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Makinon 28-80mm F3.5-4.5 Review RSS Feed

Makinon 28-80mm F3.5-4.5

Sharpness 
 8.3
Aberrations 
 8.3
Bokeh 
 7.7
Handling 
 8.0
Value 
 10.0
Reviews Views Date of last review
3 37,914 Sat September 15, 2018
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Recommended By Average Price Average User Rating
100% of reviewers $15.00 8.67
Makinon 28-80mm F3.5-4.5

Makinon 28-80mm F3.5-4.5
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Makinon 28-80mm F3.5-4.5
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Description:
Manual aperture, manual focus
Mount Type: Pentax K
Price History:



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Sort Reviews by: Date | Author | Rating | Recommendation | Likes (Descending) Showing Reviews 1-3 of 3
New Member

Registered: June, 2017
Posts: 15
Review Date: September 15, 2018 Recommended | Price: $10.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: optically very good
Cons: very heavy
Sharpness: 8    Aberrations: 6    Bokeh: 7    Handling: 9    Value: 10    Camera Used: M4/3 Lumix and Pentax P30s   

As other reviewers have shown - this is underated because of its makers name.

It is heavy - and I mean heavy. This is the gretest weakness.

Mine was very well built and smooth. Mechanics were up there with old Canon and Nikon build. The close focus "macro" system works well - but you may need to take your eyes from the viewfinder to set this in practice.

Colour and sharpess are very good, as is CA. The only time the optical control fails is at less than 35mm when you will see increasing distortion.

For full frame shooters this can be a great "find" and comes recommended. However bear in mind it is twice the size of say the range of Vivitar 28-70/80mm one-touch zooms which I find to be great manual focus "walkabout" lenses on my P30s.

The Makinon has a great surprise -the front does not rotate (that explains great weight and the 72mm filter ring then) - so it is great for polarisers and ND filters. This should make it a great video lens - but bad luck here as it is variofocal and so can't be zoomed during shots.


I bought this for the close focus ability.

On a micro 4/3 this becomes a close focus 50-150mm type lens with close focus ability. For a mid-range "macro" type role - this puts it head to head against the very competent Lumix 45-150 or 33-100mm lenses used at the shorter half of their zoom range. Here it looses out badly - as both those panasonic lenses have great colour rendition, surprisingly good close focus ability coupled with rapid close AF speed (I use both for butterfly photographs - the 33-100mm is tiny). So for crop format only buy this Makinon if you are saving up for a better lens later.

One reviewer has said this is easy to disassemble to clean - I have done this and while that is true for SOME of the elements, it is not true for all of them. Furthermore the risk of misalignment in rebuilding a zoom lens is proportinately greater than for a prime lens. So don't buy this as a "spare and repair" lens unless you feel very skilled!
   
Veteran Member

Registered: August, 2015
Location: Toulon, South of France
Posts: 357
Review Date: September 11, 2015 Recommended | Price: $15.00 | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: cheap, color&light curves accuracy, HQ build, easy to clean
Cons: heavy, focusing needs training as it goes beyond infinity
Sharpness: 9    Aberrations: 10    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 8    Value: 10   

Very surprised by this lens I got for only 13 euro from a UK seller, it's a very good build quality.
No ap. lever shield so no compatibility issue with DSLR cameras.
Focus ring is very smooth and fine.
But most of all, colors and light curves are very accurate, it looses almost no information.
It becomes a 42-120mm zoom on APS-C bodies.
Seems easy to dismount parts and clean inside dust.
Has a dedicated macro fine focus ring.
Close up shots at 28mm, about 10-15cm from subject
So it's a multi-use lens with old strong quality build.

Cons : not very fast, full manual, heavy (it's a tank) full metal gun^^, aperture ring a bit loose, pump zooming (some don't like)

Sample photo for testing purpose at 80mm f11 : https://flic.kr/p/xwCMgf
   
New Member

Registered: January, 2012
Posts: 1
Review Date: January 24, 2012 Recommended | Price: $20.00 | Rating: 8 

 
Pros: Fairly Compact, Very well built, good control of CA and razor sharp at f/8, good macro, Multi Coated
Cons: Focus mechanism is annoying if subject is closer than 8 feet (you have to use the macro), Barrel distortion below 35mm, Heavy
Sharpness: 8    Aberrations: 9    Bokeh: 8    Handling: 7    Value: 10   

Looking around the internet most people will tell you that makinon was a competent lens builder, but not a great one. This lens appears to be an exception as it is one of the sharpest and least CA prone standard zooms I have used. When used wide open it is reasonably sharp, but produces a bit of ghosting, stopping down one stop removes all of the ghosting. Stopping down 2 stops (f/8) and it become a razor blade.

Bokeh/macro/wide open(f/3.5)
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/album.php?albumid=4437&pictureid=37191

f/8
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/album.php?albumid=4437&pictureid=37189
100% crop
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/album.php?albumid=4437&pictureid=37190
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