Asahi Super Takumar 55mm f/1.8, which has a reputation as one of the best-built and best-corrected standard primes of its era. It is an M42 screw-mount lens, which is the universal thread mount used by Pentax, Praktica, Zenit and many others, and that is a real advantage: M42 adapters are the cheapest and most widely available of any vintage mount, because so many manufacturers used the same thread.
The stated optics are a 55mm fixed focal length at f/1.8 maximum aperture, manual focus, in the standard prime class.
Being M42 rather than a proprietary bayonet also means it mounts on Pentax's own modern bodies with a simple adapter, which is unusual: most vintage systems do not adapt forward onto their own manufacturer's current cameras.
Two honest notes. The listing is minimal in both directions: Good Condition is all you get about the glass, with no statement about fungus, haze, separation or aperture oil, so this is the opposite of the Nikon's detailed disclosure. And some Takumars of this period used thoriated glass in certain elements, which yellows over decades; that affects color balance rather than safety in normal use, and this listing says nothing either way, so ask the seller if color matters to you.
Key Listed Features
States Adapter Required outright, the only listing in this guide to do so
M42 screw mount, the most widely supported vintage mount with the cheapest adapters
55mm f/1.8 manual-focus standard prime from Asahi's well-regarded Takumar line
Adapts onto Pentax's own modern bodies, which most vintage systems cannot do
