New Member Registered: February, 2012 Posts: 17 | | Review Date: February 24, 2013 | Recommended | Price: $10.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Very good close up. Sharp wide open, nice bokeh, good for flowers | | Cons: | Landscapes look a bit life-less. Not quite as wide or as fast as the specs would have you believe | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 7
Value: 10
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I bought this during my quest to equip myself with faster glass than the 18-55 mm kit lens on my Samsung GX-20 without shelling out $375 on the Tamron 17-50mm SP AF 2.8 XR DI II LD AF, and this is undoubtedly one of my successes. It is truly outstanding wide open close up, and although I eventually succumbed and bought the Tamron, I still use this for taking pictures of flowers close up. It focuses to less than 8 inches from the film plane, and the background gets wiped. The background with the Tamron just looks out of focus; this whips it to cream.
I've never noticed any chromatic aberration.
However, I make more use of the Vivitar TX 24mm f2.8 mark 2. Although the lenses are nominally the same focal length and maximum aperture, the Vivitar is wider and brighter. Wide open, and focused to infinity, the Vivitar is sharper, but close up this is as good, and it focuses closer.
Using it to take available light pictures of a jazz band in a cellar, I found another problem. It is easy enough to distinguish the M-A ring, the aperture ring and the knurling on the body when you can see them, but in the gloom of the cellar bar I found it difficult to distinguish them by touch.
I wonder if this lens is in essence the same as the Spiratone 24 mm f2.8 YS mount also reviewed in this category. The minimum focus is similar, the filter is the same, they both take the YS mount and the close behaviour of the Spiratone is remarked in the review.
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