My Favorite Faves: The Sears 55mm/1.4 lens

I just decided that I will begin a new series here on the SWP blog, about equipment or photos I love the best but which haven’t been written about on the blog yet. I have only had this blog since 2009, so there’s equipment I’ve used in the past or photos that were never shown here. Today, I begin with one of my all-time favorite lenses…

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This is a lens that was made to fit cameras with a lens mount called m42 screw mount  – or universal screw mount or Pentax screw mount. My first 35m SLR was an m42 mount, and I continued to use various m42 cameras for the first several years of foray into photography. I had a couple of favorite m42 lenses, but I think my absolute fave is the Sears 55mm/1.4. Yes, that Sears, though their lenses were reportedly made by Mamiya-Sekor.

The Sears lens came to me via my long-time pen pal, Mike, who was trying out a variety of equipment several years ago and allowed me to try some of it out. He let me keep this one instead of sending it to him in Australia! I love this lens so much that, not only have I shot it on actual m42 cameras, but I got an adapter so it’d work on my Nikon 35mm auto focus cameras, Nikon 35mm manual focus cameras, and a Nikon dSLR I used to have. What makes me so ga-go over the Sears 55mm/1.4? THE BOKEH (<—— that term is something I did my best to explain in a post or two in the early part of my SWP blogging career.)  I especially  love using it with a macro extension tube attached – it really emphasizes that dreamy, creamy, swirly bokeh that makes my heart go pitter-patter. Perfect for my style of food photography! And when it came to using this lens on my Nikon digital SLR, I actually even felt as if it gave my photos a more film-like appearance.  SO GOOD!

Difficult to cull my absolute favorite photos taken with this lens, but here’s my best attempt:

Nikon D50 + Sears 55mm/1.4

Praktica VLC3 + Sears 55mm/1.4

Praktica VLC 3 + Sears 55mm/1.4 + macro extension tubes

Praktica VLC3 + Sears 55mm/1.4

Praktica VLC3 + 55mm/1.4

Praktica VLC3 + Sears 55mm/1.4 + macro extension tubes

Praktica VLC3 + Sears 55mm/1.4

Praktica VLC3 + Sears 55mm/1.4

Yashica TL Electro-X + Sears 55mm/1.4

Nikon N50 + Sears 55mm/1.4

Nikon D50 + Sears 55mm/1.4 + macro extension tubes

Nikon D50 + Sears 55mm/1.4

Nikon D50 + Sears 55mm/1.4

Nikon N8008 + Sears 55mm/1.4 + macro extension tubes

Nikon FE  + Sears 55mm/1.4 + macro extension tubes

Nikon FE + Sears 55mm/1.4 + macro extension tubes

Nikon FE + Sears 55mm/1.4

Nikon FE + Sears 55mm/1.4 + macro extension tubes

Nikon FE +Sears 55mm/1.4 + macro extension tubes

Nikon FE + Sears 55mm/1.4 + macro extension tubes

Nikon FE + Sears 55mm/1.4 + macro extension tubes

Nikon FE + Sears 55mm/1.4 + macro extension tubes

Now that I’ve looked at all these pictures, I think it’s high time I attach that Sears lens to one of my Nikons and take advantage of that beautiful bokeh again!