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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-19-2024, 03:52 AM
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"Cosina K-mount cameras re-badged as "Miranda" were sold in the UK in the 1980s"...
Steve was correct - the UK chain stores called DIXONS sold cosina cameras and lenses as Miranda & Petri brands in the 1980s to 2000 era.
Why is this useful? - well some of those cosina lenses were excellent - the 24mm and the 135mm primes, for example - and they typically sell for far less on auction sites than the Cosina branded ones.
The Cosina/Miranda/Petri cameras were simple and robust and used cheap LR44 silver oxide batteries - and seem to be lasting longer than the Pentax cameras with the nylon gear chains!
As they are just a box to hold lenses, I rate the cameras as ecxcellent buys for film work today but note they are noisy (Clunk!) and vibrations mean slow hand-held shots are not always great. Lastly, few models had aperture stop-down buttons to preview depth of field.
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Forum: Product Suggestions and Feedback
11-12-2023, 06:48 AM
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Seconded - if dropping the "hybrid/video" capabilities could cut the costs and size of making a DSLR with lots of external controls then I would be for it.
With sensor costs falling, how affordable could a full-frame sensor camera that takes the full legacy of K-mount lenses be?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-15-2023, 04:28 AM
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There are some great photo's here ... thank you all
Kobori - selling under either the "Tefnon" or "Prinzflex" or "CPC" brand names made a great 70-162mm F3.5 fixed aperture "two-touch" macro zoom.
5 x 5 – A Bargain Experiment (CPC MC 70-162mm f/3.5 AUTO ZOOM Macro) | SKVORA LIMITED
This is very similar to the 70-150mm two touch versions sold by vivitar in both design, finish and letterring and in their separate "macro focusing ring". Those limited range zoom lenses performed well in multiple reviews.
My experience of typical 70/80 - 200/210mm and the 80/90 - 300mm zooms is that near all drop resolution dramatically in the longest 25% of their range; and this goes for modern "amateur spec" zooms even today (example the Panasonic Lumix micro 4/3 45-150 and 45-200mm lenses, and the equivalent APS Nikons). So it is sometimes better to have a zoom where the zoom range actually delivers - such as the Vivitar 70-150mm, the Nikon EM 70-150, SMC Pentax 70-150mm etc....and where the fixed aperture means F3.5 at the longest end of the zoom.
The Kobori / Tefnon / Prinzfelx etc... have 4 rings to control them which makes them ironically more useful today! (4 control rings: Focus, Zoom, Close up correction, aperture).
You Tube
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I have just got another Kobori/Tefnon 70-162mm F3.5 today in "Opened but not used" state from UK eBay for £3 / $4 USD in K-Mount - so will post a review on the relevant page. I will use if for film with my P30s - and on micro 4/3 where there have been some excellent landscape images posted to the www from this combination. As with all older lenses performance depends on how much haze from the lubricants has got deposited on the glass over the years - so fingers crossed this will be a clear view.
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64297943
It's not that I don't have some great primes and AF zooms to be using - but I find that by regularly having a new lens to challenge me it seems to give a kick to my creativity as I work to find the best from the unfamiliar kit. Judging by comments from so many on this Forum - I'm not alone in this approach!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-14-2023, 10:59 AM
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
02-13-2023, 02:34 AM
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Thank you for this excellent posting - and all the comments from others. I have come back to this again in 2023 because -----
I pretty much gave up on pre KA lenses because of this reason of unpredictable exposure - and my old pre AE/AF Pentax lenses were repurposed to micro 4/3 where stopping down the aperture is countered by automatic brightening of the electronic viewfinder and real time histograms meant you could get the exposure right before taking the image.
But it didn't have to be that way for Pentax - as Nikon seemed to have overcome the problem with their pro-spec cameras from 2007/8 onwards.
I used Nikon cameras and lenses a lot up until 15 years ago, and when I switched to digital got Pentax and Panasonic/Lumix kit. However, recently I got a 2008 era Nikon-D200 DSLR. These were once $1,700 pro-spec weather-sealed magnesium bodied cameras - but the recent rush to mirrorless in the Nikon camp has meant a glut of these on the used market and prices are low. Added to this has been some excellent "retro reviews" of the D200 on You Tube. I got an excellent condition one with 30k shutter actuations for £52 GBP / $63 USD with 6 months guarantee from MBP - and this is not unusual.
Now every one of my old Nikon NAI mount lenses exposes just fine on the D200 - and that goes for old 19mm F3.8 Vivitars with a 8-stop ND filter screwed on the front - as well as long telephotos and zooms. Clearly there is a technological fix that Nikon invested in to help keep its professional buyer base happy (but which was never afforded to their loyal amateur supporters with the lower spec cameras such as the D40,60,70, 3000-5000 etc that had a crippled NAF mount...).
If Pentax does want to shore up support against the flight to mirrorless and make the continued case for flapping mirrors - then investing in a camera that brings ALL legacy lenses into use could be a sales winner. Such technology existed >30 years ago for aperture priority exposure with the Contax RTS system, Olympus' "off the film" plane system and even the amateur spec the Nikon FG (the exposure indicator "needle" showed likely exposure based on open aperture calculations and it recalculated actual exposure just as the aperture closed and before the shutter opened.
So - with a box full of pre KA/KAF lenses waiting to be reused (I got 2 more on UK eBay this weekend for £5 each / $6.20 USD)- are Pentax/Ricoh engineers reading the web-pages here? We need a Pentax equivalent of the Nikon Df that was able to work correctly with every one of Nikon's legacy lens systems right back to the 1950's H-series - but ideally at Pentax prices please!
PS - disloyal it may seem on the Pentax Forum - but if you have some Nikon lenses - then here is the video review that sent me back to try out a D200; it is made by the excellent and laid back Steven Heise who should get a reward from the secondhand sellers for a range of "retro reviews" he has made over recent years that remind us that you don't need $1000 dollar kit to get wonderful pictures. Without such a move to signpost affordable ways into it, "Camera Photography" as a hobby will die off as the cost of investing in a system becomes prohibitively expensive to young creatives (its time to declare who here started with an old K1000, P30, or any one of the inexpensive Ricoh or Cosina K-mounts....I had a Cosina/Miranda all manual model that cost <£100/$130 with a 50mm F1.8 in the 1980s and worked my way up to real Pentax models over time).
Best wishes to you all
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-12-2023, 09:47 AM
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Albinar is a problem because it was the name used by different importers in (then) West Germany and in the USA.
Here are two 2008 era posts to help: Credit to the two who posted on the photrio.com forum for this information.
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Albinar branded lenses and tubes show up here regularly.
The brand name was registered both in the USA and West-Germany in the early to mid 70s by two different importers.
But much earlier in Germany. Though the similarity of Albinar and Albu might not be a coincidence.
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In the 1970s I worked for the Camera Barn chain in NY during my summers. My recollection was that Albinar lenses and Alfon flash units were named for Fred Albu, who owned the Camera Barn chain. The same people owned what was then called Uniphot-Levitt, a company which sold accessories and imported Hoya filters. Star D was another house brand and was used for tripods which were made at the same NJ factory that turned out the Leitz Tiltall tripods. Some of the Albinar and Star D lenses looked like the Hoya lenses. The Hoya lenses were made by Tokina and that's why some of them looked like Vivitars. I don't have any Albinar or Star D lenses but I do have a very nice looking 135/2.8 Hoya lens in Minolta mount and it is a good performer. At one time I had a 25-42mm Hoya zoom in Konica mount and it was pretty good too.
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So this is a "brand" copany that uses outside contract manufacturing companies to make their stock.
I often enjoy such lenses as they can sometimes be a great way to get an inexpensive version of a "sought after" lens at a bargain price.
If the price is low and the lens is a prime and I think I can guess the "other brand' name - then I often buy one just for interest. In this era of digital photography - it costs nothing to shoot 100 frames to kick my creativity.
I often find the images form even "poorly rated" Hanimex,Sirius, etc...lenses to perform well - or to have distortions that are themselves creative.
Conclusion: Please forum members - include full ID and ideally photographs of "Albinar" lenses when you review them and tell us if these were found in Europe or N.America.
BEST WISHES TO YOU ALL -!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
02-10-2023, 04:07 AM
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If the alternative is a mid-telephoto zoom, the sort of amateur spec 55-200mm types, then I say yes, get a 135mm too.
Its perspective fits it for some useful photography
- The 200mm equivalent is often a great choice for corporate headshot shooting; set up the soft boxes, dial in F8 and shoot away!
- Outside - it enables us to narrow the background behind portraits to simplify compositions.
- and helps isolate mid-ground elements in landscapes
- And a typical F2.8 prime gives you 2 stops "bokeh" advantage over the typical 55-200mm F4-5.6 type zoom
- as well as a stop or two of additional light transmission as the prime lens design needs 1/4 to 1/3 the number of lens elements as the zoom requires
- this matters less on a Pentax with in body stabilisation - but in comparing it to an in-lens stabilised zoom, you can be actually 4 stops ahead using an F2.8 135mm prime in terms of shutter speed because of this light transmission loss rather than just 2!
And - because the world is full of 1980s 135mms that were barely used as film shooters switched to zooms - so there are a lot of good quality inexpensive lenses to be had secondhand.
- the patent for mid-telephoto lens design had expired by then - and there are lots of 4-5 element / 2 group lenses out there with good optical quality. Read the reviews here - there are loads of great Vivitars, etc....
- I would go as far to say that itis hard to make a "bad" 135mm lens with this formula when used in the digital eras - let me explain ---
- this design will deliver low contrast at f2.8 with soft corners - great for portraits, by F4 it will be sharp, and perfect at f5.6
- In bright contrast areas in the corners there will be chromatic aberration - but that is now easy to fix in processing ---To fix that without processing needs a lot of costly aspheric glass - which explains why modern 135mm primes are huge, chunky, heavy and expensive. In the film era it was easy to make a good lens and hard to make an excellent lens! Today - we can solve that!
- near enough all amateur film era 135mm's at F2.8 to F3.5 will be compact and have 49-55mm filter threads and will be good (but never excellent) unless there is a fault such as haze, decentering, fungus etc...
- the 4-5 element / 2 group design won't close focus - for that you need expensive floating elements, so get some close up filter "lenses" if you can't afford the Vivitar or Tamron 90mm macro
We all have our favourites, and they are not usually related to the price paid.
- I love the Pentax SMC 135mm F3.5; but the equally tiny Cosina/Petri F3.5 is very close behind!
If you have shallow pockets - an DX/APS Camera with a 18-55mm kit lens and a manual era 135mm make a great 2 lens combination. Old 85mm lenses were expensive and used by the professionals - so have often had a hard life if you find one secondhand today.
Like a lot of fans of this site - I have bought several old 135mms over the years at never more than the price of 2 caffe lattes each.
If you can find it - Hanimex/Makinon sold a 135mm F2.8 in its "green ring" era of the 1980s with a second "macro focus" ring ahead of the main focus ring - this gives you close up, but it also gives a lot of "defocus" control for a creative headshot portrait at a fraction of the cost of the eye-wateringly expensive Nikon alternative ! There are reviews here at "Makinon MC macro 135mm F2.8 Lens Reviews"
And yes - I do have a 55-200mm zoom - AF is useful for sports, wildlife, snapshots on travels etc..- but the low contrast needs work in processing, and all loose resolution progressively after 150mm in a big way and they need to be used at F8-11 for anything approaching "excellent" resolution and by then any bokeh left is getting "clumsy". For album sized prints they work fine ----but if you have the time to compose, I say put the zoom away and find a 135mm !!
best wishes to you all. |
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
06-01-2022, 07:31 AM
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This "Japanese CZJ" is made by Cosina and was a UK promotion.
Cosina offered the same lens under their own brand name. See - Carl Zeiss Jena II 28mm f2.8 Macro Japanse version. In the UK that was also sold as a "Miranda" brand by Dixon's stores.
Like all film era 28mm F2.8 the image quality now is very variable depending on its condition. The greatest risk is haze or fungus on the rear lens element that is closest to the sensor/film. Thius explains why so many people posting here give such different scores for image quality.
Most Cosina primes were very good - the 135mm f3.5 is outstanding.
Ultimately this was an amateur spec 28mm - so excellent for 7x5 prints or slideshows on a 4-5foot screen with transparencies. On digital, and with pixel peeping you will almost always see chromatic aberration and vignetting with mild barrel distortion. Putting that right needs aspeheric / high density lens elements, floating elements etc and explains why a modern zeiss / nikon / canon costs so much.
Find a good copy and be happy - but my favourite cheap "no-name" 28mm for PK mounts are the Japanese ones that give 1:5 or 1:4 "macro" close up and were sold under half-a dozen "brand names' or more - as they deliver a perspective at close focus that many "branded" lenses couldn't deliver in the film era. I even have one adapted to micro 4/3 where it delivers great portraits as a "55mm" type equivalent lens (once a popular focal length with examples made made by Pentax, Canon and Zenit-Helios)
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
02-11-2021, 07:04 AM
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PowerExtra Professional DF-400 Camera Flash for Canon Nikon Pentax Fujifilm
2021 you can get 2 for £16.19 each post free in the UK rom an eBay seller with stock.
I concur - a great simple set up with 2 flashes for an indoor studio. Variable output is the key. Google "The Strobist" for advice on how to useSe
Seller is nothing to do with me = PowerExtra Professional DF-400 Camera Flash for Canon Nikon Pentax Fujifilm | eBay
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
07-27-2020, 06:02 AM
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There are two versions of the Opteka 10 diopter auxilary lens:
[1] a single lens element filter type
[2] a 4 lens element apochromatic version
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As you would expect - the former is poor for image quality and hard to get a flat field of focus with; but the second is a far more serious design and there are some photographers on the www posting excellent high magnification images using it. In design this latter version is far closer to the Rayonox and Nikon models - and for $25.00 USD new may be a worthwhile introduction to high magnification macro. Please share your experience !
If you are just starting with close up photography, the +3 or +4 diopter screw in fiters offer a great and inexpensive first step and make a real difference to what you can photograph compared with your conventional "kit lens" or 50mm prime as quality can be good when stopped down to F8 and the cost is less than a pizza; however - beyond that macro photography gets more technically challenging and a lot more expensive.
I use the wonderful but now very expensive Komine/Vivitar 55mm macro F2.8, but never leave home without a +4 diopter filter in my camera bag to fit my "kit zoom" as a "just in case"....
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-27-2020, 04:17 AM
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"Cheap, Decent Wide Angle Lens"
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Now we all want one of those but - there are 2 difficult variables here
1. "Cheap"
2. "Decent"
So lets start with "decent" - to me that means no visible "unpleasant" chromatic aberration or uncorrectable barrel distortion on an HD monitor or 10x8 print - and sufficient resolution for those images as well. So that covers near every prime 28mm made at F8; most at F5.6 and some at F2.8. For zooms, there are always compromises and a read of all the reviews here suggests that most zooms have a "good" and a "bad" end of the range.
Then how about "cheap" - for indeed even in 2020 there are fabulous wideangle lenses with native PK mounts to be had for the price of a pizza dinner for 2: so while £15 / $20 may not get you an SMC pentax, it can often get you a great quality "no name" lens that, with a bit of help from the pages here in Pentax Forums, turns out to be the same as a costly "branded" lens that is praised in the forum.
For wideangles, I don't see AF as of any help. Furthermore, because of the wide field of view, even the best programmed auto-exposure can fail - needing adjustements to compenstae for highlights or dark backgrounds or modifying flash output - so that means prime lenses carry a lesser penalty for rapid shooting compared with telephotos or standards.
For a "cheap" wideangle, I rate highly the Tokina 28mm F2.8 and the Cosina 24mm F2.8 - but so do many; now the detective skill is to realise that these same lenses were sold under different brand names, often with a "brand name" specific to a dealership in just one country.......so now turn to the Pentax forums review pages and happy hunting !
Best wishes to you all - Paul C
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
07-27-2020, 03:59 AM
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Sun vs "Sun Actinon"
As lens makers in Japan consolidated in the late 1980s, many old brand names got reused by camera dealerships - think of the new "Exactas" and "MIrandas" that appeared in PK mounts in that era.
"Sun Actinon" was a brand name used by a group of independent photo equipment retailers in the UK called "Image" .
Many of the lenses were made by Tokina - which is why they can be a bargain hunter's dream today as the price can be a fraction of the "Tokina" or "Vivitar" badged versions. The same goes for the 1980s "Miranda" lenses - which were rebadged Cosina lenses with PK mounts made for the "Dixons" photo dealerships in the UK.
I have the "Sun Actinon" 28mm F2.8 for PK - which is mechanically and optically excellent.
As with many wideangle lenses of this era, the rear element that is closest to the lens is the smallest - and keeping this clean is the key to high image quality as every bit of dust or oily haze here has a disporportionate effect on the picture. Since these lenses were usually stored with the rear element down, it seems that all the debris inside fell onto that lens element - and as this is also closest to the aperture diaphragm, they were the main site for depositing microscopic deposits of oil each time the aperture snaped open and shut.
In the Tokina made wideangle lenses, the rear lens element often unscrews so that you can clean the inside surface as well (isopropyl alcohol or specific lens cleaner spray and a microfibre cloth). The risk of decentering the lens with this manourvre is low compared with removing the large front elements, and can be an excellent one-step solution to "blooming" highlights and low resolution in old wideangle lenses.
This explains so much of the variation we seen in the assessment of the same lens on this site - my own experience is that I can take a 2-3/10 score lens up to an 8/10 for IQ just by cleaning that part of a lens. When a "no-name" lens costs only a few £ or # or € I feel that this manourve is well worth the risk if a "flashlight" test shows haze on the rear lens element.
Best wishes to you all - Paul C
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Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
02-08-2020, 04:22 PM
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What's the best Pentax film SLR to purchase - 2020 update?
Time has gone by, film cameras are getting older...but there is still something special about film photography that stops it from dying.
So I thought we should take a look again at this thread - what legacy film camera to recommend now in 2020.
With digital cameras now shooting rapid predictive Af at 8+ frames a second with 300 metering points and 24-48MP resolution and workable ISO to >3200 the only reason for film now is the joy of "slow photography". This is like "slow food" - taking time to compose and balance exposure/aperture/speed and lens perspective to give the best creative interpretation of the scene.
So what spec' do you need?
-- The camera mount needs to be sufficiently common to enable you to find a wide range of legacy "prime" lenses - ideally at low prices
-- The meter needs to be sensitive enough for low light metering
-- Shutter release needs either the ability to use cable-releases or self-timer delay.
-- The meter needs to be able to use easily available silver oxide batteries - (old mercury cell cameras are now a real problem unless they are voltage independent because of a "bridge-circuit" metering system).
-- Manual focusing needs a large view finder image with a bright pentaprism - not a dull penta-mirror light path.
-- Shutter speeds need to go to a second or more.
-- Manual film advance is a must - those motor winding plastic bodies cameras of the 1980s-90s put a lot of stress on old mechanics and plastic cog gear-trains, and that plastic gets brittle with age. Furthermore - many of the coverings on plastic bodied cameras are now deteriorating to a sticky "glue" - as seen in so many plastic film-era Nikons.
-- Since these film cameras are now pretty much uneconomic or just irrepairable when they break - put a strong consideration to the ability to afford and buy several of the same camera body so you have a back-up for the inevitable breakdowns in the years ahead.To me, the most fragile part of the system today is the camera body - for how many of us can find a proficient mechanical camera repair centre nearby, or afford to use it, and trust that they can source spares?
-- Lastly - Depth of Field preview is a must - film has no "live view" to predict how the range of focus will look nor the bokeh of out of focus highlights.
That latter "absolute" is the big divider - because DoF preview was usually reserved only for Pro-Spec cameras. Look at Nikons - you never got his on the amateur spec' EM, FG, FG20, F301, F501, F70s etc.....you have to shell out for an FM2, FE2 or F3, F4, F5.
To me the standout camera to get today is the Pentax P30;
It ticks all the boxes for slow photography with full control.
-- The viewfinder is bright and large.
-- The once frowned at plastic body cover is proving very durable
-- You cannot fit a motor drive - so the gear chains haven't been stressed at 3# a second
-- The metering works well on cheap silver oxide cells easily sourced today at 10 for a £/$/€.
-- And Yes - it has DoF preview !
-- It sold in millions so that even now - there is never a day on eBay when you can't get a P30 for the price of a Pizza Dinner.
And K-mount lenses sold in many more millions - meaning that you can afford to build a collection of lenses with different perspectives and characteristics.
The alternatives from Pentax, Nikon, Canon and Olympus with full control and DoF preview all cost a quantum leap more.
The plastic bodies AF models that followed the P30 near all lack one of the crucial controls needed for creative film photography....and who want's a motor drive for film photography today?
I have been able to build up, inexpensively, a range of K-lenses that cover the "essential 28mm, 50mm, 135mm, 200mm" primes and 3xP30 camera bodies that should ensure I will be using this system to the future until film runs out (or until I run out). Crucially I can afford to have a duplication of the "weak link" in the system with three idential working camera bodies to fall back on when they all eventually break.
A decade ago - the P30 was looked down on as a "low spec" budget cameras. Today - I think it is the stand-out legacy camera choice that ticks all the right boxes that is proving surprisingly durable.
How do others see the choice today?
If you wanted to experience film photography anew in 2020 - what spec's would you demand? ...and what camera would deliver them?
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
06-19-2017, 03:21 AM
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Bad luck with the dud lenses ;)- I find the "hit rate" of good vs. useless legacy lenses on services such as Ebay to be 50:50. This is an inevitable result of 40 years of use and storage of kit that was never expected to have such longevity.
However if a seller on Ebay has listed a lens as "Used" then it has to be useable by definition - and if it isn't - you can get a full rebate on what you spent. In my experience as long as I send clear photographs of the problem and a reasonable statement of why the kit is "unusable" I have never been refused a refund.
As a result over the last 6 months I have built up a great collection of Pentax gear for pocket money prices.
My favourites have been to target the P30 cameras - there are lots of them and prices are low (my latest was a P30 and 50mm at GBP £2.02p last week !). They have all I need for "slow photography" with film - ie they can do manual exposure and have both a Depth of Field and Exposure Lock as well as bright pentaprisms rather than mirrors. With modern non-mercury batteries and bridge-circuits they are voltage independent and cheap to run. They were bought by amateurs - many of whom treated them lovingly and used them for maybe 10 films a year. Professional kit has inevitably been worked hard and shows it. At this price level I have bought 5 P30 bodies from Ebay (and returned 2 as "not-useable) so that over the next years I will be able to keep at least one of the 3 good ones working!
Your 200mm F4 is of course the go-to long telephoto on all our wish lists - with every reviewer of the SMC 200mm F4 raving about the balance of image quality, weight and cost.
However the "3rd-party" or "generic lens" makers are a great source of kit if you are not fussed by the names or fashion. In my experience it is hard to get a "bad" or even "mediocre" PRIME lens in the 50-300mm range unless it has been maltreated. Most are "good" to "excellent" and in many cases - a big name badge is no guarantee of quality.
This is because the essential design of 4-6 lenses in 4 groups for these focal lengths was established in the 1920s and 30s and as patents expired every manufacturer could make a "sonnar' or "tessar" design. Check out, for example, the often derided Hanimex 135mm F2.8. One of the many, many models to have that name has a cute "second" focusing ring at the front to turn it into a near-macro.....and hey-presto, you can take on flash based macro work at a good working distance with no shadows and the easy "focus-pop" of a F2.8 telephoto. All for GBP £5.00. The build quality of this 1970s-80s lens is excellent. Now just how much was the price of the last secondhand legacy SMC Pentax 100mm macro lens that you looked at? I'll bet it was closer to GBP £100.00 than the £5 I paid!
For wide angles there is a different story as there is always a 3-way balance to be struck between central image quality and edge to edge sharpness vs barrel distortion. Even the best and most expensive wide angle lenses fail - despite costly ED glass and floating elements. Only the advent of in-camera correction in digital cameras has sorted this out (for example - shooting JPEGs vs RAW on a Lumix G series camera and lens is a revelation as the JPEGs come out-of-camera distortion corrected). For those of us shooting film the only useful advice for wideangle quality is a use a steady tripod, small aperture and a spirit level in the hot shoe to keep distortion al least level with any horizon.
This is why the PENTAX FORUM is so great - every time I look at an old lens and think "shall I bid" I find that one of you has checked out that model before me. Keep up the good work !
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Forum: Pentax Price Watch
06-17-2017, 08:53 AM
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Which 200mm Soligor is it?
There was a high grade Soligor series which produced the Soligor 200mm 2.8. Although rare - these are often affordable and great fun. Like all large aperture telephotos (almost regardless of price) there is edge softening and reduced contrast until about 2 stops down. Lens hoods are mandatory unless the sun is over your shoulder.
The 2.8 200m Soligor was made by Tokina and the finish and mechanics are truely excellent. Just holding one, feeling the black metal finish and turning the damped focus is a thrill. The retractable lens hood is too small for the large front lens diameter - but OK for rapid work. Get a long hood if you are serious about contrast and flare control. I favour a big rubber deformable hood - the sort that were made for mirror lenses.
This lens was designed for the 64ASA/100ASA film era where F2.8 in a 200mm could nail a shot that was otherwise impossible. In that role it is excellent (I have owned one since the 1990s). For out-of-studio portraits on a monopod the F2.8/200mm gives the striking "flat face" effect with amazing DOF cut-off on a full frame body with film - and I am sure it can mimic the effect on a FF digital. You have seen those shots taken along catwalks at fashion shows. For that role - edge to edge sharpness at F2.8 is not needed.
The closest affordable alternatives to this lens at the time were either the Hanimex 200mm f3.3 and its alternative versions, the Vivitar Auto Telephoto 200mm f/3.5 or a prime from the big makers....at big prices. Amateur grade primes even from big name makers 200mm were typically F4-F5 aperture. If you want one of those now the Pentax 200mm F4 is the go-to but these still command striking prices on E-Bay.
F2.8 200mm lenses are usually strictly professional kit at professional prices - and the soligor is the only "affordable" version I have ever seen (now there is a challenge that someone on the forum will want to take up!). To match an old era 200mm F2.8-F3.3 now means
[1] FOR FF or APSC: the Pentax smc DA 200mm f/2.8 ED (IF) SDM, Amazon price today = Price: £779.00 and list price a cool £999.99 ! Cheer up though - for Nikon it is worse as the Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II Lens at today's Amazon Price is £1,815.39 !
[2] For m4/3 the Olympus Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 40-150mm 1:2.8 PRO Lens with MC-1.4 1.4x Tele Converter - today's Amazon Price is £1,399.97.
AF lenses with focus tracking on digital bodies with low noise at 800ASA have made f2.8 200mm's redundant for all but the "isolated portrait" shot - for this DOF effect, the legacy manual focus lenses are far closer to any of the high price lenses than the sales ticket would predict.
so - never pass up a 200mm lens advert without a look - you never know !
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