This is the famous 'Plastic Fantastic' made by Cosina but variously branded; my example here is a 'Vivitar' version.
Most commonly seen in the auto focus form it was also produced in a manual focus version, this one is a Nikon F (Ai) mount. It is a relatively simple design of 5 elements in 4 groups that natively goes to half life-size (full life-size with a screw-in adapter lens).
I used this excellent lens before scoring a, usually very expensive, Tokina 90mm ATX f2.5.
The first thing you notice when handling it is the incredibly light weight due to nearly every component (though not the mount) being made of moulded toy-grade plastic (you can see the seam line clearly on the barrel for instance on the picture below).
Most commonly seen in the auto focus form it was also produced in a manual focus version, this one is a Nikon F (Ai) mount. It is a relatively simple design of 5 elements in 4 groups that natively goes to half life-size (full life-size with a screw-in adapter lens).
I used this excellent lens before scoring a, usually very expensive, Tokina 90mm ATX f2.5.
The first thing you notice when handling it is the incredibly light weight due to nearly every component (though not the mount) being made of moulded toy-grade plastic (you can see the seam line clearly on the barrel for instance on the picture below).
No fancy engraving here just quality paint all the way (!) and look at that rattly dinky aperture ring.
Not really calculated to inspire confidence or pride of ownership; but it works fine and the focusing is nice and firm.
Not really calculated to inspire confidence or pride of ownership; but it works fine and the focusing is nice and firm.
And here's a front-on view; it comes as I said in a slew of brands but if you see these specifications and it looks like this then it's the same lens.
A real metal mount. It was nice and positive on our D300.
Below are some samples; pretty much straight from the Nikon as .jpg files.
Nice and sharp at the middle apertures; say f5.6-f11 but it's quite ok wide open.
Lenses with relatively few elements often have very nice colour out of the camera and this lens to my eye definitely demonstrates that characteristic.
Nice and sharp at the middle apertures; say f5.6-f11 but it's quite ok wide open.
Lenses with relatively few elements often have very nice colour out of the camera and this lens to my eye definitely demonstrates that characteristic.
So if you run across one of these super-dinky lenses in a mount compatible to your camera system and you're looking for a cheap macro/bug/flower/detail option I would definitely recommend it. After all it's unlikely to cost more than a set of extension tubes and is far more versatile.
As I said previously, had I not snagged a Tokina 90mm I would still be very happily using this lens (and indeed it cost me so little that I delayed reselling it).
As I said previously, had I not snagged a Tokina 90mm I would still be very happily using this lens (and indeed it cost me so little that I delayed reselling it).
Cheers!
RSS Feed
