HERE IS ONE professional producer who doesn't have a couple of bland statements, but an encyclopedic experience of these humble beasts! Why write a few lines when you can write a thesis...
The last sentence of your enquiry, that regarding sharpness and contrast of lenses, depends on a number of factors.
First among these is the valid comparisons between the earliest Takumars (1969-onward) and the latest SMC Pentax 67-designated lenseswhich for the most part all came out around 1989-1991, some with revised optics and modernised handling and materials, together with a couple of much-fancied aspherical/APO and ED lenses (e.g. the 75mm f2.8AL and the 300mm ED IF telephoto, both of which are still available and command steep prices for their excellent optical performance.) Film plane flatness on all of the Pentax 6x7 and 67 variant cameras has been commented on many times. You might want to Google some references about this.
Early Takumar are, at best, average performers, and are now quite old and often again, blighted by fungus, sticking aperture blades, inaccurate focus or worn mounts. The prices being asked of these on the used market are absurd and unjustified. Personally I do not consider them a good buy, nor do I consider the early Asahi-Pentax, Pentax 6x7 cameras to be reliable given their 50-year ago and history in professional Cameras from 1989 are improved in many respects (engineering and materials).
Afer the early Taks, Pentax 6x7 lenses are improvement, but for the best imaging you have to look forward to the revised lens line-up, the SMC Pentax 67-designated one, of which there are numerous enough available on the used market -- sharp, contrasty and easy to focus, just make sure they have been looked after AND have not been dropped! Worn mounts and aperture pins (or missing aperture pins!) are something else to look out for. Contrary to some statements in the foregoing thread, you must focus very, very accurately with all of the lenses and this can be troublesome with the f4 optics in lower light and the inherently somewhat dim viewfinder. All of this made much worse once you put a polariser on and are shooting in low light!
Secondly, technique with the big Pentax 67 cameras
must be refined, rather than slapdash, with a sprinkle of haughty self-assuredness, as so many do, and then go on to complain about the camera rather than themselves!
Sure, you can handhold (with fast film
and fast shutter speeds, certainly, or shoot with a leaf shutter lens, which will default to poor old P67 FP shutter to 1/8sec just so it can keep up!), and sure, again, there are those saying they can handhold and get razor sharp images at 1/30 second. Right. Pull the other one... You are likely to see nothing untoward at 6x4" or small web-size images, but enlarge that negative or transparency to 60 inches (I routinely print up to 60-70 inches and more, where I can find a printer able to handle the work!), then get back to me with what you see. The blur will be a revelation, and affirming of where your technique (and beliefs) need a second looking at. The P67 is unforgiving of small user errors, and it will show.
If the highest quality imaging is your game (it is to me, where money counts), then
use a tripod all of the time, together with mirror lock-up (on those cameras from 1976-onward fitted with this provision) to separate the inertia of mirror movement and shutter travel. I guarantee that with refined and knowledgeable technique you will be rewarded very, very well indeed.
Some points about weaknesses. All of the Pentax 6x7 (1969 onwards) and later Pentax 67 cameras have idiosyncrasies and weaknesses. Chief among these is the specific procedure to avoid breakage of the meter coupling chain [see the
Sticky on pentaxforums.com that I wrote about this). Secondly, resetting the shutter/mirror if the MLU (mirror lock-up) button is accidentally tripped e.g. commonly when the camera is stored in a backpack, so do put a piece of tape over it before stowing!). Derangement of P67 TTL-meters (which by the way have a 5-stop range / 2.5 stops up-down from centre) is common given their age, and many are dirty and fungus-infected. The foam seal will probably require replacement, and it is a filthy, tedious and intensely testy procedure. Dirt and heavy wear around the resistors underneath the shutter speed dial is a common cause of inaccurate speeds, or no operational marked speed at all. Hidden in the base and rarely given priority inspection is the 6v battery, and if it has been in there a few years it could well be corroded. Something to look out for, because repatriation often involve stripping out the entire compartment.
The mirror/shutter solenoid can stick or become inoperative through age, long periods of inactivity or prolonged shutter-cocked status. Disassembly and repair is a service bench task, and replacements are taken from like-bodies, thus introducing a cycle of redundancy, and arguably poor reliability long-term.
The wind-on lever can potentially be the first item to break, or inside, the winding pawl/counter which will slip and cause frame overlap. These failures are age-related, with a factor of worsening fatigue from aggressive professional use (and that's OK; the cameras were not put out there to be babied by amateurs!). The frame counter roller to the right of the film gate often fails of its own volition, and will do so if it is fiddled with anticlockwise, which it was not designed to do and should not be touched at all.
The most popular lenses in use are any of the 75mm (including one f4.5 shift), 45, 55, 90 and the 104 f2.4 "standard" kit lens that came with the cameras when new. Longer, and correspondingly heavier tele lenses (which use the outside mounting flange on the Pentax 67 cameras) are available, with the later optically superior lenses or short or tele commanding anything from $2,400 to $4,000+. They are worth the investment if the absolute best imaging quality is a religion to you.
My own choice (landscape/scenic)is the
75mm f2.8AL,
45mm f4,
90mm f2.8 and
165mm f4 LS (leaf shutter). I print very, veruy large, and each of these lenses deliver excellent imaging quality, but the 75mm f2.8AL is the best of the lot. This is a heavy enough kit for most people without having wet dreams of other "exciting" goodies like handles, straps, gadgets and gizmos on the perceived "improvement in handling" such accoutrements provide (they actually add bulk, weight and awkwardness!). The more you add, the greater the back strain, and the weight is a real bugger after a long march.
The lower end of shutter speeds bottom out at 1 second, so you should be proficient in hand-held incident/multispot metering (preferably both) to get over this minor shortcoming and be prepared to take over with a diverse number of handheld metering skills (of which multispot metering is considerably more useful and accurate than incident).
Lots of viewfinders are available. True, the TTL/non-TTL viewfinder may cut off 10%, but it will provide the sharpest focusing ability, especially if you need or want the Pentax 67 right angle viewing attachment (with dioptric correction) or central spot magnifier eyepiece. Focusing screens can be changed DIY-style, but each will require collimation for focusing accuracy at 3 central points of the focusing screen. Diotric correction lenses for the viewfinder eyepiece are hard to find. If you land a camera with a non-standard lens inserted, you will struggle.
The Pentax 67II, released in 1998, is an electronic version of the rudimentary Pentax 6x7 / 67 cameras. Personally, I put my money toward lenses, not camera bodies. Some people have reported problems with the displays in this camera and winding irregularities, so as usual, buyer beware applies.There are a couple of (inactive?) Photrio members here who use the Pentax 67II with the venerated 75mm f2.8AL, which has a light-touch, spring-loaded aperture and
very light touch focusing. Other than that, anything could be slapped on it, with the advantage of higher levels assistance e.g. metering over the original Pentax 67.
I too have owned a Hasselblad -- a 503CXi and 80mm Planar, and literally threw it away from it mischievously jamming of its own volition, at the worst possible moment. I hate the bastards with a vengeance, along with boxy Volvos and their elephantine SUVs. I have no time old shiny scandi-boxes that are not up to professional treatment and demands.
Having said all that, my super trooper P67, bought 10 years ago (with a 55mm f4 "starter" lens, which was sold off in 2011), is still humming along. After Beijing and Singapore, I and the camera will be resting a while!
So put your feelers out and look for one in MINT/NIB/NOS or a later-version P67, well looked after. Avoid battered or obviously abused and heavily used specimens. Above all else,
invest in lenses and technique.
.::Garyh
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Twilight at the Taoist Tree,
Lake Bonney, Barmera Riverland, South Australia, 2017
Cropped from 6x7. Pentax 67, 90mm f2.8, UV(0), RVP50, multispot metered.
20x20cm, also 40x40cm KEP-M, MGCF (own, and in several private collections locally,
also Hong Kong, Singapore and Beijing).
( 2018 variant in pink-red/blue in-progress at printer )
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Lynn of Erskine Falls (III of V), 2015
Great Otway National Park, Victoria.
Pentax 67, 75mm f2.8AL, KSM C-POL 0.6, RVP50, multispot metered.
41x30.5cm KEP-M, MGCF. Own, Government and private collections.
If weight is a concern for you, you might want to consider a Mamiya RZ or one of the Fuji rangerfinder style camera. If you wind up going with the P67, I doubt you'd be unhappy with it.
) but you may regard this as a "L
.
! The Pentax67 is predestined like the one and only system for "hendheld" in larger midt format.
!
.....and the Speer was a bit restricted from the light
!
....
-- and typically MUP. Dislikes: not very robust (film transport, especially, is fragile), viewfinder clips 10% in either dimension, is low mag, and still relatively dim. Expensive system nowadays, too, I'd get easily 3x what I paid for my kit a decade ago. I would not buy it again, TBH, for tripod work (my use-case) the RB67 is a better system (IMO).
.....
