VidThreeNorth
No longer a newbie, moving up!
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2016
- Messages
- 1,176
- Reaction score
- 214
- Can others edit my Photos
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You Can't Buy This Lens...
Auto-Aperture Pentax K Mount version
Sony a5000 (with K-mount manual adapter)
... As far as I know, there may only have been a handful of units of this lens actually made. As for wanting to buy it, it is debatable whether you would. Here is the story:
Many years ago, in the film camera days, when Black's Cameras was a big photography store chain in the Province of Ontario, Canada, the company used to sell some store brand products. The "Magnicon" lenses were one of the brands that the store used. Some of the lenses were very good. They were roughly as good as the Soligor line. This lens, however, was not well liked. I knew a photographer that tried out one of this model lens and was disappointed. I cannot recall everything I was told, but the word "soft" was prominent. When that one word was uttered, I basically stopped listening. It is all I needed. Back then, if you had a soft lens there was nothing that could be done about it.
Today things are a bit different. I still would not want this lens if I was using a "Full size sensor" camera, but my equipment is at the opposite end of the scale. The largest sensor I have is an APS-C on my Sony a5000. So that makes a number of old "budget" zooms interesting. Why? Because many of them were not bad in the center, but fell apart badly off-axis. But since I am using a crop sensor, I am not using the outer reaches of the image area. So if the center is sharp and it does not fall off too much, say within 2/3 of the way out to the corner, then I might have a pretty good lens.
The interesting thing is that this model lens did not show up in "many" of the Black's stores. The smaller stores never had them at all, and the only store I saw one in was the "Yorkdale" store, which was one of the stores with the highest sales volumes. There were only about three other stores here I would expect this lens to have shown up. If this was a test market situation, there is no telling how few of this lens model were made. It is possible that this is literally the only unit that was ever sold. Moreover, a previous owner etched his name in the barrel, and I think I might even know who it was.
Anyway, I found it in the used section of a camera store for around $80 Cdn, and decided to buy it.
These photos were from my second outing with this lens, and in general, I am pleased with the result. From a mechanical standpoint, it operates smoothly. The Macro focus only works at the far telephoto end, which is unusual, and it is not locked out, so when you zoom in, you might not realize of you are focussing in the Macro zone, and that can be a minor irritation when you want to zoom back out and cannot until you un-Macro-focus it.
I will not be posting full "unprocessed" images. I will post a few "detail" cropped files that are not altered (except for the crop). But since I am fairly sure nobody will find this lens to buy, even used, unless I decide to sell mine, this is hardly a loss.
For this image set, most of the files started under-exposed, and I brought them up. There is only 1 which I liked at normal exposure.
In all cases, I took the pictures with RAW+JPEG, but I have only used the JPEGs. Since I am mostly not posting "full size" files (except for the "detail" files). It will not make a difference.
Focal Lengths used: unknown, mostly long-end (maybe 40 - 135mm?).
Apertures used: roughly 4.0 (wide open) to 8.0. Mainly 8.0
"DSC00140.JPG"
(probably ~F4)
Partial EXIF
1/125 sec, ISO-200 (EV -1 step)
Brightness 0.06796875
8.21 MB
SmartFix
Overall 28
Shadows -10
Highlights 20
Sat 14
Focus 37
Black 8
White 12
- I would have preferred more distinct lighting to separate the main subject from the background. This picture sort of says "lens test" as it is.
"DSC00150.JPG"
Partial EXIF
1/250 sec, ISO-200 (EV 0 step)
Brightness 2.09140625
8.56 MB
SmartFix
Overall 0 [recommended 28]
Shadows -10
Highlights 20
Sat 5 (recommended 0]
Focus 38
Black 16
White 4
This was the main reason why I was out with a camera. Fall colours are in fairly early stages around here.
"DSC00174.JPG"
Partial EXIF
1/160 sec, ISO-200 (EV -0.7 step)
Brightness 0.2359375
7.31 MB
SmartFix
Overall 28
Shadows -10
Highlights 10
Sat 0
Focus 39
Black 4
White 18
DSC000186.JPG
(F16)
Partial EXIF
1/125 sec.
ISO-1600 (forced)
Exposure bias -0.7
Brightness -2.50234375
Smartfix
Overall 28
Shadows -10
Highlights 20
Focus 37
Black 6
White 32
Detail crop: Lower Right corner
"Oh look it's a what-ever-it-is!" I do not know what plant this is. I should look it up. Nice colour though.
"Pic05_130208b-Crop.jpg"
The Magnicon zoom mounted on my "almost-a-Pentax" Sony a5000 with Cameron lens adapter. Beside it is a Yi-M1 with its 12-40mm 1:3.5-5.6 kit zoom in "transport" mode. Picture
taken with Samsung EK-GC100 Galaxy Zoom.
Auto-Aperture Pentax K Mount version
Sony a5000 (with K-mount manual adapter)
... As far as I know, there may only have been a handful of units of this lens actually made. As for wanting to buy it, it is debatable whether you would. Here is the story:
Many years ago, in the film camera days, when Black's Cameras was a big photography store chain in the Province of Ontario, Canada, the company used to sell some store brand products. The "Magnicon" lenses were one of the brands that the store used. Some of the lenses were very good. They were roughly as good as the Soligor line. This lens, however, was not well liked. I knew a photographer that tried out one of this model lens and was disappointed. I cannot recall everything I was told, but the word "soft" was prominent. When that one word was uttered, I basically stopped listening. It is all I needed. Back then, if you had a soft lens there was nothing that could be done about it.
Today things are a bit different. I still would not want this lens if I was using a "Full size sensor" camera, but my equipment is at the opposite end of the scale. The largest sensor I have is an APS-C on my Sony a5000. So that makes a number of old "budget" zooms interesting. Why? Because many of them were not bad in the center, but fell apart badly off-axis. But since I am using a crop sensor, I am not using the outer reaches of the image area. So if the center is sharp and it does not fall off too much, say within 2/3 of the way out to the corner, then I might have a pretty good lens.
The interesting thing is that this model lens did not show up in "many" of the Black's stores. The smaller stores never had them at all, and the only store I saw one in was the "Yorkdale" store, which was one of the stores with the highest sales volumes. There were only about three other stores here I would expect this lens to have shown up. If this was a test market situation, there is no telling how few of this lens model were made. It is possible that this is literally the only unit that was ever sold. Moreover, a previous owner etched his name in the barrel, and I think I might even know who it was.
Anyway, I found it in the used section of a camera store for around $80 Cdn, and decided to buy it.
These photos were from my second outing with this lens, and in general, I am pleased with the result. From a mechanical standpoint, it operates smoothly. The Macro focus only works at the far telephoto end, which is unusual, and it is not locked out, so when you zoom in, you might not realize of you are focussing in the Macro zone, and that can be a minor irritation when you want to zoom back out and cannot until you un-Macro-focus it.
I will not be posting full "unprocessed" images. I will post a few "detail" cropped files that are not altered (except for the crop). But since I am fairly sure nobody will find this lens to buy, even used, unless I decide to sell mine, this is hardly a loss.
For this image set, most of the files started under-exposed, and I brought them up. There is only 1 which I liked at normal exposure.
In all cases, I took the pictures with RAW+JPEG, but I have only used the JPEGs. Since I am mostly not posting "full size" files (except for the "detail" files). It will not make a difference.
Focal Lengths used: unknown, mostly long-end (maybe 40 - 135mm?).
Apertures used: roughly 4.0 (wide open) to 8.0. Mainly 8.0
"DSC00140.JPG"
(probably ~F4)
Partial EXIF
1/125 sec, ISO-200 (EV -1 step)
Brightness 0.06796875
8.21 MB
SmartFix
Overall 28
Shadows -10
Highlights 20
Sat 14
Focus 37
Black 8
White 12
- I would have preferred more distinct lighting to separate the main subject from the background. This picture sort of says "lens test" as it is.
"DSC00150.JPG"
Partial EXIF
1/250 sec, ISO-200 (EV 0 step)
Brightness 2.09140625
8.56 MB
SmartFix
Overall 0 [recommended 28]
Shadows -10
Highlights 20
Sat 5 (recommended 0]
Focus 38
Black 16
White 4
This was the main reason why I was out with a camera. Fall colours are in fairly early stages around here.
"DSC00174.JPG"
Partial EXIF
1/160 sec, ISO-200 (EV -0.7 step)
Brightness 0.2359375
7.31 MB
SmartFix
Overall 28
Shadows -10
Highlights 10
Sat 0
Focus 39
Black 4
White 18
DSC000186.JPG
(F16)
Partial EXIF
1/125 sec.
ISO-1600 (forced)
Exposure bias -0.7
Brightness -2.50234375
Smartfix
Overall 28
Shadows -10
Highlights 20
Focus 37
Black 6
White 32
Detail crop: Lower Right corner
"Oh look it's a what-ever-it-is!" I do not know what plant this is. I should look it up. Nice colour though.
"Pic05_130208b-Crop.jpg"
The Magnicon zoom mounted on my "almost-a-Pentax" Sony a5000 with Cameron lens adapter. Beside it is a Yi-M1 with its 12-40mm 1:3.5-5.6 kit zoom in "transport" mode. Picture
taken with Samsung EK-GC100 Galaxy Zoom.
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Last edited:
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