Playing With Lenses

Monday, 17 May 2021

Long history but not convincing: Vivitar 85-205mm 1:3.8 Auto Zoom

Cost: $19.99 (market price around $18.75)

The Vivitar 85-205 f:3.8 is an early 2 touch zoom design, the very first zoom lens sold under the Vivitar badge, made in 6 different versions for more than 10 years and with that one of the longest running zoom lenses made by Vivitar. Early versions were swappable t-mount but most version are older with a fixed mount. Later versions also had a macro mode ring.

Version 1

The exterior of the lens was modified multiple times to match the appearance with other lenses of the then Vivitar family, starting with the chrome nose type and later all black versions with metal or rubber focus rings. Most of the variations of the 85-205mm zoom were simply cosmetic changes to the exterior hardware but one of the last versions of the lens included internal changes to allow closer focusing.

All versions of the lens are believed to have been manufactured by Kino Precision and were also sold to many other distributors such as Soligor, Hanimex, Panagor, Albinar, Montgomery Ward, and others.

Due to the high sales, especially the later version, these are very common, therefore this is one of the most available Vivitar lenses on the used market.

This version looks nice and slim and a 2 touch lens is always easy to use, and avoids the lens to sag when pointing down. It's fairly heavy, but with a solid build. So a pleasure to go out with and take pictures. However, I think the actual zoom range is very limiting. Not wide enough for street photography, and not long enough for birding.

Picture quality is not horrible for a zoom lens of that era, but it's also not great. Not laser sharp, but good enough to capture details, with some color aberration on some pictures.

Probably a keeper because of the historic value, but no actual value or image quality that makes it stand out.

More examples on Flikr.

Lens Specification:
Focal Length: 85-205mm
Maximum Aperture: F3.8
Minimum Aperture: F22
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: Nikon FD
Optics: 13 elements, 9 groups
Blades: 6
Focusing: Manual
Minimum Focus: 1.9mm
Filter Size: 58mm
Weight: 843g
Length: 186-208mm
Production: 1966 to late 1970's - 1973 to 1974 for this version
Serial Number: 22408800
Made in: Japan

More information on Vivitar

Samples:

1/500 sec. ISO100 - Handheld

1/160 sec. ISO320 - Handheld

1/500 sec. ISO100 - Handheld

1/160 sec. ISO800 - Handheld

1/160 sec. ISO400 - Handheld

1/160 sec. ISO100 - Handheld

1/1250 sec. ISO100 - Handheld

1/200 sec. ISO100 - Handheld

1/160 sec. ISO100 - Handheld

Sources:

https://www.pentaxforums.com

http://camera-wiki.org

Monday, 10 May 2021

May the fungus be with you: Asanuma Auto-Zoom 1:4.5 80mm-250mm

Cost: $24.99 (market price unknown)

I was so looking forward to this lens, an early type of a 2-ring zoom lens. Nice heavy-duty metal design with a build-in metal hood and tripod mounting ring. And although not really a brand lens, it was sold by a company that use to make it's own camera's, so the lens might actually be good.

Sadly enough, I fond some fungus on the front element, on the inside. And it did impact the image quality, making some rather dull pictures. But there were indeed some pictures that showed the potential quality of this lens with nice colors, nice soft background bokeh, and not to much color aberration for a lens this age.

Operation is smooth, with a soft damp feeling on the zoom and focus rings. The aperture ring sounds and feels a little flimsy, but overall a good looking lens,

But it's very heavy for a lens of this range. Nice for a short try-out, but I would not be walking with it for hours. In fact, I don't think this one is a real keeper for me.

Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 80-250mm
Maximum Aperture: 4.5
Minimum Aperture: 22
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: OM
Focusing: Manual
Minimum Focus: 2m
Filter Size: 67mm
Weight: 1204g
Length: 200-210mm
Serial Number: 111592
Made in: Japan

More information on Asanuma

Samples:

1/250 sec - ISO100 - Handheld

1/250 sec - ISO3200 - Handheld

1/250 sec - ISO1000 - Handheld

1/250 sec - ISO100 - Handheld

1/250 sec - ISO400 - Handheld

Thursday, 29 April 2021

Flowerpower: Hanimex Automatic Zoom MC 1:3.5 35-105mm

Cost: $14.99 (market price unknown)

At first, I was not sure what to use this lens for. As a regular zoom lens, it was abnormally heavy for this zoom range, picture quality was mediocre at best. Very soft, all the way up to pictures being unusable.

But, as it had some clear Macro markings on the lens, I thought it might be useful to take my little flash and diffuser and trey to take some macro pictures. And suddenly I understood what this lens was all about.

Amazing sharpness, rich colors... this lens really delivered when being used for Macro. That being said, do not expect extreme Macro as there is nothing to boast about. For sure not good enough for insect photography. But it does really shine for flowers, or product photography.

It's a very heavy lens, with a huge 72mm front lens. The working is interesting as you use the zoom ring to put it in Macro setting, and then use a separate Macro ring to set the enlargement (from a maximum enlargement is 1:5 and minimum macro is 1:10). The glass does not hold any coating, possible explaining the poor performance when not being used for Macro.

I'm tempted to take out the front element, and see if could be mod-ded to become a Macro lens with stronger magnification, but it would be a waste of an almost perfect lens to shoot flowers. I might just keep this one.

Note: I think this lens configuration was also used by Vivitar at a later time, but with some slight modifications. No surprise as Vivitar was bought by Hanimex at some point.

Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 35-105mm
Maximum Aperture: 3.5
Minimum Aperture: 16
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: OM
Focusing: Manual
Minimum Focus: ?m
Filter Size: 72mm
Weight: 791g
Length: 116-126mm
Serial Number: 761384
Made in: Japan

More information on Hanimex

Samples:

1/250 sec. f/8 ISO00 Handheld with Flash

Friday, 16 April 2021

Cheap birding with a long reach: Soligor 450mm f8

Cost: $24 (market price around $50)

When I found this lens in a thrift store, I was convinced it would be very low quality, made by a cheap Chinese company, but would make for an interesting test for almost no money. But after I came home, I actually found that this was a re-badged Tamron lens.

So we did some testing with now slightly higher expectations, and we were not disappointed. If you dial back a stop or 2, let's say to 11, you find a pretty sharp tele lens. And with todays technology, like the in camera body stabilization, and good software from TOPAZ to remove ISO noise, you can get some really good results. And all this while shooting handheld. Repeat that, handheld for a 450 mm lens. that's because it's a very light lens. I did not mind carrying it on a walk, and with the light weight, it was actually comfortable and stable to shoot with.

But there are also downsides... the minimum focus distance of 7 meters is very limiting. When taking pictures of small birds, you are either to close to focus, or it only fills part of the frame. This is likely better on an APSC camera then on a full frame. But rest assure, you will do some cropping.

Operation was very smooth, with accurate and precise focus, and the preset was easy to get used to. A real pleasure to take with you and take pictures you would otherwise not be able to take, unless you have a few spare thousand dollar. A keeper for sure. Not bad for $24!

Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 450mm
Maximum Aperture: F8
Minimum Aperture: 45
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: FD
Optics: 4 elements, 2 groups
Blades: 12
Focusing: Manual
Minimum Focus: <7m
Filter Size: 67mm
Weight: 613g
Length: 341-364mm
Production: 1963
Serial Number: T401724
Made in: Japan

More information on Soligor

Samples: