Marco Aries

  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...

Long time viewers will know that I’ve been slowly putting together a set of Asahi Pentax-m lenses, but I was still lacking something on the wide end, until I managed to get my hands on this 28mm. The lens is made out of metal, it weights 170g, it is 36 to 40mm long and it has an external diameter of 63mm, with a 49mm front thread. The iris had 5 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.5 to f22 with half steps. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 110 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 30cm. Flange distance for the Pentax K mount is 45,46mm.   The focusing ring is smooth but still has enough resistance to not be knocked around, while the aperture needs just a bit more force. The lens feels solid, it is short and lightweight and it doesn’t really throw off the balance of your camera. Sharpness wide open is great in the center, but it gets softer towards the edges.  By f8 there is just a bit of fuzziness in the corners.  Chromatic aberratio...

Nikkor lenses seem to have a bit of a cult following, with many people swearing by their amazing quality, so I was curious to try them myself. A few months ago I finally found two of them, the 28mm we’re checking out today and the 50mm 1.4 that I’m still testing out. Right off the bat, I have to say that Nikkor lenses are kind of confusing; while they all share the same F-mount introduced in 1959, there a number of different variations, often almost indistinguishable one from the other. Luckily for me, none of that matters when adapting to a mirroless camera. This lens is made out of metal, it weights 220g, it is 45mm long when focused to infinity and 50mm when fully extended, with a 52mm front thread. The iris has 7 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f22. The focusing ring is rubberized, it turns 180 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 30cm. When focusing the front element turns as well. Flange distance for the Nikon F mount is 46,5mm, here' an adapter ...

Soligor was a supplier of photographic equipment based in the United States and Germany, active mostly between the ‘60s and the early ‘90s. They had a very comprehensive catalog of lenses, made in Japan by manufacturers like Tokina and Tamron, covering a wide array of focal lengths and they were available for all major camera brands. Soligor lenses were also sold under alternative brand names like Hanimar, Porst or Super Carener, in different geographical areas. From my research, the 28mm 2.8 alone has at least 21 different versions, so chances are that yours looks different than mine. Specifically, the one I own is part of the C/D line released in the mid-1970s as a premium line of lenses. The Soligor 28mm is made out of metal, it weights 200g, it is 33mm long when focused to infinity and 37mm when extended, with a 49mm front thread. The iris has six blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f22 The focusing ring is rubberized and it turns 180 degrees an...

  When you get into buying and selling vintage lenses, you are bound to end up with some that are in bad conditions and when, a few months ago, I bought a box with a few lenses, well, I wasn’t surprised to find dust, scratches and one straight up broken lens.  The Cosina 28mm we are looking at today comes from that box and has the front element clearly bent and deformed, and it could use some lubrication at the focusing helicoid, but overall I had a good feeling about it, given that it still works perfectly and the glass elements are clean.  Although this is the first Cosina lens that I own, I was already kind of familiar with the brand as a third party manufacturer, founded, by the way, in 1959 in Nagano, Japan. What I didn’t know is that in 1999 it acquired Voigtlander and it is still active to this day.   The Cosina 28mm weighs 225g, it is 38mm long when focused to infinity and 42mm when extended, with a 49mm front thread. The iris has 5 blades, the aper...

  Last winter I bought three Yashica lenses and this 28mm is one of them, along the 135 and the 50mm; it’ the most “humble” of the trio, being part of the basic, single coated DSB line. Yet, it doesn’t fall behind it’s sisters, in fact I would say it is better than the 135mm.  The body is made of metal and it weighs 220 grams, it is 40mm long when focused to infinity and 44mm when fully extended, with a 52 mm front thread. The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f2.8 to f16. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 180 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 30 centimeters. Contax Yashica mount flange distance is 45,5mm and adapters are easy to find.  Sharpness is good wide open and it gets even better by stopping down a bit. Same goes for edge falloff. Background blur is not the softest, but it is not distracting either.  Chromatic aberration did show up in some really high contrast areas, but I only noticed it because I was activel...

  Since 2018, when I borrowed the Canon FD 100mm2.8 and the 24mm 2.8 from a friend of mine, I have been looking for some FDs of my own. In the late spring of 2019 I was at a local flea market and I stumbled upon a canon FTb QL with an FD 28mm f2.8 lens on it. It looked and seemed to work fine, so I bought it for 35 euros, which is a fairly decent price for lens and camera.  The body was apparently mechanically sound, I did clean it up, removing old dust and grime, and I wanted to eventually load a roll of film in it, but the light meter needed to be fixed and I ended up selling it to a collector.  Anyway, it wasn’t the camera I was after, but the lens because, again, if you remember, if you've already watched the older reviews, I’ve come to really like Canon FD lenses, as they are compact, lightweight, well-built and produce really good images.  As all Canon nFDs, the body of the lens is made of hard plastic and it weights more or less 160 grams. As I said, very ...