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Soligor Tele-Auto 1:3.5 f=200mm
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PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2007 1:10 pm    Post subject: Soligor Tele-Auto 1:3.5 f=200mm Reply with quote

I just got this lens this morning. Paid it 16,8 Euros.
Super fast shipping from UK. As usual UK mail service is extremely fast. DHL and Colissimo are much slower.
Anyway:
just tried it quickly, the lens is lightweight, has a very low contrast and is surprisingly sharp wide open. I never found a cheap lens so sharp wide open.
These are qualities that make it good for street photography.
Of course it's a Soligor and I paid it 16 euros, so it vignettes wide open (on full frame), and it has loads of CA in the blurred contrasted areas, not only wide open but also stopped down.
I was not expecting anything better.
Overall it's a decent lens, your prints will never be perfect but you can use it wide open and this is not common for cheap lenses.
All in all it is a keeper considering the price. It will come useful for those situations when you are out to photograph in places where you do not want to risk your best equipment (such as sandy beaches or anyway sea or lake coasts with water sprays). The Soligor will bring the photos home, so to say. It's low contrast makes it good for shooting public events, because it will give you more room for exposure errors, which are the most common problem of fast shooters with manual lenses.

Here's a sample, whole image resized, shot wide open:
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/495/soligorwholewm8.jpg

and a 100% detail crop, not sharpened:
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/3194/solidetxj7.jpg

Once sharpened and contrasted, the images from this lens will look reasonably nice.
Of course this is not a lens to use for a 50x70 cm wall poster.


PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2007 1:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi, Orio!

Congratulations to your new lens.
I think you really hit the point. Soligor lenses can offer good, maybe even very good, performance for a low price.
Most of them will not come close to a Zeiss or Leica lens, but they are some insider's tip.

I have several Soligor lenses, some are very, very good and some are OK, but none of my Soligors is disappointing.

Carsten

BTW: I've got my Helios-44-2 today ("back to the roots"-lens). It is a charming glass, really! I'm glad, I bought it (for € 5,50 with a working camera!)


PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2007 1:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LucisPictor wrote:
Hi, Orio!

Congratulations to your new lens.
I think you really hit the point. Soligor lenses can offer good, maybe even very good, performance for a low price.


Yes, I mean, if you look at the rendition of the background trees in the whole picture, it is very decent - especially if you consider it's wide open.
I have lenses that blur those trees more wide open.
Of course you get vignetting wide open on full frame, but hey it's a 16 euros lens. I get wide open vignetting from lenses costing way much more.

As for CA, well... again, it's a 16 Euros 200mm lens, which makes it, in proportion, the equivalent of a 5 Euros standard lens. For the price, you can live with it. In many situations, such as portraits or detail shots, where you have lower contrast because of more controlled background, CA will just barely be noticeable.


PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2007 2:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And it's not too difficult to get rid of CA (if it is not too strong) during PC post production.


PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 2:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yesterday I made some bokeh and roundness shots with this cheap lens and I have been frankly impressed by the results.

The highlight bokeh has virtually zero donut effect. See shot 2 for this (the first 2 scenes here are a realt "torture test" for the highlight bokeh. To pass such a test means to be very good. Many of my expensive lenses do worse than this in the test).
With this lens, when many highlights cross each other, you don't have that obnoxious "spread rice" effect, you get instead a quasi-organic blur highlight mass (evident in shot 2)

The normal bokeh is very soft and pictorial, as you can see from the shot 4, for instance.

The lens also gives some good perception of roundness, as you can see from the samples 5 and 7

What I have really trouble understanding now is how we haven't heard reports of these qualities yet. This is not a lens that shall pass unnoticed. It has problems, especially with CA, but it has lots of quality for the money: very good sharpness wide open, which becomes excellent stopped down; good roundness rendition; and a bokeh that is up with the best amongst the modern-day lenses - one that really justifies the Germany origin of the company, although the lens itself is made in Japan.

This is a lens that I would recommend to any bokeh-shooters, and if you don't print too large (where CA would become a problem), I would also recommend it as a general purpose medium tele lens (see sample 6) for the budget-conscious photographer. Certainly you get all the bang you could get from your money.

Here's the samples:

(1)
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/399/solibok1hj9.jpg

(2)
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1747/solibok2lh6.jpg

(3)
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5158/solibok3pv1.jpg

(4)
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/3663/solibok4gt0.jpg

(5)
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/25/solibok5az4.jpg

(6)
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/8923/solibok6nm8.jpg

(7)
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/4953/solibok7mp2.jpg


PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2007 11:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This was taken very early in the morning, through the glass of a window (which may have caused a slight "pastel" effect on the picture):



(click on thumb nail for enlargement)


PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2007 2:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio,
Looks as if you have a good lens there. I recognized your first two shots from a previous post using the jupiter 36B. I like the color from the new lens better. Perhaps it's the contrast. Very nice.


PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2007 4:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

That new lens looks great on you, Orio! Good find.
I see you've changed your avatar...tired of looking down your nose at
people? Laughing

I liked that one, actually...so what is this, an Italian
shopping mall? Laughing Really, what is it?


PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2007 2:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Katastrofo wrote:
That new lens looks great on you, Orio! Good find.
I see you've changed your avatar...tired of looking down your nose at
people? Laughing


I guess so, yes! LOL

Katastrofo wrote:
I liked that one, actually...so what is this, an Italian
shopping mall? Laughing Really, what is it?


It's the main piazza of Castell'Arquato, which is one of the many castles around here.

A larger size, photo taken with (guess what?) Flek 4/20 on film Praktica camera:


Actually it's likely that they had the market here in the piazza back in the 15th century so perhaps you could consider it the open-air shopping mall of the time Wink


PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2007 2:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice scan, like a postcard! The power of film... Wink

Bill


PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2007 3:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Katastrofo wrote:
Nice scan, like a postcard! The power of film... Wink
Bill


Yeah but I had to work on the scan to bring out detail from the shadows. It was a very contrasted image.

On this place they shoot some scenes from the "Excalibur" movie. Can't remember if the church was shown thought. For sure i could recognize the tower (behind my back in this shot).


PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2007 10:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Excalibur was a great movie! Ahead of it;s time...

Bill


PostPosted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 4:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Japanese medlar in my courtyard, shot at dawn, 400 ISO and lens wide open (f/3.5), hand held:



PostPosted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 4:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very nice, I like the colors! I'd say you came out way ahead with this
cheap Soligor! Smile

Bill


PostPosted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 5:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Katastrofo wrote:
Very nice, I like the colors! I'd say you came out way ahead with this
cheap Soligor! Smile

Bill


Yes this is one of those underrated lenses that people throws away and I collect Wink

I think this lens has an amazing performance wide open, not only for being a cheap lens - on absolute terms.


PostPosted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:36 am    Post subject: 200/3.5 Reply with quote

Hi, I just got same lens in New Zealand, nearly mint condition, even with a original Pentax m42-PK adaptor, $NZ40 including shipping. I'm very glad with it because it is really nice gun as you said. Very sharp at f3.5 wide open.


PostPosted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello and welcome to the group!
I am happy to see someone from New Zealand! I am currently in the process of 3D-modeling trees from your beautiful country for my work!

You are absolutely correct, the Soligor 3.5/200 is very sharp wide open!
Really a surprising lens with a quality much higher than its price. I absolutely wanted one too for myself until I got it less than two months ago, for only 16,8 Euros!!


PostPosted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice to see you here ! Many thanks for joining us!


PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Orio, Look at this, the bird and fruits and background-bluesky, shooting at f3.5 with my Pentax K10d.



Sorry, fixed by me. Attila


PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 1:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hurryup wrote:
Orio, Look at this, the bird and fruits and background-bluesky, shooting at f3.5 with my Pentax K10d.


Sorry, fixed by me. Attila


I can see a Chinese writing ? ?


PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 3:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I fixed the direct link to image link same way as we used from image shack.us , damn hosting provider replace it to this Chinese writing, I removed now.

HurryUp! Please use Add image function here.


PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ok, hope this is better to view.


PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hurryup wrote:
ok, hope this is better to view.


Where ?

1) in Add an Image

Select an image

2)click on host it

copy right link here and uploading would be done.


PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Soligor 200/3.5 sample.


PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another sample.