Author: | | New Member Registered: November, 2020 Posts: 3 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: March 21, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $100.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Build quality, optics, ergonomics, preset ring | Cons: | So-so at infinity | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Canon 5D Mark I
| | It's my favorite lens and I use it mainly for flowers macro, but also for product photography or walkaround. Perfect in every aspect: size, ergonomics, optics. Also fabulous for portraits (head and shoulders). Bought it for 1/3 the price of the Canon 100mm L macro f2.8, which I cannot afford.
I like to shoot it wide open (for the smooth and "painting flavour" bokeh) or max @f8 (for pixel-peep sharpness) and stack the images. IMG_20201210_171500 by Raul M. Rodrigues, no Flickr IMG_6747-Editar by Raul M. Rodrigues, no Flickr IMG_4478 by Raul M. Rodrigues, no Flickr IMG_6925-Editar-Editar by Raul M. Rodrigues, no Flickr [/url]IMG_9883-Editar by Raul M. Rodrigues, no Flickr IMG_9700-Editar by Raul M. Rodrigues, no Flickr
| | | | | amateur dirt farmer Registered: December, 2014 Location: probably out in a field somewhere... Posts: 41,131 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: February 7, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $187.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | build quality, color rendition, bokeh | Cons: | lack of modern coatings | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-5 IIs
| | What a lens - this is a lens I've been interested in since I began working with M42 lenses (not too long ago) - it gets rave reviews everywhere I've read, so I kept an eye out for one in a price-range I could swallow and waited..... finally, a BIN on eBay turned up (for less than $200) and I bought it...
all metal and glass, so it is definitely a substantial lens on the front of the K-5 IIs, but not any more so than any other film-era macro... it natively produces a true 1:1 macro, without any adapters, is a preset-M42 mount, and you can usually find it in one of two flavors: Mamiya or Yashinon Tomioka; this is also a Tomioka-designed lens... six-bladed iris that will produce hexa-bokeh, etc...
this lens renders colors beautifully, creates smooth/creamy bokeh (except with specular highlights), and is a joy to use.... the lens does not, however, like strong light sources pointed down the barrel - you'll get flare of all sorts and loss of contrast...
compared to another film-era macro, the Vivitar (Komine) 55mm f2.8: Mamiya Macro Sekor 60mm vs Vivitar (Komine) 55mm Macro by Pepperberry Farm, on Flickr
and the shots: raindrop by Pepperberry Farm, on Flickr making bread by Pepperberry Farm, on Flickr historic building by Pepperberry Farm, on Flickr short walkabout by Pepperberry Farm, on Flickr sunset by Pepperberry Farm, on Flickr
and the rest of this lens' album on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pepperberryfarm/albums/72157705127012094/page1
definitely worthwhile to take a look at, especially if you are an M42-enthusiast or enjoy shooting film...
| | | | Inactive Account Registered: October, 2010 Location: Texas Posts: 33 | Review Date: December 21, 2010 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Sharp and great bokeh | Cons: | none | | I have this lens in the Yashinon variant. I was very fortunate to get a copy of this lens in pristine condition. My father always kept his equipment in pristine condition and this lens was well cased and cared for close to 40 years. It was given to me by my father as he no longer is involved in photography. He purchased this lens about 37 years ago. I was with him the day he purchased the lens at a military base exchange.
This has become one of my favorite manual focus lenses as it is just fun to use with very predictable results. If you do your part the lens will render fabulous pictures. I believe my father even use to use it for portraits on his film camera something that I have not tried but as I recall it even did that well.
First the lens is very sharp even wide open but like others have said it is unique. Its bokeh is very interesting and appealing to me. It just gets sharper as the lens is stopped down. The colors seem to be very accurate and warm.
The lens is very heavy and well built I really like the secondary stop down ring. It allows you to focus and do your composition with the lens wide open and a quick turn brings the aperture down to where it was set. The front element of the lens is very deep so flare is well controlled even without a hood. It is probably my easiest lens to focus on my K-X stock focusing screen and even easier on my new focusing screen. Why I don't know but it just seems to be easier to get a nice sharp focus.
Here is an example with the lens wide open. This is not the best photo I ever taken with it but does show how sharp it is and an a nice example of its bokeh. | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2009 Location: 14er Country Posts: 323 | Review Date: November 30, 2010 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Different character from the standard "clinical" macro look | Cons: | Different character from the standard "clinical" macro look | | With very few exceptions, macro lenses seem to optically excellent but kind of "clinical." This lens definitely bucks that trend and has a look all it's own.
What gives it charm is a bit of spherical aberration wide open. Just enough to give that "soft but sharp" kind of look. And don't get me wrong, this is definitely a sharp lens. It's just that highlights can develop a "glow" to them. This shot show the look a little bit: Flickr Link
I listed this as both a pro and a con for the lens, because it's going to depend on each individual shooter to decide if the look works for them or not.
Keep in mind that this is only evident wide open. Stopping the lens down kills off any spherical aberration and results in a nice, sharp image (although, as the previous poster mentioned, the hexagonal highlights can be a little distracting).
It's definitely one of my favorite tools to reach for in my lens arsenal, but I can understand that others may not appreciate it as much as I do. So an 8 seemed like a good ranking.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2007 Location: Singapore Posts: 348 | Review Date: October 4, 2010 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Versatility, Sharpness, Contrast, 1:1 Macro | Cons: | if I had to choose - hexagonal bokeh | | Well, i would rate it more technically a 9.5, with 0.5 deducted due to the bokeh.
I've been looking around for a 60mm f2.8 macro (either a mamiya/tomioka or leica) mainly as a walkaround lens. I like the focal length both on film and digital, and the added advantage of a macro or close focus function greatly expands the composition possibilities (a lesson I learnt from the Sigma 24mm f2.8 super wide).
I managed to get a good copy of the mamiya sekor 60mm, and have had it for aobut 6 months now. Have been bringing it to shoot exclusively over the past month to understand the lens better, and now feel confident of sharing my findings here.
It has a pre-set aperture, i.e. the aperture is set using two rings at the front of the lens. It actually helps since its a manual focus lens, and stopping the lens down in front minimises changes to your focusing when you do stop it down. Can't describe properly in words, but when you try it, you will know. In my opinon, quite a clever design for a manual lens.
Sharpness:
Excellent wide open, and gets even better when stopped down. I've stopped it down to f8, and that;s enough for me.
Wide open:
stopped to about f5.6 - note, this is near a 100% crop, used at 1:1 macro
Bokeh:
Great wide open. The background bokeh can get a little busy wide open especially if you're shooting into the light, but I don't see this as a detriment. You can term it as character. Stopped down, it will produce hexagonal bokeh, which is not really to my taste. However, its not that noticeable unless you crop a lot, and in certain cases it can work in the picture's favour.
Samples:
Hexagonal bokeh behind flowers (also note the sharpness)
Colours:
I am not really particular about colours, since it depends on the colour space settings your camera and that this is one attribute that can be pp'-ed quite easier. Here's a sample however of the colour saturation I have achieved with a shot from this lens: | | |