Another prime: SMC Pentax-M 35 f/2 ...

I borrowed this lens from a friend of mine (actually, one of my preferred lens dealer) because he was looking for someone to test it before selling ...
Thus, last weekend, i got a mint SMC Pentax-M 35/2.



This is the first time i have one of these on my camera (before, this focal length has been almost the exclusivity of my FA-31, my Flektogon 35/2.4 and my SMC Takumar 35/2) ...

The lens looks quite nice. It has a practical filter thread of 49mm and a nice shortest focusing distance of about 30cm (1ft). Its optical formula is different from the one of the Pentax-K 35/2 (7 elements/7 groups for the M version, 8 elements/8 groups for the K version). I was wondering about its performances when compared to my Super Takumar 35/2 and my SMC Takumar 35/2 but, because of a lack of time, i haven't yet been able to do it.

And, because of the cloudy and rainy weather persecuting me since i got this lens, i'm stuck with indoor pictures. So, i decided to put it on a 12mm extension tube and test its performances at close focusing ...
The pictures have been processed by Silkypix with the default settings except for the color temperature (fixed manually) and an unsharp mask of 70/02/0.

The results: at f/2 ...



... and at f/8:



Focusing correctly this lens has been quite difficult, but, honestly, i don't know if it has been because of the relatively low light (the lens was on an extension tube) or because it has less contrast than my Pentax-K 28/3.5 or my Flektogon 35/2.4. Anyway, i have been truly surprised by its sharpness wide open (frankly i wasn't expecting it). And i have appreciated also the light CA shown (i didn't want, but it doesn't seem too difficult to fix).

Now, i really want to test it a bit more before it goes for sale.
Hopefully, i will update this post soon ;-) ...

In the meantime, if you are interested in looking at the full size pictures, the Flickr set is here.