Marco Aries

The Takumar 135mm f3.5 is made of metal, it weights around 330g, it is 88 to 103mm long and it has an external diameter of 58mm, with a 49mm front thread. The iris has 6 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.5 to f22 with half steps. On the side there’s the auto-manual selector for compatible camera bodies. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 330 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 1.5m. As we can see on the front element, this was the first series of lenses produced by Asahi with multicoating. The M42 mount has a flange distance of 45,46mm. This lens is very compact and light so it feels right at home even on small mirrorless cameras. The focusing ring is very smooth and the long throw makes it easy to be precise. Sharpness wide open is good all over the frame and it only gets better by f8. There is just a bit of Chromatic aberration, mostly in the corners, but it is barely noticeable. Both saturation and contrast are a bit low and colors are qui...

 Amongst vintage lenses, Takumar is one of the iconic names, but are they really that good or is it just internet hype? I’ve been meaning to try them for years, but they are a bit rare here in Italy and due to their reputation prices are often inflated. Last year I was finally able to buy three of them and I’ve been using them on and off since then. Today’s subject is the 35mm 3.5, built sometime between 1971 and 1980 The lens is made of metal, it weights around 150g, it is 34 to 37mm long and it has an external diameter of 58mm, with a 49mm front thread. The iris has 5 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.5 to f16. On the side there’s the auto-manual selector for compatible camera bodies. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 150 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 45cm. As we can see on the front element, this was the first series of lenses produced by Asahi with multicoating. The M42 mount has a flange distance of 45,46mm. Get your adapter: Global: https://...

When talking about vintage lenses, everybody will tell you to avoid plastic lenses from the 80s and 90s because build and image quality are terrible. So obviously, I had to try them myself. The lens is made of plastic, it weights around 170g, it is 67 to 84mm long and it has an external diameter of 66mm, with a 52mm front thread and the from element turns when focusing. The iris has 7 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f4 to f22 plus auto. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 70 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 35cm. The Nikon F mount has a flange distance of 46,5mm. This lens uses the screw drive autofocus system and the focusing ring is very narrow and not really meant to be used; nevertheless it is precise. Sharpness wide open is very good with slightly softer corners and by f8 it gets very sharp all over the frame. There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between the two ends of the zoom range. Chromatic aberration can be spotted wide open in high con...

The lens is made of metal and hard plastic, it weights around 620g, it is 152 to 166mm long and it has an external diameter of 72mm, with a 58mm front thread and the from element turns when focusing. The iris has 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f4 to f32 plus auto, with half steps. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 160 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 1.2 meters. At 70mm it can be set to macro mode, reducing the minimum focusing distance to 45cm. The Canon Fd mount has a flange distance of 42mm. As you all know, I don’t like the sliding barrel focus and zoom system, but this specific copy has just the right amount of resistance. Sharpness wide open is all right but not amazing, with slightly softer corners and some noticeable vignetting. Stopping down to f8 it gets very sharp in the center, but less in the corners. There doesn’t seem to be much of a difference between the two ends of the zoom range. Chromatic aberration is present wide open ...

The lens has a plastic body, it weights 240g, it is 58 to 71mm long and it has an external diameter of 67mm, with a 52mm front thread and the from element turns when focusing. The iris has 7 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.3 at 35mm or f4.5 at 70mm to f22, without half steps. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 110 degrees and minimum focusing distance is roughly 35cm. The Nikon F mount has a flange distance of 46.5mm.   Adapter: https://amzn.to/3y1dhiP (affiliate link) This little plastic guy is one of the first Nikkor autofocus lenses, specifically the second version of the 35-70 commercialized in 1989. It doesn’t have an internal focusing motor, using instead the screw drive focusing system, meaning that the motor is inside the camera and it couples to the lens via a single screw. It might sound as a bit of a novelty, but I used this lens on the Nikon N70 with the screw drive focusing and it turned out to be much faster than expected and reliable. More ...

The FL mount was introduced in 1964 and replaced in 1971 by the FD mount, but for some reason FL lenses are way less popular than FDs, so obviously I was curious to try it out. I managed to get my hand on this small guy here and I was immediately struck by its build quality, The lens has a metal body, it weights 700g, it is 155 to 175mm long and it has an external diameter of 70mm, with a 58mm front thread and a built in sun hood. The iris had 8 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.5 to f22, without half steps. The aperture ring is very narrow and smooth, with the exception of two flanges that help turning it. The focusing ring has a pretty shallow texture, it turns 230 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 2,5 meters. The FL mount has a flange distance of 42mm and uses the same adapters as the FD mount. This lens is big and heavy, yet I didn’t have issues using it handheld. The focusing ring is wide, but I would have preferred a more pronounced texture. Sharpness wid...

Meyer-Optik Gortilz is one of those old manufacturers that are commonly associated with a few iconic lenses or designs, like the Domiplan and Trioplan, and that eventually couldn’t keep up with the market anymore and had to shut down. What most of us don’t realize is that in 2018 it has been brought back to life and since then it has been producing those iconic lenses again. I’ll leave a link in the description to their website, so you can check it yourselves. Today we’re checking out one of their lenses, the Telemegor 180mm, The lens has a metal body, it weights 300g, it is 109 to 130mm long and it has an external diameter of 57mm, with a 49mm front thread. The iris had 15 blades, the aperture is click-less and it goes from f5.5 to f22, with a preset feature accessible by pulling and turning the ring. The focusing ring has the zebra pattern and it turns 320 degrees. Minimum focusing distance is 2 meters and the front turns when focusing. It comes with an m42 mount, with ...