Author: | | | Review Date: July 20, 2010 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 7 |
Pros: | Cheap, sharp, good optics | Cons: | a bit too prone to flare | | I have its clone the Cosina Cosinon 28 f2.8 , so far i am happy with this lens. It is an honnest wide angle that does the job and there is no remorse to knock it around due to the very little price. I was travelling down the south of france i took 3 lenses the cosina 28 f2.8 , pentax-A 50 f2 and the Makinon 80-200. This was enough to cover macro and landscape shooting as well as portrait.
In my opinion the Tokina RMS 28 f2.8 is far better, as i could understand the prices are very similar. I own it on M42 for convenience and long trip i decided to restrict myself to PK mount.
The lense hood has to be the one designed for wideangle as it could cause some vignetting on the sides.
Judge by yourself here are some shots with the Cosina Cosinon 28 f2.8 http://www.flickr.com/photos/46315660@N06/4758096794/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/46315660@N06/4802553789/ | | | | | Junior Member Registered: November, 2011 Location: SG Posts: 29 | Review Date: June 25, 2012 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | cheap and good, I use with extension tube set to use for great 1cm macro | Cons: | for that cheap price, no | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 9
| | cheap and good, I got a like new condition one, 49mm filter thread, 0.3m min focus distance.
on APS-C sensor, give a view of 42mm, good like 50mm on film but wider.
with split screen, easy to focus, without focus screen, it is hard to focus.
28mm is a common focal length produced cheap and good by a lot of manufactures, like 50mm f1.7.
it is cheaper than 24mm and 35mm in general. and good with 50mm combo as travel light.
with 10mm extension tube, it produce 1:1 macro,
with 60mm extension tube, it fill a 1cm object in screen with the subject 5mm away from front glass,
some one has done with reverse mount the 28mm on extension tube to get better object distance. and search on youtube
| | | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2013 Posts: 306 | Review Date: September 22, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 6 |
Pros: | Size, ok sharp from f5.6 | Cons: | Flare, under f5.6 not sharp,distance scale not in place | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 8
Value: 7
| | No use for this, its not good enough for figed focal lens
| | | | New Member Registered: January, 2014 Location: Europe Posts: 4 | Review Date: May 13, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | Size,Sharp,f 2.8, close focusing | Cons: | none so far | Sharpness: 10
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
| | I am shooting 90 out of 100 shots with this one , really love it ! great as a walk around lens, light ,small , focuses really close to a subject .Very easy to focus,it felt natural from the first shots i've got with it , although it was my first manual focus lens ever...
Here are some photos taken with it https://www.flickr.com/photos/104706888@N06/13977875049/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/104706888@N06/13831360255/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/104706888@N06/14146654201/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/104706888@N06/11859908234/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/104706888@N06/11645232234/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/104706888@N06/10963989415/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/104706888@N06/10647218335/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/104706888@N06/10252950416/
and many more on my account in FLICKR.
| | | | | New Member Registered: June, 2017 Posts: 15 | Review Date: August 21, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $12.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | inexpensive generic fast 28mm lens | Cons: | limited repair capcity | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: P3 and M4/3 Lumix
| | Here in the UK Miranda lenses were rebadged Cosina lenses sold by the Dixons chain of stores at budget prices of about £40-50 GBP in the 1980s.
This lens is as typical of a generic Japanese 28mm as you can get - click-stop control over a 5-blade aperture. My version was dusty - and so scored poorly until I took it apart and cleaned the internal lens surfaces, then - as with almost all 1980s-90s wide-angles in my collection - the image quality took a huge jump up. This is my explanation as to why there is such a wide variety of reviews on this website
By design, these lenses have a large front element and a small rear one - dust, dirt and haze here magnifies its impact - not just be size, but because of the proximity to film or sensor.
This model Miranda / Cosina comes apart by extending focus to fully "out", gripping the front barrel, and turning it counter-clockwise. this removes the front to expose two holes to unscrew with a spanning wrench. This brings the whole front group of elements out and exposes the aperture blades. Of you have dust or haze between the cemented elements than there is no chance for repair as the entire lens is cemented into just 2 groups - before and after the aperture blades. In my lens, the ease had dried out so focussing was "jumpy" with variable friction as you turned the focus ring. A few tiny dabs of lithium grease on the helicoid has fixed that. Don't forget to check for "de-centering" before you finish your clean-up.
At F5.6 and above this is a great lens - sharp enough for landscapes with 100asa film. At F2.8 it is a good one - with the usual statement that the image corners are a little less sharp and on a monitor, there is a trace of barrel distortion and slight chromatic aberration in the corners that is too small to see at standard print sizes.
Used as intended, to take amateur images for 7x5 or 6x4 prints this lens is wonderful without any obvious colour cast. Pixel peeping, you can always find an issue with every lens. On my M4/3 cameras, it becomes a good "standard" manual focus lens with a 56mm equivalent perspective - great for video and 3/4 portraits. It focuses close, and as others have said, with about 10mm of extension ring becomes a cheap 1:1 macro. It is coated - so flare control is good - but not as good as the current Leica/Lumix lenses. Contrast at F2.8 is less than F5.6, but good photographic technique can overcome this.
My Vivitar/Tokina 28's are a fraction better - but not by much. They however have a higher capacity for cleaning/repair.
If you find one at a low price, and it is mechanically sound and clean optically, then I say BUY - but more importantly - use it!
| | | | New Member Registered: May, 2023 Posts: 2 | Review Date: January 21, 2024 | Recommended | Price: $9.00
| Rating: 10 |
Pros: | | Cons: | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 10
Camera Used: Canon 20D
| | Nice little lens, I use it on both a Chinon SLR and my Canon dslr and wide open it does have quite a vignette on full frame. being a 28mm f2.8 it won't produce much bokeh, this image was taken with a macro ring, at f/11 1/30s | | |