Recommend a 400mm lens

[Doetuck]

I recently purchased a Lumix 45-200mm lens for my Olympus but I've decided I do not like AF lenses and the focus ring is a bit too sensitive.

Could you recommend a 400mm, ideally in M42, which gives a good sharpness and contrast at 400mm? A prime is good as is a zoom.

[iangreenhalgh1]

It would be very much easier to find a 300mm lens that had good performance. Or you could try a 500mm mirror lens.

[Lloydy]

M42 400's are generally of the older, long design. Of the few I've had the best has been a Vivitar ( SUN ) 400 / 5.6, closely matched by my Soligor ( Kino - Kiron ) 400 6.3. Both lenses are about 12 iches long and need a tripod, they do have a mount though. It would be wrong to compare them to modern lenses, but they are better than could be expected. In the past I've had a Chinon and a Photax, the Chinon was actually a good lens and I wish I still had it, the Photax was poor.
I rarely use my 400's, if I want a long lens I use a 500 / 8 mirror lens - usually my favourite Tamron 55BB or my Russian LZOS MC 3M-5CA. Both of these are excellent, and so much easier to use being more compact; but they are slower and have the distictive donut bokeh.

I like the big M42 telephoto's, but they do need some practice, a good tripod, and an acceptance that they are a lens of their time.

[Lloydy]

[stevemark]

[guardian]

[guardian]

[eggplant]

A curveball, but given the recommendations for quite old and long 400mm lenses, why not...

I've been using a ST-80 400mm f5.0 achromat telescope for doing bird pics on A6000. Much heavier than a Nestar or Spiratone and no easily adjustable aperture, but great IQ wide open and they cost like £70 used on eBay (with all the bits) compared to much more of something like a Tokina SD 400mm f5.6.

These have been produced for ages under different brands, M42 / T mount on the back of mine.

I did not see lateral CA or spherical aberration wide open, which is impressive for an f5.0 achro. But I'm using it at prime focus, whereas most use it magnified with an eyepiece for astronomy.

[D1N0]

I have a Panagor 400mm 1:5.6 that's pretty decent. Also available as Vivitar made by Komine. It may also be available as Elicar and Admiral since those are also brands the JACA corporation (holder of the Panagor brand) used.

[marcusBMG]

@stevemark has offered something of a definitive response. However there is plenty of fun to be had using the versatility of M43 adaptability (basically there are cheap adapters for just about everything) and of the EVF with magnification available to zero in on focus, to try out some vintage lenses, while bearing in mind the limitations stevemark points out. The idea then is getting a lot of reach and decent results for not a lot of $$.
For 400mm I was going to point you at the nestar but guardian beat me to it. It's the best of the old (1960's) 400mm t-mount options IMO, but relatively slow at f6.9. The panagor is a good one too, not the same as the komine vivitar actually in spite of its similarity, it's optically and structurally different. You could easily pick up a tokina made (soligor/vivitar/tokina RMC) 400mm f6.3 cheaply especially in one of the unpopular mounts like MD, that's also worthwhile. The later tokina f5.6's are faster and have closer focus but my sense of them is that they are not particularly sharper. Personally I don't recommend the "girlwatcher" anybrand 400 f6.3's - quality variable, inferior construction, often suffer from haze... but if one's there for next to nothing well by all means check it out.
see reviews here:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/userreviews/showcat.php?mcats=&si=400mm&what=title&name=&when=&whenterm=&dist=&radius=

However I would tend to agree with the notion that shorter focal lengths are more conducive on M43. SO the best of 300mm are : Nikon ED 300mm f4.5, minolta 300mm f4.5 IIRC (over to you stevemark), Tair 300mm 4.5 is also good but a heavy clunkier thing that often has stiff focus. Much more pricy: tamron adaptall 300mm f2.8.
Maybe there are some fast 200mm suggestions...

I still have my lumix G1, still working although the paint is getting sticky like the old sigma zen, and the batteries are a bit lame. These pics were taken with a tokina rmc 400mm f6.3, CFD mount in 2014.
Click for full size.


crop - 1:1


crop, rezize

[calvin83]

[iangreenhalgh1]

[kathala]

I went through the same search, albeit for full frame. Have a look at the Canon FD 400 4.5 SSC, it is splendid, truly a hidden gem with very high sharpness and joyous manual handling. It is fairly CA-prone at wide apertures, but fine at its optimal f/8-11.

[eggplant]

[tb_a]

[stevemark]

[tb_a]

[connloyalist]

Sorry for the tangent: How do you adapt visoflex to M4/3? Also, I seem to remember there are/were several versions of visoflex not all of which are compatible?

Regards, Christine

[tb_a]

[stevemark]

[tb_a]

[stevemark]

[e6filmuser]

[woodrim]

I posted a similar question back around 2017, asking about 400mm. I decided to try a mirror and that worked for me. It's not for everyone but the people who like them get hooked (me). Generally, they're much shorter and lighter but sometimes wider when faster than f/8. I did get a Sigma 5.6/400 mirror and liked it very much. I later found a Vectis 8/400 that I like more but the Sigma is pretty good if you get a good copy without deterioration of the mirror surface.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I wouldn't call that 'pretty good', I'd call it soft and not very good at all, the lens clearly doesn't have sufficient resolution to match the sensor, hence the fine detail of the feathers is absent and it's just a mush when you look at a proper 100% crop.



Might be good enough for some, but it's certainly not a lens that is capable of resolving pixel level detail.