| Author: | | New Member Registered: November, 2010 Posts: 12 | | Lens Review Date: December 26, 2011 | I can recommend this lens: Yes |
Price: $100.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | 400mm, Light weight option for range, can be sharp, decent focus speed, Bargain price | | Cons: | Build Quality not the greatest | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 8
Value: 8
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Well, this lens has for me been a bit of a star performer. For something that cost me £65 via auction it has performed well above the price range,
I've lugged it through extreme rain conditions at motorsport events, Captured Aviation with it and used it with animal photography with results that really I never expected from it. it does a far better job then it is given credit for.
Just to give an idea of how the lens has turned out for me, here are some examples
Eye of the Tiger by Avro Vulcan, on Flickr
Fedex Panda Express by Avro Vulcan, on Flickr
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: December, 2009 Location: Liverpool, NY Posts: 3,614 | | Lens Review Date: July 20, 2011 | I can recommend this lens: No |
Price: $84.00
| Rating: 5 |
| Pros: | Cheap, Can produce a decent picture in good light | | Cons: | Front heavy, Zoom creap, Low contrast, Slow at long end | |
First long zoom I purchased. The cheapest way to get to 400mm. Needs post-processing to get a decent picture. I haven't used it since I got the DA L 55-300.
IMGP0428 by bmcgann1, on Flickr
IMGP0573 by bmcgann1, on Flickr
IMGP0748 by bmcgann1, on Flickr
IMGP0785 by bmcgann1, on Flickr
IMGP0781 by bmcgann1, on Flickr
IMGP0819 by bmcgann1, on Flickr
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: May, 2011 Location: Louisiana Posts: 52 | | Lens Review Date: June 7, 2011 | I can recommend this lens: Yes |
Price: $99.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Lightweight, Cheap, 400mm | | Cons: | Plastic, probably not durable | |
I posted a review for this lens in the Vivitar section and then found out it's probably not made by Vivitar after all.
Since I bought this on the popular auction site I've seen a lot of negative about this lens, from it being slow (6.7 @ 400mm), needing to be stopped down to increase sharpness and/or reduce PF/CA, etc.
To me, a hundred dollar 400mm @ 6.7 isn't all that slow, compared to one or two stops faster for some of the "better" 300mm zooms at many times the cost and I believe it's about f5.6@350mm.
I will agree that it feels like a big ol' chunk of plastic but it seems to do a bangup job if you avoid high contrast wide open 400mm shots. I use a silicon wrist band behind the zoom barrel and lightly pull back to just under the max 400mm. This seems to steady up the various tube parts when shooting hand held. For a budget 100-400 zoom I am happy with this one.
Here's one shot, reduced, and a 100%crop from the original.
Shot with my K-r and the Vivitar at about 350mm, f8, 1/250,ISO 800, AF/AE (-0.5 stop), open shade, handheld.
  | | | | | Veteran Member Registered: November, 2009 Location: Iowa Posts: 737 | | Lens Review Date: March 19, 2011 | I can recommend this lens: Yes |
Price: $125.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Lightweight, cheap, reasonably sharp. | | Cons: | Cheesy build quality, sticky focusing ring past 300mm, purple fringing. | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 5
Value: 8
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A lot of lenses are made entirely of plastic these days, and some still have a quality feel. This is not one of them.
The image quality is decent, (see attached samples) but the build quality is cheesy. The biggest complaint I have with this lens is that it's lousy for manual focus. Zoom out past 300mm, and the focusing ring grinds and sticks, making it impractical for wildlife shooting, which is what I do a lot of, so that's the big dealbreaker. I've had two other copies of this lens, and they both have the same problem. It's a design flaw. When you zoom out past 300mm or so, there's more lens barrel hanging over the end than there is inside the lens. This puts a "worm" on the mechanism, and the ring sticks and stutters. Plus, this lens gives you the general tactile experience of having an empty yogurt cup screwed to your camera.
Here are a few lo-res samples taken with this lens on a K100D:
   
The image quality is pretty good, especially considering you can pick one up on the used market for around $125.
I would not recommend this lens for a manual focus long tele shooter at all. It's horrible for that purpose.
But if you're primarily an autofocus shooter, this lens offers relatively good image quality for little money. Hard to do better for $125.
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