Playing With Lenses: May 2018

Wednesday 30 May 2018

Let's try this again: Canon Zoom Lens EF-S 18-55 1:3.5-5.6 IS

Cost: $45 (average market price $50)

OK, let's try another Canon kit lens... This time the first inexpensive Canon kit lens that included Image Stabilization as default, making a big difference in quality and usability of a kit lens. At the same time, the optical formula was improved to increase overal sharpness and image quality.

So how did it go? Well... not to bad. During a recent visit to Kortrijk, Belgium, I was able to take this lens for a walk at dusk. Even with the lower light, it performed reasonable well. Not as good as the Pentax 50mm prime lens I reviewed last week, but very decent for such a cheap lens (you can still find a new one for under $200).

It was a pleasant surprise that this lens actually did work with the Viltrox electronic adapter, allowing me to use auto-focus. A nice treat as I have been shooting manually for the last year or so. Did it focus well? Yes, but very slow with a lot of focus calibrating with every shot. One day I would like to try it with a Metabones V adapter to see if that works better.

Image quality is good. Sharp across all corners with very little color aberration. Nice colors and contrast. Not much more to say... but a good price/quality balance. A good walk-around lens for on holidays, or other general purpose.

I will for sure try to find some other Canon lenses from this era... good quality, auto-focus that works on my Sony, in lens image stabilisation, and just old enough to find them at a low cost. No need to pay more for a more recent lens. A keeper...

Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 18-55mm
Maximum Aperture: F3.5-5.6
Minimum Aperture: F22-38
Image Format: APS-C
Lens Mount: EF
Image Stabilization: 4 stops
Optics: 11 elements / 9 groups
Blades: 6
Focussing: Auto Focus
Minimum Focus: 25cm
Filter Size: 58mm
Weight: 200g
Length: 68.5-84.5mm
Production: 2007
Serial Number: na

Made in: Japan

More information on Canon Inc.

Samples:

1/100 sec - f/5 - 30mm - ISO100 B - Handheld

1/25 sec - f/20 - 30mm - ISO100 B - Handheld

1/160 sec - f/11 - 55mm - ISO100 B - Handheld

1/160 sec - f/5.6 - 55mm - ISO 1.6 KB - Handheld

1/80 sec - f/5 - 45mm - ISO250 B - Handheld

1/80 sec - f/5.6 - 55mm - ISO3.1 KB - Handheld

1/60 sec - f/4 - 28mm - ISO250 B - Handheld

1/60 sec - f/4 - 18mm - ISO320 B - Handheld

1/125 sec - f/5 - 39mm - 3.1 KB - Handheld

1/60 sec - f/4 - 18mm - ISO100 B - Handheld

1/160 sec - f/4.5 - 36mm - ISO160 B - Handheld

1/160 sec - f/5 - 40mm - ISO400 B - Handheld

Sources:
the-digital-picture.com
usa.canon.com
dpreview.com

Saturday 26 May 2018

Underdog: SMC Pentax-M 1:1.7 50mm

Cost: 18$ (average market price $40.99)

Ach, the fun to test another Pentax 50mm! The F1.7 was commonly sold as the more expensive option of kit lenses for Pentax cameras in the days, with the F2.0 as the cheaper version. Kit lenses those days were mostly of solid quality and sharp, in contrast with some of the crappy kit lenses a few decades later.

This is a beautiful lens! A small but solid metal body. Much smaller then todays 50mm prime lenses. It just looks right, and oozes a sense of quality to it. Smooth early Pentax-like handling, and the aperture ring clicks in 1/3 of a stop, not often found on cheaper kit lenses. Manual focussing is easy and fast in combination with the Sony a6000 and the Lens Turbo II. Sharpness remains all over the picture although that might be different when using it on a full frame camera, especially if go up to around F5.6.

Image quality is excellent to great... beautiful vibrant colors with lot's of contrast, thanks to the famous Pentax SMC coating, and sharp as a knife. With the maximum aperture being F1.7, it is very suitable for low light photography at a much more affordable price then the Pentax 50mm F1.4 or F1.2 versions.

This is a very versatile lens that can be used for street and portrait photography, providing good saturation and depth rendering. It allows subjects to stand out from the environment very nicely. And a good bokeh on top. What more can you want? Just take a look on Flickr to see what this lens is capable off.

With a lens this good, at such a current steal of a price, it's hard to understand why people are paying more for recent released manual lenses for multiple times the cost. It's hard to do better then this one, and it has find a deserved spot in my favorite lens collection.

To combat partial reflection, Pentax developed chemical coatings for the lens surfaces with minimum light loss. SMC is "a remarkable seven-layer lens coating process that cuts the reflection ratio down to just 0.2% per lens surface. The result is a dramatic improvement in both color fidelity and brightness and the elimination of flare and ghost images."
SMC was patented and first applied in 1971, when Pentax was still making screw mount equipment. The multi-coated lens lines changed from Takumar and Super-Takumar to Super-Multi-Coated Takumar and later on to SMC Takumar. SMC Pentax was used for the newly introduced K-mount lenses. Pentax's SMC is still today considered as one of the best lens coatings on the market.

Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 50mm
Maximum Aperture: F1.7
Minimum Aperture: F22
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: PK
Optics: 6 elements, 5 groups
Blades: 6
Focussing: Manual
Minimum Focus: 45cm
Filter Size: 49mm
Weight: 185g
Length: 31mm
Production: 1977 to 1984
Serial Number: 2636666
Made in: Japan

More information on Pentax

Samples:
Pictures taken with Lens Turbo II Adapter

1/1600s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/1000s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/800s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/125s - ISO100 - Handheld - Cropped

1/100s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/50s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/320s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/640s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/80s - ISO100 - Handheld

1/40s - ISO800 - Handheld

Sources:

Pentaxforums

kenrockwell.com
verybiglobo.com
shutterfinger.typepad.com
flickr.com

Saturday 19 May 2018

Let's kit you not: Canon Zoom Lens EF 35-80 1:4-5.6

Cost: $11.99 (average market price $30)

Ok, this is just a cheap film era kit lens, but it was cheap and has a nice zoom range for street photography. For sure feels very cheap and has a plastic mount. But that does not automatically mean the quality is bad.

The lens has auto focus capabilities that can be switched on or off on the lens. But as the focus electronics are not compatible with my adapter, due to the age of the lens, I used the lens the old way, by manual focus.

Although the lens feels rather cheap without a butter smooth focussing, it handled pleasantly well. Focus was easy, almost snapping into focus, even with a very narrow barrel for focus without rubber for stable handling. The lens has no manual aperture ring, but my adapter did allow to set the aperture via the camera, so in some way, it was still semi-automatic.

Quality was OK. Fairly sharp overall, but some color fringing in the corners and on the sides. Color was nice and saturated. Not the best lens, but not bad for a standard kit lens. Not a keeper, unless I find something else fun to do with it (see in a few weeks).

Lens Specification:

Focal Length: 35-80mm

Maximum Aperture: F4-5.6
Minimum Aperture: F32
Image Format: 35mm
Lens Mount: EF
Optics: 8 elements / 8 groups
Blades: 5
Focussing: Auto Focus
Minimum Focus: 38cm
Filter Size: 52mm
Weight: 170g
Length: 61-67mm
Production: 1992
Serial Number: na
Made in: Japan

More information on Canon Inc.

Samples: