Not auto impressed: Auto Chinon 200mm 1:3.5

Cost: 24.99$ (average market price $45)

  

I had high expectations of this massive and nice looking lens. Full metal, high quality build, oozing a sense of craftiness and mastery. Down to the details with a slick sliding button for manual or auto use. And how hard is it to mess up a prime lens? There are various versions of this lens, multi-coated or not, slightly different layout, etc... you can recognize the different lenses by the coloring of the letters inside the barrel. Mine is colored orange, and I expect to be one of the older variations (due to the lack or lack of mentioning any coating). And truth to be told, I found some good reviews online.

So very disappointed and surprised that it did not meet expectations. Usage is nice and smooth, but focussing was hard and almost requires a tripod for all use (heavy lens). And image quality was lacking. Not to bad when doing close-up, or midrange... but when going to infinity, the lens lacks sharpness and had some serious chromatic aberration when not fully stepped down. Definitely not a lens for pixel peepers.

I might try this lens again some day on a tripod, or find a later variation, but for now, I would advice against looking for this lens. There are better and lighter manual 200mm lenses out there.

 

Lens Specification: 

Focal Length: 200mm
Maximum Aperture: F3.5
Minimum Aperture: F22
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: M42
Optics: ?
Blades: 6
Focussing: Manual
Minimum Focus: 270cm
Filter Size: 62mm
Weight: 540g
Length: 131mm - 151mm
Production: ?
Serial Number: 507709
Made in: Japan

Samples:

1/640s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/640s - ISO800 - Handheld

 

1/640s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/640s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/640s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/640s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/640s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/640s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/640s - ISO800 - Handheld



1/1000s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/1600s - ISO800 - Handheld

1/1000s - ISO1000 - Handheld

1/4000s - ISO200 - Handheld

Pentax Forums
All Photo Lenses

Camerapedia

Going Royal: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm 1:2.8 - Zebra

Cost: 26.20$, including Practica LTL Camera (average market price $35)

  

You can't truly state that you play around with legacy lenses without at least including one real Carl Zeiss Tessar lens. Carl Zeiss is royalty amongst lenses. In this case, with my budget, I selected the most affordable, and most available Carl Zeiss lens. It's not high royalty, but for sure a Duke in some well known but little country.

Several version exist of the 50mm F2.8. From an early silver metal lens to a later all black version. I got the “zebra” version as it looks nice and I was able to scoop one up at a good price. It's probably the most looked after version, so other versions can even be found cheaper.
It has a very simple optical construction, not to fast with F2.8 and a 5-bladed aperture that could be nicer. I did have some problems focussing on my specimen, as the focus ring was almost stuck going one direction. A little more work and something to fix one day...
It was also the first Carl Zeiss Tessar with “normal” aperture settings.

The lens does provide a nice smooth Bokeh when used in Macro (see the tulip picture below),
All in all a nice lens. Not as sharp as a latest brand-name lens, and not as premium as some of my other older lenses, but not to bad either. Nice retro looks and solid metal feel to it, a little big (wide) for a 50mm, and a tad to slow. But nice to have in your collection. Hope to try some other Carl Zeiss lenses soon.

Lens Specification: 

Focal Length: 50mm
Maximum Aperture: F2.8
Minimum Aperture: F22
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: M42
Optics: 4 elements, 3 groups
Blades: 5
Focussing: Manual
Minimum Focus: 35cm
Filter Size: 49mm
Weight: 170g
Length: 35mm - 47mm
Production: 1963 - 1967
Serial Number: 8831566
Made in: Germany

Tessar

The Tessar, a camera lens designed in 1902 by Paul Rudolph, is normally used as a standard lens. Versions of it have been fitted to many millions of cameras.
The basic design consists of four elements in three groups; the front element is positive, bi-convex (with the rear almost flat), the central a negative bi-concave and, following an aperture, at the rear is a cemented doublet of plano-concave and a bi-convex elements. The original design had a maximum aperture of f/6.3, but the developments in design allowed f/2.8 by 1930.
In addition to production by Carl Zeiss, the Tessar name and design (under license) was used in the production of numerous lenses by Bausch & Lomb, Ross and Krauss.
The Tessar design has been widely copied by nearly all major optics companies.

 

Samples:

1/1000s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/160s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/3200s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/160s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/50s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/250s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/50s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/80s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/60s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/60s - ISO400 - Handheld



1/250s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/250s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/250s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/100s - ISO400 - Handheld

1/60s - ISO400 - Handheld

 

1/80s - ISO400 - Handheld

 

MB Photography
Vintage Camera Lenses
CameraPedia

Five Star Review: Tau/Five Star 200mm 1:4.5 MC

Cost: 10.99$ (average market price unknown)

I honestly did not expect to much from this lens. I assumed this was a just another cheap re-brand lens (it possibly is), and the Tou/Five Star zoom lenses seem to be getting rather nasty reviews. But to much of my surprise, it was sublime!

Tau/Five Star 200mm 1:4.5 MC

The lens is well constructed, not to heavy, made from metal, with a build-in hood and has a good solid feel to it. Very smooth focus and aperture rings. The looks are nothing special, but the quality of the images makes up for that. The sharpness and color rendition is absolutely fabulous. I had to do very little after processing in Light Room. And easy to use... the focus peaking on the a6000 worked very well, bringing everything in focus very fast. Although only a maximum aperture of 4.5, it did allow to shoot in fast shutter speed, and handheld. True, it was a bright day for a change. But it handled like a faster lens.

Tau/Five Star 200mm 1:4.5 MC on Sony Alpha a6000

I don't easily recommend a lens, but if you encounter this one, get it!!! Still very cheap, and a quality matching top end expensive lenses. I will be looking out myself for other Tou/Five Star prime lenses. There seems to be a 28mm out there...

Tau/Five Star 200mm 1:4.5 MC on Sony Alpha a6000 with hood extended

Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 200mm
Maximum Aperture: F4.5
Minimum Aperture: F22
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: PK
Optics: unknown
Blades: 6
Focussing: Manual
Minimum Focus: 30cm
Maximum Magnification: unknown
Filter Size: 52mm
Weight: 390g
Length: 120mm
Production: 70's
Serial Number: 8214698


Company:               

Tou/Five Star is one of the market names for lenses made (or distributed - not clear) by Toyo Optics, a rather unknown Japanese manufacturer. They made SLR lenses in the 70's but somewhere in the 80's they switched to cine lenses only. I'm only aware of 6 difference lens types, with half of them being rather under-performing zoom lenses.   

MC
MC, or Multi Coated, stands for a multiple of chemical coatings for lens surfaces with minimum light loss. The result is a dramatic improvement in both color fidelity and brightness and the elimination of flare and ghost images.

Adapter:

Lens Turbo II PK - Nex

Cost: $75, used on B&H PhotoVideo, new for $149

The Pentax K Lens to Sony E-Mount Camera Lens Turbo Adapter Mark II from Mitakon allows Pentax K lenses to be mounted on Sony E-Mount APS-C format cameras, increasing the angle of view by 0.726x and the maximum aperture of the lens by 1 f-stop.The four optical elements of the Lens Turbo adapter condense light from the Pentax K full frame lens and project it onto the camera's APS-C sensor allowing the sensor to capture all of the lens' transmitted light, negating the 1.5x crop factor and effectively producing full-frame coverage on non-full-frame sensors. A corresponding increase in the maximum aperture of 1 f-stop makes the lens more effective in low-light situations.

The Mark II version of the Lens Turbo features an improved design to produce sharper images. Its rectangular rear lens rests closer to the camera's sensor improving light transmission and an enhanced lens coating minimizes ghosting and flare. One extra-low dispersion (ED) lens element reduces aberrations for better delineated images. The adapter offers a sturdy metal construction and stainless steel mounts, it attaches to both camera and lens with little play and includes a front and rear protective cap. The Lens Turbo is a manual adapter offering no electronic communication between lens and camera.

Samples:

1/1000s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/400s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/400s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/1600s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/1600s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/500s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/1250s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/800s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/2000s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/2000s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/2000s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/2000s - ISO100 - Handheld