Hoya HMC 3.5/35-105

DigiChromeEd · Joined: 29 Dec 2009 Posts: 3462 Location: Northern Ireland

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

The Hoya lenses of the that era were built like tanks - at least those that I had.

I do have a very similar lens branded "Porst".

rudolfkremers · Expire: 2015-08-08

(EDIT: I moved this post to its own thread in the manual lenses forum)

SO, I punted on this lens, as I has a suspicion about Hoya's coatings producing very warm saturated colour rendering. A bit like certain types of film. It's a cinematic look that I really care about. I shot some i images this morning, in pretty harsh sunlight.

My punt is a bit of a failure, insofar that the lens has fungus o the front element (inside) and some haze (I think)

There is good, bad, and ugly:

The good: I love love love the colours:

I like nthe Bokeh as well, and it has a handy macro mode.

The bad:
It's not that sharp, although it may be bad focus technique. The lens is super heavy, and it was VERY windy:

The ugly:
I Love the colours in this (and bokeh is fine) but what the hell is this soft unsharp mess?

Is the lens that bad, or is it because the fungus/haze? Is it bad focusing? I did notice this zoom is very flare prone, and seems to choke easily on harsh highlights...

So, it's a conundrum. I may be wasting my time with it, but I intend to do some tripod/monopod shooting with it, to see if I can rule out camera shake. If that still produces iffy results I am not sure what to do, as for all I know the coating damage explains the issues.

I have a Vario-Sonnar 35-70 and 80-200, and a Nikkor 80-200 and a Nikkor pro zoom 35-70 on the way, so I am well covered with zooms, but as I said, I love the colours of these Hoya HMC lenses...

Thoughts?