New Member Registered: January, 2019 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: March 31, 2019 | Not Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Fairly light and compact for the range, constant aperture | | Cons: | Poor IQ at the 300mm end | | Sharpness: 6
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 8
Value: 9
Camera Used: Pentax Ks-1
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As I got this for the equivalent of about £10 in a job lot I cannot really complain about the quality, but I'm posting this so that someone doesn't spend too much money buying a similar lens. Mine is branded as Sunagor and may not be identical to the Albinar, but it looks the same, zooms in the same direction, stops down to f32 and has the constant f5.6 aperture.
The constant aperture and relatively good handling are the best things about this lens. Mine came as a K mount, not KA, so the constant aperture makes manual exposure easier when zooming in or out. I have tested this lens to compare its quality at 75mm, 135mm and 300mm, and I noticed that the image quality was pretty good at 75 and reasonable at 135, but poor at 300mm. Set to f11, the edge sharpness at 300mm was so poor that a shot at 135mm, cropped and enlarged, was actually noticeably sharper. The centre was just about okay at 300mm, so if the point of interest in your photo is fairly central, rather than a landscape where you want the whole frame sharp, I guess you could use it. However, if you are just looking for a cheap lens you might be better off getting a lighter and more compact 80-200 or 70-210 and cropping when you need a closer view.
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Senior Member Registered: May, 2009 Location: Newbury, Ontario Posts: 268 | | Review Date: April 28, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $79.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Fixed aperture over the entire zoom range. | | Cons: | Slight cloudy, lowered contrast images. | |
I picked up this used lens to see what it would work like. I was looking a getting a DAL series 55 to 300mm zoom to matck my K-m's kit lens but the cost was too much. Money is tight these days. This lens came with a Pentax ME-Super film camera body and a Albinar 28mm lens. Overall this is an ok lens but it is not great. Depending on light conditions, the overall contrast on the final image is lower then with my SMC pentax lenses. Thee also is a slight colour cast towards blue at times. I do like it for its zoom range and it makes for a far better geneal use lens when longer focal lengths are needed.
As far as the low contrast problem, I just use some of my computer software to help fix the image into a nicer looking image that presents better. If you are looking for a budget lens and can work around the contrast problem, this works ok. Otherwise, look at some other brands that have better quality glass in it.
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