New Member Registered: March, 2021 Posts: 2 | | Review Date: April 11, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Very cheap, build quality, good IQ and pleasing bokeh | | Cons: | Soft wide open | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 8
| |
I have the Canon FD mount version of this lens and i've used it to shoot a few film rolls with my Canon AV-1. Only recently I bought some adapters to use my Canon FD mount lenses with other digital cameras.
This lens feels really good. All metal and glass construction. Super-smooth focus and very nice and positive aperture clicks. It has and automatic and manual mode switch, which is quite useful when shooting digital (with an adapter). In my copy the barrel is somewhat loose and it wobbles a little bit, but it's not a huge problem.
Overall the mechanical construction is very good.
IQ wise it's quite poor wide open, but it rapidly improves once stopped down. At f/2.8 it's usable only if you want a soft focus lens kind of effect, with a lot of softness on the edges and ghosting effect. Even at what is probably f/3.5 (the "click" between f/2.8 and f/4) it becomes very sharp and the "ghosting" effect is gone.
There's some spherical abberration in the corners, but is only noticeable if you shoot full frame.
I haven't noticed any! CA with my copy of this lens, which is quite surprising.
This lens definitely adds warmth to the final image, it's almost like it has a warming filter permanently screwed on the front 
Contrast is quite low. Bokeh is swirly on the edges and is really pleasing IMO.
Overall it's a nice lens, not stellar performance, but not too bad either. It's fun to use and well made. For the price I paid for this lens, I can't really fault it.
Example shot at around f/3.5
 | |
;)
;)
