| Latest Review Posted | Sears Macro 80-200mm F4
Using this lens outdoors quickly told me the reason for others' claims of it not having the sharpness of a Pentax lens.
1. It needs lots of light at your back or within 45 degrees to the lens to reduce haze.
2. It renders at a lower contrast and produces slight but very thin color fringing (blue/orange, red/yellow) along the majority of edges regardless of high or low contrast.
3. Best sharpness is attained at f/8. If you judge IQ viewing at 100% forget shooting above f/8.
4. Another slight annoyance that can add to less sharpness is nailing focus relying on the camera's viewfinder due to this lens' low contrast and somewhat narrow DOF showing up in the viewfinder shooting at 200mm.
From shooting outdoors at my local park I had to take my time nailing focus and exposure shooting hand held. The samples below were shot just that way which is why they look acceptable.
But when I needed to take quick shots of skittish squirrels, birds or amusement park rides I ended up tossing half of what I shot because the angle of light on certain particular shots produced slight haze and/or the low contrast and narrow DOF characteristics of the lens prevented me from SEEING the focus plane (seeing the "crispy's") at 200mm. IOW this lens is capable of taking very sharp images even hand held, it just takes some work.
ADDED NOTE: I can not emphasis enough the importance of setting the viewfinder dioptor on this lens to establish correct focus plane. I can't be... |
