You are the only person I’ve found who clearly explains the Auto/Manual switch in the lens! I’ve been extremely confused by it found it hard to find any information anywhere. Thank you for covering that my friend 🤝
I’m glad you mentioned hiking and contact lenses for those who don’t know. 😆 I borrowed my uncle’s 6x7 MLU to take photos in San Francisco. 1) It’s comparable to carrying a child in your bag. You’re lugging around this metallic thing great distances with 2 additional lenses packed up, it’s tiresome after 9 miles of walking. 2) I scratched my Maui Jim’s when I had the eyepiece pressed against my glasses. 😢 3) Yeah, my uncle’s 6x7 MLU and 67II receives annual maintenance. My uncle’s got connections with someone who can do a routine cleanup, so I’ll be using the same person when I’m in town 4) I’ve had my 6x7 MLU for two months now, and my uncle told me about the Manual or Auto for the Aperture. “Just leave the damn thing on auto.” 5) On eBay Mint with Grip is like $900 before S&H. After reviewing the seller, I jumped on it, added in the Takumar 105 2.4 as well.
@@BrocktonAnderson Doesn't have to be a 67II eyepiece. I just use a Nikon eyepiece, much more common. Took one off my F100, but I could also use one from my D850, F3HP etc.
@@BrocktonAnderson Oh yeah I forgot about that. The F100/n8008/n90 eyepiece works the best. Fits perfectly and looks stock. They're all the same thread size but yeah there are quirks
A very informative video. I've owned two Pentax 6x7 (non-MLU versions) since the mid-70s and love shooting with them. I recently had both of them with TTL meters completely rebuilt (not just CLA'd). Hopefully I'll be shooting with them for many more years. I use the TTL averaging meter when shooting color and a hand held Spotmeter II when shooting B&W so I can expose for the shadow details or highlight details depending on the shot. I've purchased the 35mm fisheye, 45mm, 75mm, 105mm, 135mm macro, 200mm & 300mm lenses through the years. I have a 3D printed right grip on each body so I use the left hand top & bottom posts for my strap and cross my body the way you do. I find that very comfortable.
How accurate is the TTL prism? I'm torn between the 67ii and 67 (of course this is the most reasonable option) but im worried about the accuracy of the 67 TTL when using colored film. Id like to hear your thoughts on this!
@@youtubeisannoying3907 - Both of my TTL meters are spot on when shooting color. No external hand-held meter needed. Use it like you would any 35mm film camera or digital camera.
Thanks for the comment on the auto switch. 1 less thing to worry about. I do use the lenses on my Pentax 6x7 and need to hit the auto switch with that camera. 75mm f4, 200mm f4, 135mm f4 Macro, 55mm f4.
I love my 6x7. It came at a killer price and I almost passed it up for being too complicated and I wasnt sure I wanted back into medium format. But MAN! Im glad I did. All the accessories you mentioned except the focus ring came with it. It is heavier then our little 35s and sometimes this can be daunting, but the quality and outcome of the photos is incredible. My next adventure is to try a roll of 35 film though it with the adapters just to see how they turn out. Good video and lots of good information. Thanks, be safe.
I would recommend you also try out a 3D printed right grip (remove the left grip when testing out the right grip). It makes the camera feel like a modern DSLR (similar to my Nikon D850 with the vertical grip only a bit bigger and heavier).
Nice review, have you used the wide angle lens 45mm 4。How does the 45mm distortion perform ？super wide lens tends to have barrel distortion and some lens is quite heavy distorted。。。
The wooden grip looks cool for carrying. It's on the wrong side for shooting though. I used a 55mm f4 rubber grip newer lens for lanscapes. The ttl prism is essential but mirror up is a nuisance. Top and bottom strap lugs on the right is what I use. Those are my thoughts after years of use. I mainly use a tripod, but handheld works well for me.
@@BrocktonAnderson - Thanks for the info. I have a Peak Design Slide on my Nikon D850 and will check it out for my 6x7s. The original strap is very painful.
For those who might care, the original 105mm used a thorium doped element, making the lens so-called radioactive, which was and is nonsense of course. Pentax received a lot of negative reply from the ignorant at the time, so they replace the thorium doped element with normal optical glass within a couple of years. There was no change in lens performance. Both lens types were labelled Takumar. That version of the lens continued with only coating updates and change of focus ring material all the way to the end. In terms of optical performance, and being part of the original line-up designed in the mid-1960s, the 105m is the most "modest" optical performer of the several lenses which might be considered as "normal". It is somewhat inferior to the later 90mm 2.8, and vastly inferior to the 100mm 4.0. Until the 105mm became a darling of YT and social media, you could buy them any day for about $125. At its wide aperture, it gives very restricted depth of field, which is what most commentators praise as "bokeh", incorrectly. Of course, the 165mm 2.8 will give a tighter field of view and even more shallow depth of field, if that's what you jones for.
To the best of my knowledge, Thorium was never used in any 6x7 lens, only the M42 mount Takumars for 35mm; specifically the 50f1.4 7 element, 50f4 macro, 35f2. Removing the Thorium would absolutely require a complete optical redesign as the refractive index is changed. This is the first time anyone has said there was Thorium in the 105mm in all my reading over the years. Many of the SMC Takumar’s are completely identical optically to the SMC Pentax that cosmetically replaced them. Over time, some lenses were completely redesigned optically, while others continued until the end with no change optically.
In my experience at slower speeds around 1/15 and slower I've had camera shake issues even with mirror lock up, but I would attribute that, at least partially, to using a cheap tripod and having the neck maximally extended. I don't have any shots since I upgraded my tripod, but I imagine most or all of my issues may be resolved with a more sturdy tripod. Maybe I'll do a video shooting at night with the Pentax and see how it holds up with new equipment.
@@BrocktonAnderson In my experience with the Pentax 67, the shutter induced camera shake happens at a specific range of shutter speeds: from 1/15th to about 1/60th with 1/30th the usual place where if anything bad is going to happen it will happen there. If your getting soft images below 1/8th then that is almost certainly tripod related. My standard practice is if I get an exposure at 1/30th I will bracket by moving the aperture to shoot at 1/60th or 1/15th giving me a chance to avoid any issues. Or use a 3 stop ND filter to get way out of the range. 🙂
Every medium format camera with a focal plane shutter will have some measurable vibration from its operation. Likewise from the reflex mirror. Note that mirror induced vibration as a problem originated in the 1950s with the Hasselblad. In the Pentax 67, these issues can be controlled with proper support of the camera and use of the pre-exposure mirror lock-up for longer exposures. You probably get more mirror vibration in the Mamiya RB/RZ models, because they have less built-in to cushion the operation of the mirror than the Pentax. What focuses this attention on the Pentax is noise or sound. But most of the sound at exposure is the shutter capping and the mirror return, both of which are after the exposure has been made. Personally, I use a medium or heavy tripod, with no column extension of course, and where no tripod, you learn to brace your body to stabilize the camera at exposure. I make 11x14 and 16x20 pints in a real darkroom, and I've never had a sharpness problem with any of my three Pentax models.
Granted, product life cycles are nowhere near what they were 30+ years ago........when you bought a camera, stereo, watch, etc. and kept it (and used it) for decades, but I still like the idea of a 1, 3, or 5 year review of an item. Often, there are idiosyncrasies of a product that you won't necessarily discover until you've used a product dozens and dozens of times, under a variety of conditions. My only real complaint with the Pentax 67, is that the ground glass/viewfinder/focusing screen is dim, and not ideal for low-light or quick focusing. I know that (back in the day) a couple of companies made brighter focusing screens, however, they're not easy to find nowadays, nor are they inexpensive.
True, and definitely worth mentioning that the viewfinder is indeed very dim. The 67ii was an improvement, but at the same time the image you see through the finder is slightly farther away than on the 6x7/67, so kind of a trade off. And those aftermarket bright screens are very expensive for sure.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no radioactive elements in any 67 lenses. Only a few select M42 mount Takumar optics for 35mm had Thorium in them, (35mm f2, 50mm f1.4, 50mm macro).
Eric Hendrickson. His website is "Pentaxs." Bit old fashioned and communication can feel minimal, but he's very well known for servicing these cameras.
I have a question. I have the 105, 55 and 75 all SMC pentax. For some reason, with the 105 and the 75, when I stop down the aperture in manual mode, it also stops down the lens. So if my lens is at 22, I can't even see what I'm trying to get in focus because it's too dark. The only lens that doesn't stop down is the 55 - I can see a bright screen at all apertures. Do you know why this happens to the 105 and 75 but not the 55? i have to focus wide open and then fix my fstop its pretty annoying.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
You are the only person I’ve found who clearly explains the Auto/Manual switch in the lens! I’ve been extremely confused by it found it hard to find any information anywhere. Thank you for covering that my friend 🤝
I’m glad you mentioned hiking and contact lenses for those who don’t know. 😆 I borrowed my uncle’s 6x7 MLU to take photos in San Francisco. 1) It’s comparable to carrying a child in your bag. You’re lugging around this metallic thing great distances with 2 additional lenses packed up, it’s tiresome after 9 miles of walking. 2) I scratched my Maui Jim’s when I had the eyepiece pressed against my glasses. 😢 3) Yeah, my uncle’s 6x7 MLU and 67II receives annual maintenance. My uncle’s got connections with someone who can do a routine cleanup, so I’ll be using the same person when I’m in town 4) I’ve had my 6x7 MLU for two months now, and my uncle told me about the Manual or Auto for the Aperture. “Just leave the damn thing on auto.” 5) On eBay Mint with Grip is like $900 before S&H. After reviewing the seller, I jumped on it, added in the Takumar 105 2.4 as well.
Pro tip, find a 67II eyepiece and your glasses will be spared. Picked one up recently and it's a great upgrade, although pretty pricey.
@@BrocktonAnderson Doesn't have to be a 67II eyepiece. I just use a Nikon eyepiece, much more common. Took one off my F100, but I could also use one from my D850, F3HP etc.
@@vipEmpire_ I actually tried my F3HP eyepiece and the screw was too long so it stuck out from the prism. I'm sure there are other options though.
@@BrocktonAnderson Oh yeah I forgot about that. The F100/n8008/n90 eyepiece works the best. Fits perfectly and looks stock. They're all the same thread size but yeah there are quirks
Very insightful! Love the idea of reviewing after heavy use, not after a few tries
A very informative video. I've owned two Pentax 6x7 (non-MLU versions) since the mid-70s and love shooting with them. I recently had both of them with TTL meters completely rebuilt (not just CLA'd). Hopefully I'll be shooting with them for many more years. I use the TTL averaging meter when shooting color and a hand held Spotmeter II when shooting B&W so I can expose for the shadow details or highlight details depending on the shot. I've purchased the 35mm fisheye, 45mm, 75mm, 105mm, 135mm macro, 200mm & 300mm lenses through the years. I have a 3D printed right grip on each body so I use the left hand top & bottom posts for my strap and cross my body the way you do. I find that very comfortable.
How accurate is the TTL prism? I'm torn between the 67ii and 67 (of course this is the most reasonable option) but im worried about the accuracy of the 67 TTL when using colored film. Id like to hear your thoughts on this!
@@youtubeisannoying3907 - Both of my TTL meters are spot on when shooting color. No external hand-held meter needed. Use it like you would any 35mm film camera or digital camera.
Thanks for the comment on the auto switch. 1 less thing to worry about. I do use the lenses on my Pentax 6x7 and need to hit the auto switch with that camera. 75mm f4, 200mm f4, 135mm f4 Macro, 55mm f4.
I love my 6x7. It came at a killer price and I almost passed it up for being too complicated and I wasnt sure I wanted back into medium format. But MAN! Im glad I did. All the accessories you mentioned except the focus ring came with it. It is heavier then our little 35s and sometimes this can be daunting, but the quality and outcome of the photos is incredible. My next adventure is to try a roll of 35 film though it with the adapters just to see how they turn out. Good video and lots of good information. Thanks, be safe.
The very large negative, compared to the 35 mm format, provides a fabulous improvement in print details.
Thank you for making an actual long term review. I'm so tired of 1 month "long term" reviews.
as someone that has a RZ67 and a pentax 6X7 i can confirm the pentax is significantly heavier.
I would recommend you also try out a 3D printed right grip (remove the left grip when testing out the right grip). It makes the camera feel like a modern DSLR (similar to my Nikon D850 with the vertical grip only a bit bigger and heavier).
Well executed, so suave
I love my 6x7 MLU
Nice review, have you used the wide angle lens 45mm 4。How does the 45mm distortion perform ？super wide lens tends to have barrel distortion and some lens is quite heavy distorted。。。
Nice video
RS. Canada
The wooden grip looks cool for carrying. It's on the wrong side for shooting though.
I used a 55mm f4 rubber grip newer lens for lanscapes.
The ttl prism is essential but mirror up is a nuisance.
Top and bottom strap lugs on the right is what I use.
Those are my thoughts after years of use.
I mainly use a tripod, but handheld works well for me.
What's the best macro lens you've tried? Thanks
There is only one for the 6x7 - the 135mm macro. I have one and it is my second favorite lens after my 105mm f2.4 normal lens.
I like the look of your strap! Can you please tell us more about it?
It's the Peak Design Slide. Maybe a little stiff, but it's very sturdy and works great for the Pentax. Kind of like a thick seatbelt.
Thanks!@@BrocktonAnderson
@@BrocktonAnderson - Thanks for the info. I have a Peak Design Slide on my Nikon D850 and will check it out for my 6x7s. The original strap is very painful.
For those who might care, the original 105mm used a thorium doped element, making the lens so-called radioactive, which was and is nonsense of course. Pentax received a lot of negative reply from the ignorant at the time, so they replace the thorium doped element with normal optical glass within a couple of years. There was no change in lens performance. Both lens types were labelled Takumar. That version of the lens continued with only coating updates and change of focus ring material all the way to the end. In terms of optical performance, and being part of the original line-up designed in the mid-1960s, the 105m is the most "modest" optical performer of the several lenses which might be considered as "normal". It is somewhat inferior to the later 90mm 2.8, and vastly inferior to the 100mm 4.0. Until the 105mm became a darling of YT and social media, you could buy them any day for about $125. At its wide aperture, it gives very restricted depth of field, which is what most commentators praise as "bokeh", incorrectly. Of course, the 165mm 2.8 will give a tighter field of view and even more shallow depth of field, if that's what you jones for.
To the best of my knowledge, Thorium was never used in any 6x7 lens, only the M42 mount Takumars for 35mm; specifically the 50f1.4 7 element, 50f4 macro, 35f2. Removing the Thorium would absolutely require a complete optical redesign as the refractive index is changed. This is the first time anyone has said there was Thorium in the 105mm in all my reading over the years. Many of the SMC Takumar’s are completely identical optically to the SMC Pentax that cosmetically replaced them. Over time, some lenses were completely redesigned optically, while others continued until the end with no change optically.
Are you trying to say your Pentax 6x7 the edition 2, has camera shake due to the shutter?
Doesn’t Mirror Lock Up sort it?
In my experience at slower speeds around 1/15 and slower I've had camera shake issues even with mirror lock up, but I would attribute that, at least partially, to using a cheap tripod and having the neck maximally extended. I don't have any shots since I upgraded my tripod, but I imagine most or all of my issues may be resolved with a more sturdy tripod.
Maybe I'll do a video shooting at night with the Pentax and see how it holds up with new equipment.
@@BrocktonAnderson In my experience with the Pentax 67, the shutter induced camera shake happens at a specific range of shutter speeds: from 1/15th to about 1/60th with 1/30th the usual place where if anything bad is going to happen it will happen there. If your getting soft images below 1/8th then that is almost certainly tripod related. My standard practice is if I get an exposure at 1/30th I will bracket by moving the aperture to shoot at 1/60th or 1/15th giving me a chance to avoid any issues. Or use a 3 stop ND filter to get way out of the range. 🙂
Every medium format camera with a focal plane shutter will have some measurable vibration from its operation. Likewise from the reflex mirror. Note that mirror induced vibration as a problem originated in the 1950s with the Hasselblad. In the Pentax 67, these issues can be controlled with proper support of the camera and use of the pre-exposure mirror lock-up for longer exposures. You probably get more mirror vibration in the Mamiya RB/RZ models, because they have less built-in to cushion the operation of the mirror than the Pentax. What focuses this attention on the Pentax is noise or sound. But most of the sound at exposure is the shutter capping and the mirror return, both of which are after the exposure has been made. Personally, I use a medium or heavy tripod, with no column extension of course, and where no tripod, you learn to brace your body to stabilize the camera at exposure. I make 11x14 and 16x20 pints in a real darkroom, and I've never had a sharpness problem with any of my three Pentax models.
Granted, product life cycles are nowhere near what they were 30+ years ago........when you bought a camera, stereo, watch, etc. and kept it (and used it) for decades, but I still like the idea of a 1, 3, or 5 year review of an item. Often, there are idiosyncrasies of a product that you won't necessarily discover until you've used a product dozens and dozens of times, under a variety of conditions.
My only real complaint with the Pentax 67, is that the ground glass/viewfinder/focusing screen is dim, and not ideal for low-light or quick focusing. I know that (back in the day) a couple of companies made brighter focusing screens, however, they're not easy to find nowadays, nor are they inexpensive.
True, and definitely worth mentioning that the viewfinder is indeed very dim. The 67ii was an improvement, but at the same time the image you see through the finder is slightly farther away than on the 6x7/67, so kind of a trade off. And those aftermarket bright screens are very expensive for sure.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no radioactive elements in any 67 lenses. Only a few select M42 mount Takumar optics for 35mm had Thorium in them, (35mm f2, 50mm f1.4, 50mm macro).
Unfortunately, that is not the case. The 6x7 Takumar lenses have a very small amount of Thorium in them.
where do you send in your 67 for CLA / repairs?
Eric Hendrickson. His website is "Pentaxs." Bit old fashioned and communication can feel minimal, but he's very well known for servicing these cameras.
I have a question. I have the 105, 55 and 75 all SMC pentax. For some reason, with the 105 and the 75, when I stop down the aperture in manual mode, it also stops down the lens. So if my lens is at 22, I can't even see what I'm trying to get in focus because it's too dark. The only lens that doesn't stop down is the 55 - I can see a bright screen at all apertures. Do you know why this happens to the 105 and 75 but not the 55? i have to focus wide open and then fix my fstop its pretty annoying.
if youd answer my question id appriciate it thank you.