Marco Aries

Soviet zooms are very rare and only few of them were produced; the Granit 11 we are looking at today, is one of them. Manufactured from 1978 in the KMZ and Arsenal plants, it went through at least a couple different iterations, until the 90s when it was renamed MC zoom Arsat. Older models don’t have a letter after the number 11, but after a while it was added to indicate the mount. The letter M stands for M42, just like the Jupiter 21.   This lens is made out of metal with rubberized focus and zoom rings, it weights 780g, it is 157mm long when focused to infinity and 175mm when fully extended, with a 58mm front thread. The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f4.5 to f22 with half steps. The zoom ring turns 90 degrees and zooming happens internally. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 300 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 1.5m. When focusing the front element turns as well. Flange distance for the  m42 mount  is 45,46mm   Sharpness is… inconsistent. B

Takumar lenses are well known and praised for their quality in the vintage lenses community, to the point that they have achieved almost an iconic status and prices in recent years have risen like a cake in the oven. But not all Takumar were created equal; somewhere in between the 80s and 90s, Asahi Optical produced a sort of obscure line under the name Takumar Bayonet and the lens we’re talking about today is one of those. Unlike previous lines with the same name, these more recent lenses lack the Super-Multi-Coating, have bayonet mounts, from which their name, and they look just like the Pentax-M series. Allegedly, they were intended as a budget option, so let’s take a closer look and see for ourselves. The Takumar is made out of metal, it weights around 390g, it is 78mm long when focused to infinity and 97mm when fully extended, with a 52mm front thread. It also has a built-in sunhood. The iris has 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.5 to f22 with half steps. The f