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KP16 50mm F1.2 Review RSS Feed

KP16 50mm F1.2

Sharpness 
 10.0
Aberrations 
 4.0
Bokeh 
 10.0
Handling 
 1.0
Value 
 10.0
Reviews Views Date of last review
1 8,243 Sat April 13, 2019
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Recommended By Average Price Average User Rating
100% of reviewers None indicated 10.00



Description:
A Russian made curved field projector lens also known as the PO-109-1A 1.2/50.
This lens is designed for 16 mm film projection, hence it will not cover a full frame sensor. It best fits MFT but fully covers APS-C.
Since this is a projector lens, it does not have a focusing helicoid, an aperture diaphragm, or even a mount for filters. Adapting this lens is quite a challenge.

Focal length: 50mm
Aperture range: f1.2
Filter thread: N/A
Mount: N/A
Minimal focusing distance: N/A (depends on your helicoid and what you consider acceptable image quality)
Back focal distance: 26.11 mm
Optical design: 6 elements in 5 groups, anastigmat
Features coated optics.
Mount Type: Non-Pentax Mount



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New Member

Registered: March, 2019
Location: Ontario
Posts: 15

1 user found this helpful
Review Date: April 13, 2019 Recommended | Price: None indicated | Rating: 10 

 
Pros: very sharp in the centre, artistic bokeh, little axial CA, extremely bright, extreme subject separation, vintage rendering, good value
Cons: high barrel distortion, extreme field curvature, lateral CA, purple fringing, low contrast, doesn't cover full frame, very soft corners on APS-C, hard to adapt, doesn't come with filter thread
Sharpness: 10    Aberrations: 4    Bokeh: 10    Handling: 1    Value: 10    Camera Used: Sony a6300   

This lens can typically found for dirt cheap on eBay.
Pre-adapted ones can be had for quite a premium over the base price, but are still very cheap considering this lens' extremely bright aperture. I'd say that a preadapted one is worth the extra price.
The lens itself is just an optical block, no aperture, no helicoid, nothing. This lens doesn't even have a filter thread, which is annoying due to its bright aperture.
Once you DO get this lens working on your camera, you'll be met with a surprise.
This lens was designed as a curved field projector lens for 16mm film, however, it covers APS-C with some vignetting, and should fit perfectly on MFT.
The lens is VERY sharp in the centre. On my Sony a6300, it easily maxes out the resolution of my camera sensor. It has to be noted that this lens is a curved field projector lens, and was not designed for a flat image sensor. Unsurprisingly, midframe performance on APS-C is not as good, but still acceptable, with a slew of chromatic aberrations. That's disregarding the extreme field curvature of this lens. For MTF shooter, edge performance is not likely to be a huge issue. On APS-C however, this lens diabolically soft in the corners, with a devel's brew of CAs. Oh, and did I mention the barrel distortion? Thanks partially to the distortion, this lens actually has a slightly wider angle of view than a typical 50mm lens. For a lens designed for 16mm film, this is really impressive.
[IMGhttps://live.staticflickr.com/7889/47544553822_68ede14b1d_o.jpg/IMG]
Extreme centre sharpness, and some PF...

Personally, I'd shoot this lens with APS-C any day. It is bitingly sharp in the centre, and all the faults it has give it a really nice rendering. The CAs are not intrusive, they are abundant but mildly present, the barrel distortion, vignetting, field curvature, and really fast aperture give this lens a lot of soft, creamy, yet swirly bokeh. This is a lens that will make whatever in the centre of the frame pop out, whilst giving the whole image a dreamy vintage look. The excellent centre sharpness combined with the weakness in the corners give this lens phenomenal subject separation. With its really strong field curvature, you could create some really good swirly bokeh even against a flat brick wall!
This is not an everyday lens, but this sure makes a good artistic vintage lens for subject photography. At the price these go for, I'd say buy it if you can adapt it. And shoot it on APS-C, or even full frame if you can.
Here are some JPEGs straight from the camera. Shot in AbobeRGB, so please view them in a properly colour-managed browser. Chrome does not count, unfortunately.

Swirly bokeh, on a flat plane!

The world squirrels around swirls... er.. sqirls around swuirre... actually, never mind. Excellent 3d rendering.

A dart so fast, it's warping spacetime!

This lens is soft at close distances, but watch the background just melt away




[IMGhttps://live.staticflickr.com/7915/40631433043_4854f93263_o.jpg[/IMG]
Oh look, a cute LOMO T43!

There are so many colours in this one, thanks to the low contrast, they don't look messy at all!


All the faults combine to give it a nice, vintage rendering. Well, with lots of sharpness in the middle of the frame.








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