This was going to be a cheap lens shoot out

[smith-jones]

But is now more like discovering my love for an old Tamron lens.

I have a camera club shoot tonight at a local festival and for various reasons my good lenses are not with me right now so thought i would take these two lenses and have a shoot out between them since they are essentially similar (both 28-80mm fairly slow and have some macro capability).



I use both as manual focus lenses adapted to My A7s.

They each cost me only a few dollars at the charity shop i work at (they were available to customers first).

On the left is a (near) mint Tamron adaptall 28-80 3.5-4.2 (model 27a) that came with a box and case and on the right a Sigma in very good condition AF lens for Pentax 28-80 3.5-5.6.

I would have thought doing a shootout the more modern Sigma might have had the edge but after just ONE comparison look now to get an idea, the old Tamron is light years better so not even going to bother taking the Sigma now.

Besides the Sigma is much harder to focus since it is a designed for AF lens as well as a bit slower at the long end.

I have not used either very much (they sort of followed me home as strays) but I am really surprised by how good i think the Tamron might be.

I probably should not be as it is an SP lens and i do love my old Tamron 300 2.8 SP and liked the two model 19ah SP lenses i had.

 

[Tom Caldwell]

But is now more like discovering my love for an old Tamron lens.

I have a camera club shoot tonight at a local festival and for various reasons my good lenses are not with me right now so thought i would take these two lenses and have a shoot out between them since they are essentially similar (both 28-80mm fairly slow and have some macro capability).



I use both as manual focus lenses adapted to My A7s.

They each cost me only a few dollars at the charity shop i work at (they were available to customers first).

On the left is a (near) mint Tamron adaptall 28-80 3.5-4.2 (model 27a) that came with a box and case and on the right a Sigma in very good condition AF lens for Pentax 28-80 3.5-5.6.

I would have thought doing a shootout the more modern Sigma might have had the edge but after just ONE comparison look now to get an idea, the old Tamron is light years better so not even going to bother taking the Sigma now.

Besides the Sigma is much harder to focus since it is a designed for AF lens as well as a bit slower at the long end.

I have not used either very much (they sort of followed me home as strays) but I am really surprised by how good i think the Tamron might be.

I probably should not be as it is an SP lens and i do love my old Tamron 300 2.8 SP and liked the two model 19ah SP lenses i had.

It might be worth us mentioning some of our lenses that were cheap but found respectable use beyond initial expectations.

I am currently in love with a Jupiter 37A in M42 mount. (135/3.5)

This lens is probably not one of the best known Jupiter lenses but seem to be the last of a long line starting with the first Jupiter-11 in ltm mount (135/4.0) which was a clone of the original Zeiss lens of the early 1950's.

It progressed to the Jupiter-11 in M42 mount then the 11A and the 37A. They were all physically different from one another but presumably had the same internals. At some stage (I think the first J-!! in M42) they progressed to double helicoid.

All have been quite good performers.

I had thought that I had found an undocumented M42 J-11 which was a meld of the ltm version and a M42 mount. The penny dropped when I discovered that it was a hybrid of the ltm version where enterprising lens mechanics with some skills were chopping exiting ltm lenses and grafting M42 mounts on them. With various levels of professionalism.

The first one I bought was very well done and suggested to me that it was an undocumented 'factory issue'. But later ones of less sophistication led to the obvious conclusion that there was a cottage industry building hot rod M42 versions for Zenit slr bodies..

I think that I have collected three, possibly four, of these "hot rods".

Meanwhile you could still buy Jupiter-37A lenses brand new for very reasonable prices a few years ago.

--
Tom Caldwell

 

[photoholiko]

I had found a Phoenix all plastic SLR at a flee market with a 35-70/f3.5,5.6 Phoenix lens in Pentax mount. I tried it om my Pentax K100Ds and was amassed at the IQ, great color and very sharp. That is the reason I am addicted to adapting old lenses to modern cameras.