Pentaxian Registered: December, 2016 Location: London Posts: 1,079 | | Review Date: January 23, 2021 | Recommended | Price: $9.61
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very sharp, surprisingly steady (inertia?) | | Cons: | Bulky and heavy, focus changes with focal length | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: Panasonic Lumix G1
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Got this (badged as Mitsuki) in a job lot of lenses so I can't price it individually - very cheap anyway. This one had a Minolta MD mount which isn't easily adapted to my "real" SLRs so I took a few pictures with a Panasonic Lumix G1 (Micro 4/3) camera before listing it on eBay. Although the weather was really poor the results were surprisingly good. I particularly noticed that it showed remarkably little camera shake at relatively low speeds - I think because the lens is so heavy that there's a lot of inertia. One thing to watch out for is that it isn't parfocal, and doesn't stay in focus when you change the zoom; this is very noticable around infinity when changing between 75mm and 260mm.
Later - I ended up selling this for £7, $9.61, plus postage, so I've put that in as the price.
All pictures were taken at F8 without a tripod:
Church about 230 yards away, at 75mm then 260mm
Tree about 30 yards away
Coin and bits of brick, about 7ft (coin is almost smooth due to rain and wear)
Leaves at about 12ft, 260mm
Coin at about 18", close focus
Full-sized pictures are here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/150868539@N02/albums/72157717997555441 | |
Veteran Member Registered: February, 2011 Location: Maine Posts: 3,081
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 22, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $8.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Cheap, Sharp, Dream to focus for a manual | | Cons: | No tripod collar, my copy has a loose grip | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 10
Value: 10
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* - EDIT 2/3/2013 - I believe this same lens is posted elsewhere as an RMC Tokina. The lens looks identical save for the mount. - *
Only reason I'm not giving this a 10 is the fact that it doesn't have a tripod collar. This lens is heavy enough and is directed so much towards close up photography that it really should have come with one. It also tends to flare despite the built in metal hood that the lens has. Otherwise for the price and the results its giving me, rating it anything less would be a sin.
That said, where to start? I grabbed this lens because it was cheap and I wanted something towards the 300mm range to play around with. The zoom range of 75-260 seemed to fit the bill nicely, so I made a small bid and actually won the thing.
When it came in, I noticed it had a 'close focus' feature that you enable by moving the zoom past the 75mm point (where it 'clicks' into place). The minimum focus distance at this point drops to about 8 inches from just under the 2 meters (as marked on the lens) that it otherwise has. It should be noted that you can focus on anything in between by not clicking the close focus all the way over (which is where catch focus becomes very handy).
The lens tends to be a touch soft wide open or zoomed all the way out (which should be expected) but otherwise is incredibly sharp - especially in my experience for a zoom.
The lens will also render a glowy 'soft' effect if you set the aperture wide open and shoot something close up with the lens at 260mm. This is actually quite nice (and easily avoidable since you are essentially within range of the close focus at this point), so it lens another plus towards the lens for creativity.
Since its all internal, the lens also doesn't move when you zoom - a good trait for if you wanted to really play with macros as I want to some day. That said, the front of the lens DOES turn as you focus as a result, so some filters could have issues as a result.
I've found this lens to be by FAR the easiest to manually focus with from my limited experience as well. I have a 'keeper' rate of about triple anything I can do with my other manual lenses.
I really can't see any negatives to the lens other than the fact that it doesn't have a tripod collar (it really should, its just heavy enough to be obnoxious if you're lugging it around for a while), and the fact that my copy has a loose focus grip. I can probably fix the latter by going in some day and adding some glue, but for now its not nearly bad enough to warrant the effort that would require.
Here are some shots I've taken over the past couple days since acquiring this lens. It should also probably be noted that my copy looks to be new or very close to new - the gold "PASSED" sticker shows no sign of wear and the lens itself is blemish free other than the loose grip (heck, for all I know it was intended to be loose like that - it actually prevents me accidentally going out of close focus by sliding about as it does).
Here are some sample images I've taken over the past few days as I've tried to learn the quirks of this lens. All shots were only post processed as far as curves and levels and otherwise untouched.
Here are some samples of that 'glow'.
Glow by Jody Roberts, on Flickr
Petunia Glow by Jody Roberts, on Flickr
Some shots of the close focus results.
Grass Seed by Jody Roberts, on Flickr
Nightshade by Jody Roberts, on Flickr (notice the sensor dust on this shot - it was probably taken at f22 or f16, but was still giving fairly smooth bokeh.)
Daisy by Jody Roberts, on Flickr
Flower by Jody Roberts, on Flickr
And the sole 'long' shot I have at the moment. I was so distracted with the close work I completely forgot my whole reason for buying a 260mm lens in the first place!
Freedom Congregational; Freedom, Maine by Jody Roberts, on Flickr
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