Was wondering if anybody on here could help me out:

I'm looking for an affordable tele-zoom (pref. 70-210ish) that matches my current contax-zeiss set. It needs to be f4 or faster constant aperture and two touch (!), parfocal and non-extending barrels, contax mount if possible. Any suggestions?

My research brought up a 70-210/f3.5 angenieux that's apparently quite good, but too pricey and seemingly can't be found in contax mount. Apart from that there's the Soligor MC C/D 70-210/f3.5 and the Tokina RMC 70-210/f3.5, both in contax mount and constant f3.5. Any infos on the two? Are they fixed barrels vs. extending? Parfocal? Edit: Are they any good at all?

Thanks in advance!

So many times I've started (oh excuses... hell is mostly full of them... and layers and church ministers)... but as I never have time nor patience enough to finish a proper shootout, just the first minute and the half is a very loose and inconsistent comparison of the following manual PP zooms (nikon mount):

• kobori (vivitar) 28-210 f3.5-5.3 / aka consistent throughout the range Shugga Wugga publicised enough by Mr. @Kiselev - if just the throw was... longer and macro at 70mm instead of 200
• nikkor 80-200 f4.5 / aka old sharp fart pro never-ending throw and dia 32
• soligor 70-200 f3.5 / aka Igorsan shaky bones so badly build and yet so fucking nice, the only 2 rings, also the most useful macro ( at 70mm) for handheld video, checked
• komine (vivitar) 70-210 f2.8-4 / aka Led Libbon toLpedo a 1kg air pumping bomb of solid metal and glass, WO CA's badly
   

Soundtrack
Reggie Watts @ TED

gashô

A nikkor still sample forba bay developed with BCS_HP-64 LUT =)

This mouth to mouth trusted info it's very nice... nevertheless to me some details /extra info and personalized experience is missing.

Starting with the very first lens: Vivitar 28-200 f3.5-5.3 serials beggining with 77 aka Kobori motherfucka.

The sample I have is nikon mount:

• 72mm filter thread.
• Optics: 18 elements in 16 groups.
• Diaphragm of 6 blades / 3.5-5.3 to 22
• Rotates when focusing (the whole frontal piece), so bye-bye polarizers or vari-NDs. Zoom works push/pull.
• Close to parafocal, have to test further, same with bokeh and sharpness through the range.
• Flare @ 28mm seemed complex and interesting, but as with CAs, need further testing
• At 28mm it's totally retracted, then the whole frontal piece extends till 200mm, at that point we can get into a macro mode with 1:4 ratio magnification.
• A little con is that rear element protrudes when pulling zoom, not as much as the 70-210.
• Some bigger con is that it's a fucking air pump... dunno how many times I had to air the sensor this week.
• Smaller than cousin 70-210, but thicker and though totally metal made, lighter too (665gr), a bit, don't go bananas.
• Not as solid monolit as the 1 Series but with a really good general feel and smooth operation - haven't been so lucky with the PP nikkors - balancing quite OK together with GH3, but I always liked the feel of torpedos, so it would depend on user, I guess.
• Another con, the throw of this lens is tiny, but real tiny yo, also my copy passes infinity, no it's not the adapter, triple checked.
• Minimal focus distance is around 2.5m, again till 200mm where is shorter; haven't measured macro mode yet.
• This monster breathes allright.
• Now, probably the most puzzling feature IMO. It's sharp BUT it's also very soft... mmm, contradictions. As with my copy of the 70-210, contrast vary. When shot with contrast down, it's almost like shooting LOG. Details are there but muddled. See video. That's good and not so good. If GH3 had the 200Mbps 422 FHD of GH4, would be all good, but with just half a testicle - 50Mbps long GOP 420 - the slightest threat of grade brings tiny fleas aka noisez...

When I have the time I promise to test it further, probably even making a mega orgy comparisson thingie.
VIDEO - GH3, mov 24p long GOP / shutter 25 / ISO 200 / WB daylight / Natural -5 -2 -5 -5
1 Shot at 200mm f-stop around 5.6 and the other 200mm + ETC same settings

No colour tinkering other than a LOG to Rec709 LUT and adjusted levels.
A sweep of NR and a pinch of sharpening =)

Here's the lens manual - vv28-200 / Source: allphotolenses

gashô

PS
I forgot, something OT but interesting, crop made in AE with creative impatience free plug, totally worth checking their free stuff =)

An while I'm at it, SOC Vivitar 28-200 f3.5-5.3 / Nikon AI 80-200 f4.5 / Vivitar 70-210 f2.8-4 / Panasonic 14-140 f4-5.8 all in ETC mode, see if you guess which is which, actually it's quite easy =)

Moon photo 1:1 quick&dirty developed

Ah, put another adapter on and bingo, the vivitar 28-200 is working great! That's the end of my diversion!

@flablo I have the same thing, under about 10' can't focus unless in macro, kind of makes sense with the marking on the focus ring that only has down to 10' on it, doesn't make it less frustrating though.

I think a lot of these Chinese parts are the same but branded under many different names

I couldn't agree more, +1

@TheLoneRoger: I can recommend the "Bigis" one. It´s working like a charm. (And it´s also pushing the pin inside the lens ... Which is neede for "auto" lenses. They only work manually when the pin is pushed inside the lens.)

Which 75mm Cosmicar is this? There are versions in 1.3, 1.4 and 1.8 floating around in the bay.

Does anybody know if Soligor 28-200 3.5-5.3 (no.99...) is the same construction as Vivitar/Kobori? Thanks!

No one knows it, I think. But it can be. If you can get it cheap you can test it yourself.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev thank you for lens suggestion and hacks, thank you for everyhting.

Cheers!

@apefos - yes, I see the same thing. The crop factor really classes up the FD lenses by removing their soft corners.

@tetakpatak - Thanks for the comments about the FD 50mm F/3.5 macro. I would buy one but I have the Panasonic/Leica 45mm macro which is just a phenomenal lens. (It sounds like we have very similar FD lens kits except for the 50mm macro.)

@tetakpatak do you have the Canon FD 20mm 2.8 in your set? If yes I would like to ask if you have this same issue:

When I use it on the GH2 the image sharpness is ok in center and corner at 2.8 (wide open) because GH2 just uses the center of image circle due to the sensor crop factor.

But when I use it on the Canon FD A1 old full frame film camera, the corners are very soft and blurred at 2.8 and the lens becomes usable at f5.6 and above.

The FD 20mm 2.8 I tested was very good condition, looks like mint, so I supposed the corner softness in full frame is normal from this lens at wide open f-stops.