Marco Aries

 The lens is made out of metal, it weights 150g, it is 36 to 40mm long and it has an external diameter of 63mm, with a 55mm front thread. The iris had 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.5 to f22 plus auto. The silver button releases the ring from auto. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 150 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 30cm. Flange distance for the Konica AR mount is 40,5mm. Both the focusing ring and the aperture are just a bit tight. The lens is very light and won’t compromise the balance even on smaller mirrorless cameras, also thanks to the short flange distance. Sharpness wide open is very good, only getting softer in the corners. By f8 the corners are just a tiny bit less sharp than the center. Wide open some blooming can be seen in the highlights and chromatic aberration is almost absent. Colors are fairly neutral and true to life, with good contrast and saturation without being too vivid. Specular highlights have hard edges and occasionally

As you all know, Asahi Pentax-m lenses are some of my favorite, so, when I stumbled upon this 50mm 1.4 at a flea market, I had to buy it. Unfortunately, it was starting to develop some fungus, so I had it cleaned by a professional and it was ready to shoot. The lens is made out of metal, it weights 220g, it is 37 to 45mm long and it has an external diameter of 63mm, with a 49mm front thread. The iris had 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f1.4 to f22 with half steps. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 210 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 45cm. Flange distance for the Pentax K mount is 45,46mm. The focusing ring is smooth and precise, while the aperture needs just a bit more force. The lens is surprisingly small and lightweight and it doesn’t compromise the balance of your camera. Sharpness wide open is good but not exceptional in the center; it gets softer in the corners but without losing much detail.  By f8 it is very sharp all over the frame.

As we have already established in the review of the 28mm, Nikkor lenses can be quite confusing, so it took me a while to figure out what exactly this 50mm is. Apparently it was build somewhere between 1968 and 71 and later on has received a factory conversion, meaning that is was upgraded by Nikon to work with the AI system introduced in 1977. The letter S indicates the seven elements construction and the front and rear glass have a single amber colored coating. The lens is made out of metal, it weights 300g, it is 48 to 53mm long and it has an external diameter of 67mm, with a 52mm front thread. The aperture is clicked and it goes from f1.4 to f16 and the iris has either six or seven blades depending on the year it was produced. The focusing ring has dimples for better grip, it turns 170 degrees and minimum focusing distance is not great at 60cm. Flange distance for the Nikon F mount is 46,5mm. The focusing ring is smooth but the dimples are shallow so the fingers might sl