Marco Aries

The Asahi Pentax M are probably my favorite vintage lenses, but one kept eluding me: the 40mm, today’s subject. I had never seen one in the flesh and the couple I saw online were three or four times more expensive than other M lenses, so I basically gave up. Until around a year ago when I stumbled upon two of them; one was in bad shape and overpriced while the other was cheaper, pretty clean and the seller was willing to trade with another lens I had, so we sealed the deal. The lens is made of metal, it weighs around 80g, it is 18 to 22mm long and it has an external diameter of 63mm, with a 49mm front thread. The iris has 5 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f22 with half steps. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 90 degrees and the minimum focusing distance is 60cm. The Pentax K mount has a flange distance of 45,46mm. The one complaint I have about this lens is the stupidly narrow focus ring. I mean, it works, but it is pretty silly. As you would expect, it...

A couple of years ago I showed you the MTO 500mm and since then I’ve been even more curious to try a 1000mm, but let me tell you: they are two different beasts. The 500 is reasonably small, light and easy to use, while the Rubinar is big, heavy and hard to handle. The lens is made of metal, it weighs around 1kg 650g, it is 18 to 19,5cm long and it has an external diameter of 13cm, with a 11,5cm front thread. It has a fixed aperture of f10 and no iris. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 300 degrees and the minimum focusing distance is 4 meters. It comes with a large sun hood and it has a rotating collar with a tripod mount and soft clicks every 90 degrees. The M42 mount has a flange distance of 45,46mm. While it does lack some sharpness, it still manages to capture a good amount of finer details, plus, catadioptric lenses do not have chromatic aberration. Colors are natural with good contrast but lacking some saturation. Specular highlights have the very distinctive torus shape a...

  The lens is made of metal, it weights around 150g, it is 32 to 35mm long and it has an external diameter of 60mm, with a 49mm front thread. The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.5 to f16 without half steps. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 80 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 30cm. The Olympus OM mount has a flange distance of 46mm. The engravings on the front tell us some more: the letter G indicates the number of elements, seven, auto for automatic diaphfragm and W for wide angle. It is small and very light, so it won’t throw off the balance even on small mirrorless bodies. The aperture ring is a bit narrow but being in the front it is still easy to operate. Sharpness wide open is very good with some fuzziness in the corners. By f8 it gets even sharper all over the frame. At all apertures is lacks some of the finer details. It has a noticeable distortion. Chromatic aberration is present wide open, but mostly hard to notice. Colors ar...

Nikon’s first autofocus 24mm was commercialized in 1986 and in 1991 it was updated with a rubberized focusing ring, today’s subject, and in 1994 to the D version. The lens is made of plastic, it weights around 250g, it is 46 to 48mm long and it has an external diameter of 64mm, with a 52mm front thread. The iris has 7 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f22 without half steps. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 80 degrees, minimum focusing distance is 30cm it uses the screw dive af system. The Nikon F mount has a flange distance of 46,5mm. It is compact, lightweight and it feels right at home both on native F mount Nikons and adapting to mirrorless bodies. The focusing ring is a tad narrow and the throw could be longer, but it is precise nonetheless. Sharpness wide open is very good in the center, only falling off toward the edges. By f8 it gets very sharp, with still some fuzziness left in the corners It has a noticeable barrel distortion. Chromatic aberrat...

This is the second version of the Nikkor 80-200 and the first with autofocus, produced between 1988 and 1992, recognizable by the autofocus range selector here. Let’s take a closer look. The lens is made of metal, it weights around 1280g, it is 17.6 to 18.8cm long and it has an external diameter of 86mm, with a 77mm front thread. The iris has 9 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f32.8 to f22 without half steps. The zoom and focus barrel is rubberized, it turns 120 degrees, minimum focusing distance is 1.5m and it uses the screw dive af system. Above the aperture ring there’s the auto and manual focus selector, while near the front there’s a ring to select the autofocus range. Zooming happens internally, but the front turns when focusing. The Nikon F mount has a flange distance of 46,5mm.   It is big and heavy but it lacks a collar or even a spot to put one, so you have to be very careful or it might break the mount of your camera. It does feel more secure on a Nikon f...

     The lens is made of plastic, it weights around 200g, it is 45 to 52mm long and it has an external diameter of 64mm, with a 52mm front thread. The iris has 7 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2 to f22 without half steps. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 140 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 25cm. The Nikon F mount has a flange distance of 46,5mm. It is compact and light and won’t throw off the balance of your camera, but as all lenses of this series I find the aperture ring annoying to use. Sharpness wide open is good but not great in the center, with visibly darker and softer corners. By f8 it gets sharp all over the frame. And here you can see how much it distorts. Chromatic aberration can be seen even up to f8, but it’s usually not too distracting. Colors are fairly natural with good contrast and low saturation. Specular highlights can be big and soft or have hard edges and radial gradients. Flares and ghosting are very well controll...

 The Zeiss Sonnar 55mm f1.8 was released in 2013 for Sony E mount, as part of the line of lenses produced in collaboration between the two brands, that unfortunately doesn’t have the best reputation. The lens is made of metal, it weights 281g, it is 70,5mm long and it has an external diameter of 64,4mm, with a 49mm front thread. The iris has 9 blades, the aperture lacks a physical control and it goes from f1.8 to f22 -   without half steps. It has a 7 elements in 5 groups design, with a concave front element. The focusing ring has a shallow texture, it is electronic without hard stops, very smooth with good resistance and minimum focusing distance is 50cm. It has a very minimalist and sleek design that I appreciate, along with the small size and light weight. So light in fact that once it is mounted on the camera you don’t even notice the most of its weight is in the front.   Sharpness wide open is good but not exceptional all over the frame, with minimal vignet...