| Author: | | New Member Registered: July, 2017 Posts: 14 | | Review Date: November 26, 2017 | Recommended | Price: $35.00
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | metal build, cheap | | Cons: | handling, sharpness, CA | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 4
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 5
Value: 7
| |
The CA is typically film-era bad. The focus creep makes it difficult to handle, and if it's stopped too far my K-1 won't recognize it and I'll get the dreaded "F--" message. The definition is usually poor and pics tend to lack contrast. Be all this as it may, I've still occasionally gotten a very nice shot out of it. I think it's a fairly solid build. Mine is probably more than a quarter century old and still working smoothly.
 | | | | | | | Pentaxian Registered: April, 2011 Location: Lost in translation ... Posts: 18,076
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 5, 2012 | Recommended
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | A lens + Ap ring, constant f4, "macro" applications (1:2) | | Cons: | Non SMC, zoom creep galore, soft until really stopped down | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 6
Value: 8
Camera Used: K-5, K-r
| |
Bonjour,
I bought a copy of this lens last weekend at a camera expo/swap meet. Overall in decent shape, especially for the price paid ( 7.50 € or about $10 ), but there some quirks with particular lens ... getting some mixed results on focus between consecutive shots upon the same subject ... maybe its just me or my need to learn better this lens.
Can be sharp once stopped down to f8 or f11 ... my copy has a very loose barrel slide, thus severe creep is unavoidable. The best application for this lens may be a big rubber-band ... why? To block the lens in its greatest macro magnification position and shoot it with CIF (catch in focus) ... very respectable results seen here, but my sampling has been limited ... A few shots are attached.
Thus, if you can get a good copy inexpensively, then it might be worthwhile ... block it as a fixed focal length 200mm "1:2" macro and shoot away.
Allez et bonne journée, John le Frog
 | | | | | New Member Registered: July, 2009 Location: Vancouver Posts: 1 | | Review Date: July 13, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Ergonomics, good photos | | Cons: | Not SMC, Focus a bit loose | |
These are great zoom lens for a beginner, I took several photos with it and it never gave me any disappointment. Good photos for a cheap price.
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: January, 2010 Location: Pune Posts: 80 | | Review Date: March 1, 2010 | Recommended
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Build quality, | | Cons: | Lens Creep | |
Again like the 50mm f/1.4 lens I got this lens from my father. The only negative point for this lens is that it has a bad creep you have to hold it by hand(selected focal length) in case it is positioned at an angle else it will go to extremes.
| | | | | | | Senior Member Registered: October, 2008 Location: Sydney Posts: 147 | | Review Date: February 15, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Build-solid, Contant F4, Design,Could use it to hammer in nails verry solid | | Cons: | No Hood, Picture are milky(lack of contrast in some situations),Push Pull(creep),Lettering and numbers will scratch/flake off | |
I give this a 7 on account of the feww issues you get with it like some server Zoom creep something that happens to most Push pulls.
Hood, now not an esiential, and albeit this is a old lense, i still would like to have hoods, reguardless of manufacture date.
The Numbers have on mine started to flake off but it's not all that much of a consern to me. possibly to others.
Now this was my first Tele-range lense and i would of not had it any other way, It really was and still is a fantastic lense to start off with, Yes it is a MF lense but that just means you have to spend more time on comp. I did notice that this is not as contrasty (is that a word) as i expected, but this can be fixed by just bumping up contrast in post processing, or if you are in my case and intend to shoot almso in B/W this issues is not a problem as much.
it not as sharp at 200/f4 as i would like but bring it down to F6-8 and it really does shine. It's MFD is about 90-100cm (i have yet to check for exacts) which will provide something along the lines of nearly 3:1, Although the Macro function is only aviliable at the 200mm range only. otherwisae it's MFD between 70-190 is 1.2m. While not in Macro mode (200mm) the focus ring moves a bit over 9, possibly 95 degrees, while in Macro nearly 120 degrees. This chappie supports 58mm screw in filters. Cleaning the rear element (closest to film/sensor) can be a bit of a pain, being recessed in some 3cm it make fine cleaning a bit of an isssue. It does have an A mode (auto apeture).
Did i menting how solid this puppy is? verry solid, everything is metal except for the Apeture ring.
Image Quality is very good, and what you're getting a 70-200 F4 it's a great range and a lot lighter than a 2.8 counterpart, smaller too.
I recomend this lense to anyone how is just starting out in photography as it make you more aware of your photos because you have to manualy focus it, but as soon as you can get a 2.8
have a good one!
| | | | | Forum Member Registered: March, 2008 Location: College Park, MD Posts: 86 | | Review Date: March 28, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $5.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | good ergonomics, constant aperture | | Cons: | soft wide open, manual focus, heavy | |
NOTE: my review is actually of the Cosmicar A 70-200 f/4, which is the exact same lens with a different name on it, see here for info.
For $50 on Craigslist, I got this lens, an SMC-A 50 f/1.7, a Program Plus body, and a random Olympus lens (eBayed for $90). So basically I paid nothing for this =)
This was my first telephoto lens, and I had a lot of fun with it. It's easy to zoom and focus quickly with a combined zoom/focus ring: twist to focus, slide to zoom. The zoom creeps if you tilt it too much, so watch out for that. With a constant f/4 aperture, it's actually a bit faster than today's consumer zooms which max out at f/4.5 or f/5.6 at 200mm. Works great with in-body image stabilization and automatic metering on a Pentax DSLR.
The downsides? No autofocus. And it's heavier than my Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD (a cheap modern telephoto), though it's all-metal and solidly built.
This lens is far from sharp at the long end, especially wide open: my cheap Tamron at 200mm f/4.5 is far sharper than this at f/4. At f/5.6 it's better, and at f/8 it's pretty darn good. This lack of sharpness is irrelevant unless you're going to be printing larger than 5x7, I would say.
Overall, it's a fun telephoto zoom lens. I recommend it if you're starting out and want a cheap telephoto zoom :-)
| | |
