Avanar/Chinon 135mm f2.8 - vintage lens review

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Those of you who follow me on Instagram might remember that a couple months ago I bought a box of... stuff, and one of the items inside was this Avanar 135mm.

Avanar Chinon 135mm f2.8

There is no information on the internet about this brand, although some people speculate is was a European rebrand for Chinon, a Japanes manufacturer founded in 1962 and later acquired by Kodak, and, in fact, the Chinon 135mm f2.8 looks identical to the Avanar

If by any chance you happen to know anything mote about the brand Avanar, feel free to share your knowledge in the comments; meanwhile, let us take a closer look.

The body is made ot metal and it weighs 400g, it is 87mm long when focused to infinity and 101mm when extended, with a 55mm front thread. Plus, as many vintage 135s, it has a built in sun hood.

The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f22, with a switch for automatic and manual aperture.

The focusing ring has a nice rubberized grippy texture and it turns roughly 240°, minimum focusing distance is average at 1.5m.

The one I got has an m42 screw mount, easily adaptable to most modern cameras.

The build quality of this lens is, honestly, great: is is compact, not too heavy, precise and overall it feels really solid. It was built to last and no corners were cut in the production line.

Sharpness is surprisingly good wide open at f2.8, even if it does fall off towards the edges and there is some vignetting. By f5.6 it gets pixel sharp in the center and edges and vignetting improve as well.

Background blur is not the prettiest, but it is not distracting either, and boke balls are soft and uniform. 

Chromatic aberration is present and noticeable wide open and it can be seen up to f5.6 on high contrast areas. 

The Dyna Coating, whatever that is, does a great job at controlling flares and ghosting, even when shooting towards the sun or shining a light directly into the lens.

I also did a quick test comparing the Avanar to the Konica 2.5 and the Yashica ML 2.8. As expected, the Konica is the sharpest and brightest, so much so that I had to compensate by shooting at a lower ISO. The Avanar is a veryu close second in terms of sharpness, followed by the Yashica in the last place. The Avanr also had the coldest colors, while the Konica has the warmest.

You all know by now how much I like to take my chances and try, well, basically anything, the weirder, the better, because there's plenty of third party, no-name lenses out there that you can buy for next to nothing that are actually pretty cool, for one reason or another. Some are really odd and produce unique images, while others are just decent lenses with that vintage character we like.

So once more I want to encourage you to go to your local flea market or second hand shop, or whatever, and buy a cheap lens you know nothing about. You might love it, you might hate, but the experience alone will be worthed.

Oh, and the Avanar is quite ok, very well build, sharp, great coating, maybe the colors are a bit too cold for my taste and there's some chromatic aberration, but it's a decent lens.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments below and don't forget to check the full video for all the samples.



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