New Member Registered: October, 2013 Posts: 4 | | Review Date: February 10, 2022 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Lightweight, inexpensive, good contrast, bright colors | | Cons: | T-Mount could be confused with M-42, very conspicuous length, very long minimum focus distance | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: Canon Rebel T1i
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I saw the previous poster's review and excellent photo's and would say that the photos were too good to be credited to a 60's era T-Mount MF preset aperture lens, except for I had a similar experience! It is hard to give this lens an "Overall Rating" because if you had a 15MP DSLR and had only 30-$50 dollars to spend and wanted to shoot birds along the coast I can't imagine you will find a better buy.
I essentially had virtually no color fringing, no distortion, nice contrast and bright colors. Sharpness was shocking! I took photos of pelicans, surfbirds, rock pigeons, a lighthouse, and a lot more. Sadly it got knocked on the floor and an element came loose. I would have repaired it, but I soon got a very expensive 100-400L zoom, so spending anything to fix a $30 MF lens didn't make sense. I will say, I loved it while it lasted.
4 elements in 2 groups. For some time people have debated the virtues of having a very small number of elements which of course negates most centering problems and other issues that lead to lack of contrast. I don't even know if these lens elements had any coatings at all. But the photos it produced were great!
A lot of drawbacks, but a lens that was really capable of great photos at least on a 15 MP sensor. I wouldn't expect miracles on a high resolution sensor.
Well, that was my trip down memory lane!
-Mac
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Site Supporter Registered: November, 2012 Location: North Wales Posts: 2,869
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 1, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | resolution, particularly wide open, easy portability and handling (nestar). | | Cons: | handling, non-standard bush (Nestar), long cfd, no hood. | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 6
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-r, K5, Lumix G1, Samsung NX20
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Review for tamron Nestar.
This is cute: a classic long-barrel telescope type TP that cuts down its clumsy proportions for storage and carrying by unscrewing and packing into itself. It's a preset, T-mount lens just like many of its contemporaries, but a bit slower than the common f6.3 400's at f6.9.
Optically it is comfortably superior to the couple of numerous examples of those f6.3 400's that have passed through my hands. I am particularly impressed with the wide open performance. I was unenamoured of the f6.3's in spite of some good sharpness because of the desireability of stopping down, making them effectively even slower, but this Tamron is eminently usable at f6.9. In fact I can suggest this is as good as it gets for lenses of this type and era which is why I offer a 10 for sharpness. My test shots of the channel marker on my G1 show at best only slight improvement f6.9-f8-f11. I was also impressed with the relative lack of fringing - just a thin smidgen of LoCA on the backlit castle turrets (my test for CA). Some fringing is persistent, however, and OOF point highlights show purple. Contrast is dull, but that's normal for lenses and coatings of this era.
Preset aperture works well, two easily graspable wide collars. These multibladed iris's (12 in this case) normally give a very round aperture and good bokeh. No hood or tripod mount, just an inset bush** that is an obsolete non-standard 5/16th UNF thread (update:some at least of these nestars were supplied with a 5/16"UNF to 1/4" UNC button adapter) which doesn't accept normal tripod threads and which is too close to the lens end to conveniently allow mounting on any of my quick release plates. I am going to have to DIY something (UPDATE see pic 5 above). I note that even when screwed tight, there is still a miniscule but real bit of play in the joint between the front and back sections of the lens. And like most lenses of this type the CFD is a distant 9m / 30', although I have managed to improve that to 6.9m by loosening the 3 grub screws on the focus ring and unscrewing the distance scale ring a few mm to extend the focus throw.
I find I am using this lens more on my mirrorless bodies. It is sharp enough to cope well with the 2x crop factor of my G1, and the 20Mpx of my NX20. Easy to use the rotating lcd while perched on a wall or low tripod, accurate focus using lcd/evf magnification. The split prism in my K-r is usable but tends to be on the edge of blanking, I was resorting to live view but it's not as user friendly (half a dozen button pushes vs one or two) . And to cap it all, infinity focus isn't quite there on my K-r (but OK on the G1 - just due to the MFT-PK adapter). Not sure why - possibly wear at the joint causing the lens sections to gain a fraction of a mm more than they should. My only (but effective) solution* so far has been to loosen (screw in) about half a turn at the joint, thus regaining that few tenths of a mm or so.
UPDATE second and third examples of this lens had no looseness or focus problem.
For more on this lens I recommend Luis Alegrias review, on mflenses, in fact it was his assessment and pics that prompted my purchase. He does mention that stiff focus can cause the lens to unscrew - I had the same complaint actually, but a determined cleaning of the focusing helicoid fixed things.
Marked down overall by handling niggles, weak contrast and technical limitations especially that CFD of 9m. There are many situations where you would want to be closer than that, photographing small birds at a feeder for example. An extension tube would fix the latter situation - with an ~18mm tube the focus extended from ~4.5m to just under 10m measured with my G1. But in any case this is a keeper. If you see one at the price cited, snap it up. I didn't know these existed until by happenstance two cropped up on fleabay in the same week. Not seen any before, and only very occasionally since.
Pentax K-r
Pentax K5, bean bag in hide:
1:1 pixel peep crops f6.9, f8, f11.
More pics posted in 300mm+ lens club - posts `12286; 12313
*Infinity focus on this structurally simple lens is adjusted by loosening the grub screws on the front end and rotating this on its thread. The helicoid can be separated without concern.
** I have now seen examples of the nestar with an adaptor button to 1/4" UNC thread that screws into this bush for tripod mounting. Probably this was a normal accessory supplied with the lens. However it is too small to make a very good tripod mounting, albeit better than nothing.
Minor updates 4/15.
Review of Tamron FO-69 400mm f6.9
I have now had an opportunity to check out the normal version. Optically it looks identical and has same dimensions at same focus etc. My impression is that this lens is slightly softer than the nestar but has better contrast. The former impression is probably merely sample variation, the latter may be attributable to this being a later one with better coatings.
Between the two, this lens is easier to mount on a tripod because of the built in TM, but otherwise has rigid dimensions inconvenient for carrying, and inferior handling - I prefer the larger rings on the nestar.
Like the nestar this lens has a "cheat" to improve the CFD - you can unscrew the front end a few mm to reduce it to around 6.5m.
Equal recommendation. Couple of sample pics, probably f8/f11, K5 top (crop), samsung NX20 below.
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