Playing With Lenses: 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: