Help understanding my first telephoto lens

bencbarbour · Mar 16, 2017

Hey guys,

Fairly new to photography here so bare with me. I've just bought a used Kitstar 80-200mm 1:4.5 lens (with macro capability to 1:4) from a consignment store - it didn't come with a manual or anything.

I believe I have figured out most of it, however I'm confused what the green and red curved lines are telling me.. I'm assuming its some sort of depth of field scale but I have no idea how to read it.. (see photos). Anyone able to tell me what I'm looking at?

Another minor point. The lens' widest aperature is 1:4.5 across the whole focal length but the aperature ring goes down to 2.8? maybe this due to mass production of aperature rings across many lenses? It does have an aperature lock switch that lets you set the max aperature the ring can go to.

Let me know if you know!

cheers,
Ben

480sparky · Mar 16, 2017

When you set the lens to a given aperture, you use the corresponding curved lines to determine your DOF. Unfortunately, there's no indication on the lens to show which line is for what aperture. My guess would be 5.6, 11 and 22. Where those lines meet the focus rings, they indicate the near & far distances that will appear to be focus in the image.

As for the 2.8/4.5 maximum aperture, what is stamped around the front of the lens in terms of numbers?

Derrel · Mar 16, 2017

Here is a similar photo of a DOF scale from a NIkkor 80mm-200mm f/4 lens, one that stops down to f/32 instead of f/22. As you can see, this uses Nikon's long-time manual focus convention of color-coding the DOF scale's markings with the color-coded lens f/stops. I agree with 480sparky: the lines likely correspond with f/5.6, 11, and 22--that looks about right, at a casual glance. But that might not be totally right (see below).

Try setting your lens to just under 3 meters, and compare the markings with the ones seen in my photo, and I think it's possible that the closest-spaced markings on your lens might be for f/8.

The small R,and the red line, is for Infrared film reference uses.

In the macro range on your lens, the numbers show how close the lens has to be focused to get the various reproduction ratios.

bencbarbour · Mar 16, 2017

hey thanks for the reply!

Ok yea so the 'narrowest' two lines being 5.6 out to 22 being the widest two. Ok. - How about the red ones? I'm assuming it has to do with the macro portion of the lens?

The numbers on the front of the lens are 1:4.5 as far as aperture goes (see photo for all). Also if you're interested see the photo of the 'aperature limiter thing' haha

Ben

Derrel · Mar 16, 2017

MOST unusual detail from underneath: I think you are right, the lens aperture ring appears to have a set screw that locks in the max aperture value of whatever lens it is used on! I have NEVER seen this type of sysem used before! (see Photo Mar 16,11 24 37.jpg)

bencbarbour · Mar 16, 2017

to derrel,

I think you're right! It seems to be the same as yours when set at just under 3m. having taken a closer look I can see that there is an 8 16 22 printing on the lens too (you can see in the first photo i posted) so i believe they are for 8 16 and 22, thanks!

480sparky · Mar 16, 2017

The maximum aperture confusion might be due to the lens being a 'interchangeable' mount (similar to Tamron's AdaptAll) and an adapter for Canon has been added to it. It's designed to be using on multiple lenses in that particular manufacturer's lineup, some of which are f/2.8, some are 3.5, some are 4.5 and some are 5.6.

Derrel · Mar 16, 2017

bencbarbour said:
to derrel,

I think you're right! It seems to be the same as yours when set at just under 3m. having taken a closer look I can see that there is an 8 16 22 printing on the lens too (you can see in the first photo i posted) so i believe they are for 8 16 and 22, thanks!

Okay, cool. So, f/22,f/16,f8, all useful apertures when deep DOF is needed with a film camera. I guess the lens uses a T-mount or something similar, an interchangeable, multi-brand-capable type of mount that was relatively common in the 70's and 80's with third-party lens makers who wanted lenses that could be adapted to multiple camera brand mounts.

Glad to read the clarification from 480sparky on the interchangeable mount/diaphragm limiter switch,etc.

480sparky · Mar 16, 2017

Apparently Kitstar is a rebranded lens name.

From here:

Kitstar was just another marketing name. If the first two digits in the serial # are 75 then yours may be by Hoya. But it looks rather more like a Cosina, than like a Hoya I had. Gargling around, I see mention that it might be Chinon, and some of my Chinons don't look too dissimilar. So ?quien sabe? Who knows?

Derrel · Mar 16, 2017

I seem to recall that Kits Camera sold a lot of Kitstar lenses back in the day. There were many independent lens makers (more than fifteen companies) that used to sell OEM lenses to whatever company wanted them, and the lenses would be branded with the market name of whoever payed the bill! Hoya,Cosina,Kino Precision,Chinon, and others built lenses and sold them all over the world.

An 80-200mm f/4 lens like this is probably at least "decent", no matter who made it.