| Author: | | New Member Registered: May, 2021 Posts: 15 | | Review Date: February 4, 2022 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Build quality, cheap | | Cons: | Sharpness, chromatic abberation | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 5
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 7
Camera Used: Sony A7III
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A fun lens to play with, but don't expect wonders. I was able to pick up this M42 lens for a cheap price, and since this was my first ever 400mm lens, I was surprised how far in the distance I could get with this lens.
For some sample footage of this lens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wpy4Mtxfqo | | | | | | | New Member Registered: April, 2015 Posts: 11 | | Review Date: August 28, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $60.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Light weight; Acceptable sharpness | | Cons: | Manual focus, Bit too long to carry in a bag (though, light weight) | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: K-30
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My copy is probably manufactured by Tokina. See here:
This lens is far better at 400mm than Sigma 50-500mm. See comparison here:
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63032412
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63035880 | | | | | New Member Registered: March, 2017 Posts: 1 | | Review Date: June 9, 2019 | Recommended | Price: $33.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Price and focal length | | Cons: | Limited sharpness | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: Canon 600D
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It is a good lens for the price. Usable between f 16, 22 and 32. Isos above 800 with good sun. It needs tripod and fixed scenes in general. To focus on infinity, remove the largest screw in the focus barrel. Kino version serial 9693272
Crop image without processing
| | | | | New Member Registered: August, 2014 Posts: 2 | | Review Date: February 3, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $30.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | sharp, build quality | | Cons: | slow, very long | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 7
Handling: 7
Value: 10
Camera Used: Sony NEX 5R
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Quite impressed with this for the price (£20) sharp enough, does suffer from aberrations in strong light and is very long but it is built solidly, very acceptable results even wide open. I think I have the kino version serial 9715031
A few shots
First one was taken hand held f11 1/160th iso 1600
 Kingfisher by Caledonia84, on Flickr
 Lunar 2 by Caledonia84, on Flickr
A few more I took today for comparison
 Heron by Caledonia84, on Flickr
 Cormorant by Caledonia84, on Flickr
 Cormorant by Caledonia84, on Flickr
| | | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: November, 2012 Location: North Wales Posts: 2,870 | | Review Date: May 1, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $40.00
| Rating: 7 |
| Pros: | Swappable t-mount. Good hood. These "chrome eared" Soligors one of the classier of the 400/6.3's. | | Cons: | subject to the same limitations of the design and optics, and tend to be bested by tokina made 400mm f6.3's and tamron 400mm f6.9's. | | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 7
Value: 9
Camera Used: K-r, Lumix G1
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Mine is the 9xx.. version pic above, reckoned to be of Kino Optical manufacture. Its a classier and weightier construction than the typical offbrand 400/6.3, and, IME on average, a bit better optically, specifically wide open. (update) However comparisons with both the tokina rmc 400mm and the earlier Tokyo Koki 400mm suggest that both of those models have superior resolution and are better for fringing too. Marked down a notch.
But apart from that I don't really have much more to say about this above what I have already said about 400/6.3's here.
And not as good as my Nestar so didn't keep it.
Sample pic of mansion from across the estuary (f11, buffed in Faststone, pentax K-r):
100% crop. Detail is good. PF was particularly evident on edges against sky, and is clear on the tree in this crop.
UPDATE: chapter 2
Identical looking chrome eared model but with KA.1xxxx serial. KA.zxxx serials have been attributed to KA. = Kyoei Acall. Distinctly softer, especially wide open.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: December, 2007 Location: Victoria BC Posts: 35 | | Review Date: July 31, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $5.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Cheap, light and simple | | Cons: | Lost ability to focus to infinity. | |
I am pleased to have picked this lens up for a bargain. But was disappointed to see that the lens wouldn't focus at infinity. Although this is minor to me, because if the subject is farther than 200 feet away then this lens isn't bringing the subject that much closer. I would love to know if anyone has details on how to adjust for this, I am willing to try as I have fixed this on other lenses.
| | | | | Loyal Site Supporter Registered: December, 2009 Location: Christchurch, New Zealand Posts: 2,437 | | Review Date: September 26, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Value for money, sharp enough, weight, cheap! | | Cons: | Slow, contrast not so great | |
I like this lense and have had (and still having) quite a bit of fun with it.
It does need a bit of attention to focus it , in order to get a fairly sharp image. So not so great for trying to capture moving wildlife! Not very sharp wide open (although not too bad either) but only needs to be stopped down a click (f8) to resolve this and f11 still pretty good. I find that I mostly use it on a tripod or at least on a monopod.
Apart from being slow, my only real complaint (for my copy anyway) is that contrast is not very high. I find the images definately benefit with a contrast boost during PP.
The following is basically a full crop shot (with only minor PP)...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwi_jono/4388966161/
Overall I rate the lense:
1. Image quality: 6.5
2. Mechanical: 7.5
3. Value for money: 9
So I would rate 7.5 overall - rounding up to 8.
| | | | | Junior Member Registered: August, 2009 Location: Lexington, KY Posts: 30
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 5, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Good IQ and bokeh, handles well | | Cons: | Huge, f/6.3, CA, not-so-close minimum focus | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
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I never wanted to buy one of the many 400mm f/6.3 lenses, but they are pretty common bits of people's 1970s kits, so I've gotten two as parts of lots that contained lenses I wanted. Thus, this lens didn't cost me anything per se, but I'll call it $15.
My Soligor is in excellent condition and the preset mechanism works very smoothly with a nice, circular, aperture. I don't know the optical formula, but it is probably very simple, because the weight is too modest for there to be a lot of glass inside. According to http://www.flickr.com/groups/soligor_mf/discuss/72157625238376083/, my lens was made by Tokina (H6 serial number). Image quality is quite good for a 400mm:
Frankly, I'm impressed. This lens is way better than I expected. It is easy to hand hold, doesn't weigh enough to rip the mount off your camera, and the preset aperture is a dream to use. In some ways, the images look better than from my 300mm f/4.0 SMC Takumar.
Looking more closely, I see more signs of a simple optical formula. One is a color shift upon stopping down -- a problem that seems particularly common among simple telephotos and Soligors in particular. More significantly, this lens has a CA problem.
CA isn't very obvious, but pixel-peeping reveals that it is there and quite severe wide open. It looks less bad than the 300mm Takumar, but CA is actually close to twice as large! Basically, the Tak's CA is sharp, obvious, and easily correctable by scaling color channels, whereas this Soligor's color fringes are somewhat blurry. It's a nice blur that on film would be less objectionable than what the 300mm Tak does, but I'm shooting digital....
Speaking of blur, this lens has pleasant bokeh at all aperture settings.
Close focus is lousy, but that's what tubes are for, and they work well with this lens.
In summary, extreme telephotos never produce flawless images. This lens does fine, arguably better than many more expensive lenses if you don't do post processing. The bokeh are particularly good, which draws a nice contrast between my f/6.3 500mm mirror lens and this. The mirror lens fits in a camera bag nicely and focus goes into the macro range, whereas this lens gives much better bokeh, can stop down to produce somewhat better images, and is actually easier to hand hold. Very different.
Overall, IQ is a solid 8 for such a telephoto, handling/construction are more like 8.5. Add an IQ point if you use film and never PP your photos.
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