New Member Registered: February, 2012 Posts: 17
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: January 29, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Lovely handling, tripod mount | | Cons: | Slow | |
Bagged this on eBay to add to my Adaptall collection.
The best thing about it is the handling. Focusing is beautifully smooth, and with 3/4 of a turn, it is easy to nail the focus. The tripod mount is useful, especially considering that at f5.6 maximum aperture this lens is quite slow. With the M/A switch, Aperture Priority is straightforward.
Image quality is pretty good. I have copies of the Adaptall CT-300 (the successor to this lens) and the Adaptall SP 54B, and this is certainly in the same ball-park image-wise. Pixel peeping, with my copies, I would say the CT-300 is the best, then this lens, then the SP 54B. The distinction may just be down to focus accuracy, of course. Where this lens distinguished itself was the consistency of the images I produced with it, a tribute perhaps to the long focus throw.
I like the bokeh, nice and smooth.
The built-in lens hood is very deep, a benefit of the large overall lens dimensions.
However, the image quality of my Pentax-F 100-300mm, Pentax FA 100-300mm and Sigma 70-300mm zooms can also be in the same ball park when they are zoomed out to 300 mm, if I take the trouble to fine tune the focus manually with an eye-piece magnifier. This lens weighs more than any of those zooms.
I'm not sure when I will use it, but it is a nice object, and it produces nice images, so I recommend it.
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Site Supporter Registered: October, 2017 Posts: 37 | | Review Date: August 22, 2023 | Recommended | Price: $20.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Fantastic handling | | Cons: | After all this time the rubber grips are failing !! | | Sharpness: 8
Aberrations: 7
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Pentax K1
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Either they didn't make many of these or people hang on to them. You don't find them for sale. I saw this odd looking thing going cheap and thought it worth a go. It has repaid the purchase price many times over.
I suppose most copies today will either have lost their focus grip rubber or, like mine, it is loose and slips - so what? Get a firm grip on it. The damping is exactly right and focus is so smooth. Best to use magnified live view on a DSLR as the tiniest increment can be just enough to spoil a shot. When you nail it the result will give a DA*300 or an F* or FA* a good run. Even wide open (F5 is a bit slow) it produces sharp, contrasty and well saturated images.
There is a useful auto/manual switch that is delightfully smooth to operate, unlike some that need heavy leverage. The built-in hood is long enough by itself to be quite effective. If only the tripod foot were just a little bigger. It has a perspex ring behind the focus ring with distances printed that can be seen to overlay the colourful DoF scale. It is intended to make it easy to see, whatever distance the focus ring has gone along the barrrel but the DoF marks are so closely spaced that they are almost meaningless (does it matter with a modern camera?)
I have found it useful to dial in a few negative EV points in bright sunshine to reduce the slight purple fringing but it isn't really very significant.
In short, if you see one at a reasonable price - grab it.
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