I have been Komine focus when I look for lens. After having been blessed with Komine 135mm f/2.8 1:2 Close Focusing lens, I am intrigued to see a copy of Komine 200mm f/3.5 in K mount. This 200mm looks very much like my 135mm in the build and design. I especially like the lens with a built in lens hood. When I test the lens with Pentax F-1.7x AF TC that turns this manual focus lens into partial auto focus, I can see the lens quite sharp in the test pictures. I will test it more when I find time.Test Shots with F-1.7x AF TC:
Impressions & Notes:
- Lens is reasonably sharp wide open
- With Pentax F-1.7x AF TC, this lens has been a good 340mm tele that I can use to picture on Hummingbirds and the combined tele-lens is very much hand-holdable
- Focusing ring is smooth and provide great precisiion and damping for manual focusing
- Built in lens hood come in veyr handy
- I find it a bit heavier than the similar Pentax M 200mm f/4.0 but for the Komine Frenzy that I am in, I prefer this 200mm. In fairness, the Pentax M 200mm f/4.0 is very close in IQ to this lens, both are sharp wide open but I think the Pentax may do better in terms of color and contrast.
- When used with Pentax F-1.7x TC, PF/CA is seen in some of the test shots
Related:
5 comments:
This is a surprisingly good lens. It was my first 200mm. Mine wasn't what I consider sharp wide open but was quite decent. When stopped down a bit it is very good but as you say the Pentax-M is better in terms of color and contrast. I let my ex-wife have this when we divorced. I kept the M-series 200mm f/4.
Dennis, thanks for the visit and comment. I recall the two primes are quite similar but it is always cheaper on the Komine. I have recently replaced the prime with a Tamron SP 200mm f/3.5 adaptall-2 and I like the Tamron a bit better.
Thanx for the report :)
I just got one of these as a surprise.
It seems quite sharp even with my 1.5X teleconv so using it as a 300mm works ok.
I had a Pentax-M 200/4 but I sold it cause it wasnt good enough. Maybe my copy was bad but the Mamiya Sekor SX 200/3.5 that I have been using has been
extremely sharp and takes much better pictures then the Pentax did.
This Komine 200/3.5 is a lot smaller though.
Probably the smallest 200mm I have ever seen. It does weigh a lot. Much heavier then my Mamiyar but thats ok as long as the pictures are ok.
Not sure it is as good as my Mamiyar. Need to get out there and take real pictures with it ....
I have another 200/3.5 from Komine but that one was Konica and I broke while trying to convert it to P/K ;) My first attempt at that and of course it failed...
The komine is a capable lens and valuable if you compare the cheaper cost of ownership. I have found a better and smaller lens which is in the Tamron 200mm f/3.5 adaptall-2 (04A) http://www.techtheman.com/2009/11/tamron-200mm-f35-adaptall-2-04a.html and it is harder to find and you need an adaptall-2 adapter which is kind costly especially in the p/k-a mount but well worth the investment if you want to explore adaptall-2 lens series. If you enjoy MF gear and want a reasonable lens that does great on MF lens and with p/k-a support, the adaptall-2 is one of the lens that I highly recommend. And the mount can be adapted to other system in Canon/Nikon/Minolta/Sony/Olympus/m42 etc.
I do love Adaptall-s SP lenses. My favourite lens is the 35-80 2.8-3.8. It takes some incredible macros and nice portraits too.
This Komine is on sale now. It wasnt as good as my Mamiyar 200 3.5 so it had to go. Its prety sharp though. Still think the mamiyar has a lot better resolution. Would love to try that Tamron 200 3.5 and will if I can catch it.
What I really need is one of those Adaptall-2 PK/A's Quite rare and when found to expensive.. :(
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