Sun f4.8 80-210 on Sony a850

[iangreenhalgh1]

One of the earliest zoom lenses, very well made, not very sharp, not very contrasty, making it a bitch to focus, but has a very nice character with interesting bokeh that has some swirl, colours are distinctly pastel due to the low contrast. It's an interesting lens to play with for it's character but don't expect the performance of a modern lens. All of these were shot wide open because it was a dark, dull day and I wanted to maximise the character I could eek out of the thing. You can see how hard it was to focus on some of the graveyard shots.


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[jamaeolus]

Is this the same as the Topcon labelled zoom? I think that is marked 87-210, but I know focal length designations are not always accurate to the millimeter.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Apparently so, yes:

http://forum.mflenses.com/topcor-re-auto-87-205-4-7-t80375.html

[jamaeolus]

After reading that post (again) I can see in some of your images what the post author was referring to regarding contrast issues. Could be useful for certain artsy images though. The cinematographer in "The Handmaids Tale" made (makes?) extensive use of backlighting washout, and both veiling and artifact flare.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Yes, I think this lens has 13 elements, all single coated, so contrast is going to be an issue. I shot it on a very dull, dark day, I can imagine it would be quite troublesome to use on a day with bright, direct sunshine.

But for me, the whole reason for playing with these ancient lenses is because they are so far from perfect and their flaws give them characters to be exploited for artistic effect.

I bet the extreme corners are utterly awful, but that's not an issue given how it's most useful roles are...

[Lloydy]

I've yet to find a SUN lens that I like, I have a few Soligor's by SUN and they are 'average' at best, nowhere near as good as the more common Tokina and Komine made lenses. I've had other brands that have been attributed to Sun and most have been poor.

The only SUN branded lens I have is a huge old 80-240mm f4 zoom that is without doubt the worst lens I've had. It's only function now is as a cudgel if I need to repel invaders.

Your 80-210 is way better, at least it produces images that are usable - with vintage charm. I think some of those churchyard pictures would look good in B&W with a bit of processing to bring out that vintage charm.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I have a couple of Soligors I suspect are Sun and as you say, they ain't great. Well made and heavy, but optically....

I need to get Silver EFEX working again, for some reason it's stopped complying and just crashes.

I did process the one of the market cross, but without Silver EFEX, it's not easy to get a desirable result.

[ZuikosHexanonsandVivitars]

[iangreenhalgh1]

The lens may have made it, but that shot is a 3-frame HDR and the HDR software did a bad job at removing the blue-red CA, so it might also be an artefact of the HDR processing. I should have manually removed the CA instead, but I was being lazy.

[Lloydy]

[iangreenhalgh1]

Well said Dave, I bought this old Sun precisely5, because I knew it wouldn't render images in the same way as other lenses I already have, it would show the world in a different light to reality, and I see absolutely no problem with then further altering and twisting that view of the world through manipulation in software.

What I didn't buy this Sun for is ultra sharp and realistic shots of thinghs such as landscapes, it just isn't well suited to that, whereas I have other lenses that are. This is with the smaller brother of the Sun, the 60-135, it's not very sharp and far from what my best lenses would be able to do, but to me, it's 'good enough', especially as it was just one of those little runs out with my dad in our 1957 Rover where I took the camera along, the object being to enjoy time with my dear old dad, any photos that came out of it being strictly a bonus.

As it came out of the camera, low contrast is clear:


It can be improved a little with PP:


Four stitches of my hometown, don't pixel peep, they are full of soft regions and smudged detail due to the old Sun lens.