New Member Registered: November, 2013 Posts: 14 | Review Date: June 3, 2020 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | very sharp lens, nice colors, good small lens | Cons: | some few visble CA's wide open, especially in the corners | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 10
Camera Used: pentax k-5 Fuji x-t100 x-e1
| | ++ stopped down to f 8-11 a very good performer
o/+ wide opened aperture some visible few CA's
+/++ contrast is high
+/++ colors are fine
+/++ nice bokeh
8.5 points totally
(changed review)
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IMPORTANT TIP:
PS: The smaller and cheaper 4.5-5.6/70-210 in plastic housing is still a few better in sharpness (extremely shap at f 8-11, even in the corners) and CAs correction - but very rare to find (9.5 points) | |
Senior Member Registered: January, 2014 Posts: 152 2 users found this helpful | Review Date: January 29, 2014 | Recommended | Price: $15.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Sharp, cheap, macro | Cons: | Large and heavy, hard to achieve a perfect focus | Bokeh: 8
Handling: 8
Value: 9
| | I want to preface by mentioning that I am not an expert by any means. I got this lens in a set with a few other old manual film lenses and a Pentax SLR camera. I recently tested this one out on my K-01; I had a hard time getting a perfectly focused shot (wasn't using a tripod) but I am overall pretty pleased with the results.
A pretty flower I sharpened the original RAW a bit in Photoshop, and added the vignetting effect. | |
Veteran Member Registered: January, 2010 Location: Cape Town, South Africa Posts: 653 | Review Date: March 29, 2013 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 7 |
Pros: | Well built; Cheap old lens; Fairly sharp; Nice OoF rendering | Cons: | Manual focus and aperture - not idea for zoom; switch off SR when using | Sharpness: 7
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 5
Value: 8
| | This is an old hanger-on from my film days in '80s that I have not really used since dslr transition. But decided to test it before selling on, as I already have way too many AF zooms in the 70/80-200/300mm range. And after picking up a FA*80-200 f/2.8, this just has to go.
I was surprised by the OoF rendering and general IQ of the lens. Fairly sharp at f/8 almost on par with 55-300, and imho the OoF rendering is better.
The zoom is push-pull, but mine has no creep, and overall build quality is good. Some test samples below | |
Junior Member Registered: August, 2009 Location: Lexington, KY Posts: 30 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: October 4, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Smallish, well made, good IQ | Cons: | f/4.5, problems with veiling flare, bad zoom creep | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 8
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 9
Value: 10
| | This was along for the ride in a large lot of lenses, but we'll say I paid $10 for it....
The lettering on this lens has partially rubbed off and the grip was somewhat dirty, but the glass was clean and everything works smoothly. In the case of the zoom, it works a little too smoothly -- the worst zoom creep I have ever seen. Anyway, how's the IQ? Here it is as a macro:
Here it is as a normal shot:
Not bad at all. Actually, better than my Vivitar Series 1 (version 1, f/3.5) except for a propensity toward veiling flare. Both those shots were wide open and were not postprocessed other than to scale the images.
Overall, it's an 8 -- or a 9 relative to similar old zooms. Who knew?
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