Kiron 28MM F2 on Sony A7

[eddieitman]

Well a very well-known lens, came out for a walk, and did some pics with her.
The lens has great colours and is lovely to handle,
Flaring is really bad and could do with a hood, as you can see in the extreme pic i took, you can see the lens elements lay out in the pic
A little soft in Corners, most landscape taken at F5.6

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[55]

A pleasing variety of shots. Thanks!

[benadamx]

the colors certainly pop - is that from the lens, or were they adjusted in post?

[D1N0]

Also available as Vivitar and Panagor.

[stevemark]

Looking for something else (ie another lens) on the attic I stumbled upon a Kiron 2/28mm and decided to play around with it while on my way to get the second sample of the rare Mamiya 45-90mm ...

First a few comparing 100% crops at various apertures:



Typical for fast lenses, the Kiron 2/28mm is slightly soft in the center at f2.0, but stil has lots of resolution. Stopping down to f4 results in perfect center resolution and contrast.

Corners are a different story, though. Very bad at f2 (but don't think a Nikkor AiS 2/24mm would be better!!), still quite bad at f4 and reasonably good at f11. CAs are a bit too strong I would say, however they easily can be removed by PP, and then the f11 images look really good.

[stevemark]

Here are a few more images. First a few images from Bülach, a small but old town in north of Zurich.

[stevemark]

Two images taken at or near MFD, and wide open (f2.0). Even though the Kiron doesn't have floating elements (most OEM 2/28mm do have floating elements), there's decent resolution in the image center (corners are a different story, of course). The Bokeh of the lens is quite remarkable - busy, but pretty nice nevertheless, and quite different from the busy "cateye/bubble/swirley" bokeh we often see with other "busy bokeh" lenses:

[stevemark]

A few more, this time taken in Schaffhausen - a slightly bigger town at the very north of Switzerland, right on the German border:

As you can see we have some rather nice buildings here, with even nicer frescoes ("Haus zum Ritter", built 1492, Frescoes by Tobias Stimmer 1568-70)


Here are some 100% crops from the image above. Image taken at f8, and RAW data converted with Photoshop. Lateral CAs were removed, and sharpening was set to 45 with a radius of 0.8. First the extreme corner:


Then the center:


As you may see, these frescoes don't look as old as advertised. In fact, the original frescoes - said to be some of the most precious renaissance fresco north of the alps - were taken down shortly before WWII, put in a safe storage, and replaced by copies (1938/39). Probably a wise decision, as we can see these days.

And finally an image showing the peaceful and relaxed atmoshpere around here:


All images - with exception of the two flower images - were taken at f8.

S

[RokkorDoctor]

Something the Swiss and Japanese have in common. Such lovely clean streets. More due to attitude than an army of street cleaners.

[sergtum]

[Doc Sharptail]

Nice images here!

I like the monochromes a lot and should be trying it more myself.

-D.S.

[stevemark]

[marcusBMG]

Very nice images Steve, and eddieitman.
Between the komine made viv 28/2 and the kiron/viv 28/2 lenses that I looked out for and eventually acquired in PKA mounts, i tend to prefer the kiron. I think it is a lens for taking pictures with rather than scrutinising corner pixels.
Mind you it seems like most of the 28's I try out on my standard test pic of the castle leave me unimpressed - I wonder if it is something about the way the light gets to the sensor on a dslr...

[jamaeolus]

Excellent images. Also a very "interesting" garage that Miata is parked ....

[stevemark]

[martinsmith99]

Hmm, the corners let this lens down for a FF user

[stevemark]

[marcusBMG]

I'l look forward to that comparison Steve.

Took the kiron out sat last - pentax KS2, f9:

[stevemark]

[iangreenhalgh1]

[Arutemu]

I have that lens too. Not too concerned about the corners, but flaring can be problematic, unless used creatively. Flaring at night is downright annoying. So are distortions, but that's to be expected from 28mm. Still can't bring myself to like this focal length, despite having several.

Summer light in Manhattan by Artem, on Flickr

At night with Kiron by Artem, on Flickr

The Flatiron District at night by Artem, on Flickr

New York by Artem, on Flickr

Lights in the night by Artem, on Flickr

[iangreenhalgh1]

Those are excellent images Artem, I particularly like the last one.

[stevemark]

[Arutemu]

[quote="stevemark"]

[Doc Sharptail]

[quote="Arutemu"]