I've shot film and digital with this lens, and when I did everything
right the performance was much better than your results seem to have been.
I also tested it at 200 mm against every 200mm capable lens that I own,
(two that are actual legendary the Vivitar S1 version 2, and version 3),
using both film and digital, (6mp bodies).
Test Subjects: FA 28~200mm
Vivitar S1 70-210mm f3.8 (Ver. 2 in the series)
Vivitar S1 70-210mm f2.8~4.0 (Ver. 3 in the
series)
Pentax M 200mm f4.0
Pentax F 70~210mm f4.0~5.6
Mostly out of curiosity, but partly to decided which 200 to carry if I
needed the best quality possible. I thought that the M200mm f4.0 which
is well regarded, though available relatively inexpensively would win
being a prime and all, but not so much. The only lens that really let
me down was the FA 28~200mm, on film, where edge performance was, well,
not good. The other four lenses didn't leave a lot to choose between
them. The Vivitars both more or less lived up to their reputation. The
M200 4.0 was very good but it didn't blow the Zooms away, and the F
70-210 was every bit as good as the reviews on Stan Halpin's web comment
site
<http://stans-photography.info/LongComments.html#70-210%20mm%20f/4.0-5.6%20F>
would lead you to believe it is.
Now I'd love to have the smc [K] 200mm f2.5 you're unloading but even
cheap it would be more that I paid for all of those lenses, combined.
(Maybe that's not entirely fair, as the FA28~200 came as a lens cap on a
camera body I wanted, but it's the lens I would have paid the least for).
On the digital camera body, each lens out preformed the sensor for
resolution.
On 10/16/2010 10:30 AM, John Mustarde wrote:
On Thu, 14 Oct 2010 08:55:11 -0400, you wrote:
KEH is listing one of the semi-legendary F 70-210 f4~5.6 lenses for
only $139.
When did this lens become "semi-legendary"? I've had
two; neither was great. I sold my last one for the
going rate of about $125 some years ago. It was nicely
matched in range and size with the F 24-50/f4, but
optically was sub par, suitable only for 4x6 snapshots
and cropped 8x10s, at almost every focal length. In the
days of when anything faster than ISO 100 was of
unexceptional quality, the f5.6 speed was a nuisance.
There was a long PDML thread discussing its measured
shortcomings some years back. It was poor anywhere near
the edges. But of course, using only the center glass
on an APS-C camera, it's performance likely increased
substantially. Maybe even to semi-legendary status?
The problem with "great" glass is that it becomes
greater through discussion and praise, rather than
objectively evaluated by measurement. I've been as
guilty as anyone of promoting lenses based on my
limited experience. It is an easy thing to do in the
absence of reliable and accurate means of measurement.
That said, I have a superb, super fast and
semi-legendary M 200/2.5 lens for sale. Cheap, make
offer, hurry cause there's a fancy new but soon to be
legendary .22 Magnum semi-auto pistol I'm lusting
after.
.
--
John Mustarde
Paris, TX
--
"His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral
bankruptcy."
-Woody Allen
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