Author: | | New Member Registered: November, 2016 Posts: 7 | Lens Review Date: October 3, 2020 | I can recommend this lens: Yes |
Price: $30.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Less purple fringing than SMC Takumar 200mm F4, price | Cons: | Build quality not as good as Takumar, MFD | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 6
Value: 7
| | This Cosina MC Cosinon-T 200mm F4 lens is a very good lens when considering it price compared to the now overly expensive Takumars and Pentax lenses. My copy is just as sharp (maybe sharper) than my SMC Takumar 200mm F4 lens and has less purple fringing wide open. The only downsides I see from this lens is that it isn't built as well as the Pentax lenses (Pentax really spoiled us) to the point where you can feel it when in use. It is considerably lighter in weight though, which is always a good thing. Minimum focus distance is not as good either with a minimum focus distance of 2.9 meters.
| | | | Pentaxian Registered: August, 2009 Location: North Carolina Posts: 2,208 | Lens Review Date: December 21, 2010 | I can recommend this lens: Yes |
Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Construction, built-in hood, price | Cons: | No "A" setting, "reverse" focus direction | | I'll preface this review with the fact that I haven't used this lens extensively due to the reason for the "free" price: a seller refund due to fungus that went un-reported in the auction description. I opened the lens up as much as I could to get to the elements and used cold cream and hydrogen peroxide to treat the fungus. So, my lens quality and images may be less-than-standard.
However, I thought I'd review this lens as I felt that the first review was overly harsh. The f/4 aperture isn't the fastest, but is fairly standard for this focal length. I'll agree that the contrast could be a little better, but I've found that the image quality can be quite good, especially given the circumstances concerning my particular copy of the lens. This may be more due to it being a prime lens versus a zoom, but I don't have any other 200mm primes to compare it with, and zooms tend to have some IQ issues at the ends of their focal lengths, so it may not be a fair comparison.
Focus throw from min to infinity is approximately 250 degrees and metering in Manual mode on my K20D using the green button for stop-down metering works well. I did have some mis-metered shots when using this lens in combination with extension tubes, but I think that's more an issue with the tubes, as other lenses seem to also have this problem, especially at smaller apertures. Though it's all-metal construction, this lens isn't overly heavy, so it doesn't get too fatiguing, and since it's effectively a 300mm f/4 lens on APS-C cameras, it's decent for wildlife shots where the target isn't too small.
Now for the "bad". I find the min focal length a little long at about 2.5m and the "reversed" focus direction of the lens can lead to missed shots if you're used to Pentax-branded lenses. But for the price (I originally got mine for $11 plus shipping before the refund), it's a decent lens. More like a 7.5 probably, but I gave it an 8 to balance out the other review a little.
Some shots with my copy: Cosinon-T 1:4 200mm with 65mm of tubes @ f/11, 8", ISO100
These sport shots were all wide open (f/4) and ISO 1250-1600 | | | | Inactive Account Registered: October, 2009 Posts: 2 | Lens Review Date: November 28, 2010 | I can recommend this lens: No |
Price: $1.00
| Rating: 6 |
Pros: | well built, cheap | Cons: | poor contrast, CA | | I'm afraid I don't have any other 200mm lenses to compare it to, but I get very few keepers using this lens. Whether I'm just poor at focusing at 200mm I don't know, but my results aren't usually sharp. Also suffers from poor contrast and CA.
On the other hand I have taken a few good sharp pictures with it, and the contrast and CA are trivial to fix in post processing. So it is *possible* to get good results and I wouldn't want to discourage you from trying it yourself if you find it at a good price. But if you want to be sure of good IQ I'd go for a better known brand.
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