[frank]

Got this lens for a dime, thought it's just another doggy lens from some third party lens maker. Well, the IQ turned out to be far better than its cost.

Here are some quick snaps I took when I did Christmas shopping w/ my wife, all taken w/ K20D+Cosina 50/1.4 in JPG:

[frank]

Some more from the mall:







I guess it is true that there is no bad 50mm lens

[avian]

impressive photos and a great buy.. congrats!

[frank]

impressive photos and a great buy.. congrats!

Thanks Avian It's a nice lens indeed. But wide open it has the common oval shape highlight background just like many other fast 50mm lens:



But I do feel it produces less CA (or PF or whatever it's called) than our Pentax normal lenses at wide aperture.

[nixcamic]

The last shot (of the mall) looks very "filmlike" is this the lens, the k20d, or some post processing?

[frank]

The last shot (of the mall) looks very "filmlike" is this the lens, the k20d, or some post processing?

It's jpg straight out of K20D camera w/ some level and curve adjustment only. No other PPing done ...

[vinzer]

Frank, another fantastic set of photos from you. Kudos.

How much did you pay for this lens? I'm not as aware of the Cosina 50/1.4. It's faster brother gets more of the buzz in these forums.

[frank]

Frank, another fantastic set of photos from you. Kudos.

How much did you pay for this lens? I'm not as aware of the Cosina 50/1.4. It's faster brother gets more of the buzz in these forums.

Thanks vinzer

I got the lens (new in box from old stock) for 5SGD (less than 4USD) due to its sticky aperture blades problem. Opened it up and got the blades cleaned by myself (first time for me), the lens works great after that. I think the experience of opening up a lens alone is worth far more than the cost

[Miserere]

Frank, I have a few Cosina lenses, and there is nothing "doggy" about them. Their only problems are a weird feel in the focus ring for the used ones (new old stock 55mm f/1.2 feels just fine) and the lack of 'A' contacts on most of them. Other than that they're nice, under-the-radar lenses.

[k100d]

what does the lens look like?

[jsherman999]

Nice job, all are great, but I really love that last one a lot.

[dave sz]

Hmmm, most if not all look very grainy, very compressed and not one looks very sharp. The first one looks like it's from a camera phone. Sorry...

[frank]

Frank, I have a few Cosina lenses, and there is nothing "doggy" about them. Their only problems are a weird feel in the focus ring for the used ones (new old stock 55mm f/1.2 feels just fine) and the lack of 'A' contacts on most of them. Other than that they're nice, under-the-radar lenses.

Yeah, the MF feel isn't as great as our Pentax MF lenses, and the focus ring turns the other way is another thing to get used to. Optically I think it's pretty okay. I've used many M/K lenses, so I'm okay w/ non A lenses

[frank]

what does the lens look like?

Here are some photos of the actual lens:

[frank]

Nice job, all are great, but I really love that last one a lot.

Hmmm, most if not all look very grainy, very compressed and not one looks very sharp. The first one looks like it's from a camera phone. Sorry...

Hmm, quite different comments one after another. Wonder if we are looking at the same photos

They don't look grainy from my side though, although they do look better at larger size. Not one look very sharp? Here are 100% crops from two of above photos:






I think they look pretty sharp even at 100% level. But probably our standards are different

Thanks for the comments anyway.