New Member Registered: November, 2013 Posts: 14 | Review Date: February 25, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | very sharp lens well corrected | Cons: | very few CA's | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 9
Value: 9
Camera Used: k-x k-200d k-5 k-s1
| | What a nice and sharp lens !
++ very sharp stopped down a few
+/++ very few CA's
++ for macro shootings suitable with macro tube
++ high contrast and very good color rendition
one of my favorites - highly recommended | |
Veteran Member Registered: August, 2015 Location: Toulon, South of France Posts: 357 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: April 11, 2016 | Recommended | Price: $31.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | very good PMC, not too heavy, almost no flare | Cons: | blue CA, soft wide open, hard to very accurate focus | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 9
Camera Used: K5-II
| | The main strength of this lens is how it supports direct sunlight, almost no flare, no haze, very good coating.
The one-touch mechanism is very smooth, not too loose, not too hard, and it's a strong build K zoom
The weakness are its softness wide open, ok if you want soft effect, but otherwise you need to close at 5.6 to get decent sharpness, and blue CA at 200mm (which can be easily corrected under LR)
I tested it in sunlight stressing conditions with no filter at all and it renders good colors but sharpness is decent but not more.
You perhaps het better IQ and less CA with a good UV filter, I will test that.
It is a good build quality, looks & feel as high-end lenses (as vivitar serie 1) with a very nice K mount design
It has a good integrated hood and an easy to place & remove front cap.
EDIT : Once infinity calibrated, infinity focusing sharpness is impressive for such a low priced zoom, almost as good as the Vivitar serie 1 70-210 (Kiron) zoom. See last photo.
Here are some test photos taken at 200 with no filter at all but with some corrections under LR : Panagor 80-200 f3.5 haze & flare stress test, very good PMC by Bruno Polleri, sur Flickr Faithfull fisher :) by Bruno Polleri, sur Flickr Panagor 80-200 f3.5 @ 200 test shot by Bruno Polleri, sur Flickr
and this one wide opened : Panagor 80-200 f3.5 @ 200 test shot WIDE OPENED by Bruno Polleri, sur Flickr
I'll receive a 58mm UV filter and add some test shots here taken in high sunlight conditions with it.
It's overall a good quality zoom but definitely not as sharp as a prime 135mm as my SMC and far focusing is quite hard although maybe this is due to the fact that my model needs a focus calibration ATM.
Focus calibrated, infinity sharpness is very good in the range f5.6-f8, here at f5.6 : Panagor 80-200mm f3.8 infinity sharpness test by Bruno Polleri, sur Flickr
(still wo any filter) Definitely a good value lens if you can get a mint one as is mine | |
Senior Member Registered: September, 2010 Location: Mainz Posts: 253 | Review Date: September 1, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | smooth zoom & focus | Cons: | softish wide open (could be one of the pros) | | About 35 euro on ebay. Not really sure what the 'Auto' stands for, as both aperture and focus are manual only.
Has a softness to it at 3.8 that I kinda like. It seems to get sharp enough when you go to higher apertures. Seems a pretty good deal for a manual 80-200mm lens that's more open than f/4.0. | |