I bought a Sears 135mm on e-bay

[Ron Evers]

I bought a Sears 135mm, f 2.8 on e-bay for 25C$ shipping included & tried it out on my Panasonic G1. I was experimenting with it wide open & found the results disappointing due to soft images. I set up in the living room to see how the sharpness would improve with the lens being stopped down. I shot a high contrast white geranium against a dark background from the minimum focus distance of about five feet. The camera was set to ISO 200 & a WB of shade. Contrast & sharpness was tweaked in Photoscape.


1. F 2.8 (wide open)

2. f 3.5

3. f 4.0

4. f 5.6

The sharpness does improve a bit as the lens is stopped down & I venture to say quite acceptable @ F 5.6.

What say you?

 

[Battou]

Looks like you got a good piece there. My last sears investment was somewhat lack luster but then again it was a zoom lens. Part of a package deal so I am not complaining.

 

[Derrel]

It looks like the lens sharpens up quite a bit by f/4. I wouldn't be surprised if at Infinity in to about 100x the focal length that it's actually as sharp,or nearly as sharp, as many modern zoom lenses which have three times more elements and cost hundreds of dollars. The 4/3 format is very demanding on lens performance, so it might not be super fantastic like the new Olympus lenses are, but for the price, hey...why not?

The 135mm/2.8 lens design is one that really has not been developed too much or worked on for quite some time; most 135/2.8 lenses are only middle of the road in terms of ultimate quality--for a prime telephoto. Some are quite good, others not so good. Like, Nikon's older 135mm f/2.8 Series E lens: noticeably lower in contrast than a Nikkor AiS model lens at f/2.8 down to f/4, with lower contrast and lower resolution than the top-line Nikkor. The old Ashahi Optical. Co (Pentax) Super-Takumar 135mm f/3.5 is a pretty darned GOOD 135, better than the Nikon Series E in almost every metric. On your 4/3, you've got the equivalent of a 270mm f/2.8...for $25,so
hard to complain about that,really. I have a Nikon 135/2 AiS that is NOT very good at close ranges--but at Infinity, is quite good. Lousy portrait range shooter, excellent for landscapes in low light, or beyond 40 feet. Maybe the Sears is optimized for far work,more so than near???

 

[Ron Evers]

Thanks very much for your commentary Darrel, It's nice to see someone here who understands 4/3, M4/3 format.

In better weather I hope to try this lens out in the longer focal lengths.

 

[Derrel]

Well, I don't understand it as fully as an owner of a M4/3 camera like you understands it, but on the 26th I went out to Fry's and looked at the G1 and the Sony and Pentax lines...I'm getting that camera-buying itch,and wanted to see what "the other guys" have on the market.

See, the M4/3 and 4/3 are like the new "vehicle" for old lenses...a few days ago on an on-line auction site I was looking at a TV camera zoom lens in C-mount. The lens was a Computar 12.5 to 75mm f/1.2 as in f ONE point two!!! I looked around and did some research,and saw that the lens would ALMOST cover the entire 18mm x 13.5mm format of a G1....

The lens ended up selling for less than $50...I still have three Leica thread mount lenses from a Cosina Voigtlander Bessa that I want to use, a 35mm/1.7 Aspherical, a 50mm f/1.5 Nokton aspherical,and a 75mm f/2.5 Color-Heliar, so I've been strongly considering one of the new electronic viewfinder interchangeable lens cameras. I'm kind of waiting on less-costly lens adapters from China within the next year or two,and just more choices; I'm confident that since the new G1 series and the Olympus took almost 11 percent of d-slr sales in Japan last year, that the market for the G1-style cameras is going to grow. I think Canon and Nikon and Sony were all shocked, and dismayed, that the EVIL-type cameras sold such a high percentage in the "d-slr category",which is where those cam's are being classified.

 

[Ron Evers]

Derrel, a really cool thing is that I can roll the aperture ring & immediately see the depth of field changing or magnify the subject for very fine focusing. You can also stop the lens right down & the camera boosts the light in the viewfinder as if the lens was wide open.

The prices of old glass has gone up quite a bit since the introduction of M4/3 cameras. You can get adapters for most mounts on e-bay for 40-60 dollars. I have Minolta, Pentax K & M42.

 

[Iron Flatline]

Another fan of the m4/3 system... in my case to put my Voigtländer and Leica lenses on it.

The lens you bought might be back-focused. Run a strip test and see if it sharp off-focal depth to see if it can be adjusted.

Back-focus test

 

[Ron Evers]

Another fan of the m4/3 system... in my case to put my Voigtländer and Leica lenses on it.

The lens you bought might be back-focused. Run a strip test and see if it sharp off-focal depth to see if it can be adjusted.

Back-focus test

Interesting exercise but I do not see how the lens could be adjusted.

 

[usayit]

IMO, I say it looks like you have a decent copy of the a sears 135mm! From here, it looks acceptably sharp at f/4 and down. @ f/2.8 there is some purple fringing but then again I doubt the lens elements are corrected for that. You have to remember that the camera is a 2x crop which is like viewing at the cropped center of the full 35mm frame.

I picked up a used Panasonic G1 a few weeks ago for the same purpose. So far, I am becoming a fan of the M4/3rd system as well... I have adapters for Kmount, M42, and M-mount lenses. Surprisingly, its brought back some interest to the older lenses that were not coated nor corrected. I've been staring at my Takumar 500mm f/4.5 monster with the G1 mounted to it. With a crop factor of 2x, I'm looking through a equiv fov of a 1000mm lens! Its just too freakin cold out to take pictures to see how it looks. The camera looks so tiny attached to it.

Another fan of the m4/3 system... in my case to put my Voigtländer and Leica lenses on it.

So you ended up getting the Olympus E-P1? How do you like it?


This past weekend, I attended a string concert at my niece's high school. Lighting was TERRIBLE and there was zero vantage to shoot. The school had their own photogs so I also wanted to stay out of their way. I went ahead and took along the Noctilux + 90mm with the G1. It was still tough but I squeezed in a few shots that came out pretty nice. It was pretty fun... worked better than expected.


All in all.. I hope that the m4/3rd doesn't go the way of the old APS film and disappear. I think the cameras have some good going for them.