Albinar 80-200 f4.5 macro lens

walter g · Joined: 20 Feb 2010 Posts: 2463 Location: NC, USA

I picked this up at a local thrift shop today for $7, and it appears too be N.I.B.
It's Pk mount so I don't have a camera I can try it on.
So anyone try one? I really don't expect very good performance from it.
But ......
Sorry for the bad quality pics. I really need a light box. Embarassed

walter g · Joined: 20 Feb 2010 Posts: 2463 Location: NC, USA

I cleaned the first pic up enough, but the second pic. Embarassed

I'm having camera and or software problems. I will repost when I get the problem fixed.

fatdeeman · Joined: 13 Jun 2009 Posts: 780 Location: UK

I suppose it depends on who manufactured the lens, it could be either really bad or surprisingly good...

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

I have a Korean-made Albinar 80-200 f/3.9, which was available new back during the early 1980s. Here's a pic:

Yours is probably a later version. I bought one in Canon mount in 1983, and sold it when I converted to Nikon in 1989. I always had a lot of fondness for that lens because it could manage really good photos. Here's one I took with it in 1984 -- Canon A-1, Albinar 80-200/3.9, Kodachrome 64:

This past year or so, I've been going back and buying cameras and lenses I sold off over the years. The one above is in Nikon mount that I bought several months ago, and it appears to be just as good as the one I had back in the day.

I also owned a Korean-made Albinar 28mm f/2.8 "macro" that I bought at about the same time, and it too did a decent job. So, you never can tell. At least the Korean-made Albinars from the early 80s were decent. Hopefully yours will be too.

nemesis101 · Expire: 2015-01-22

Hmm 7 dollars.. that's a pricey item! lol

I got the 'Made in Japan' 80-200 F4.5 in Nikon Ai spec. which has a built in lens hood, for $2.95 at Goodwill.. it takes quite nice pictures but will not be taking the place of mt f3.5 70-210 Tammy SP Adaptall-2 just yet!

Its serial number is 904953 and it has a 55mm filter ring... It has a macro function at 200mm

Doug

walter g · Joined: 20 Feb 2010 Posts: 2463 Location: NC, USA

Cooltouch, Thank You for the pics. Hopefully I will be lucky and have a good copy too.

nemesis101 I wish thrift shops in my area had lenses. They don't. I was so excited to find a lens in a thrift shop in my area, I had to buy it. All my other lenses have come from the bay.

I might handhold the lens in front of my Minolta, just to give it a try.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Hey Walter,

I was about to suggest that you just hold it in front of your camera to try it out. I did this a while back with a Tamron I bought before I had an adaptall mount for it. It gave me a good idea about its performance.

With you, though, in order to use it, you're gonna have to pick up a Pentax, eh?

You know, I didn't notice at first but I see your zoom is made in Japan. So yeah, I'll bet yours is a decent performer, especially since you state that it is NIB. That is, no zoom or focus slop, hopefully.

Thrift shops are catch-as-catch-can. Luck of the draw. Etc. There's one not even a block away from my house that occasionally has interesting stuff. Most of the time they've got 35mm point-n-shoots that aren't particularly interesting, or camcorders missing batteries or chargers. Recently they had an EOS 630 (Canon's 2nd EOS 35mm camera, I believe), but they wanted more for it than you can pick one up for on eBay. Heck, they wanted more for what I got for a mint ELan II on eBay. But one day I walked in there and spotted a camera case that used to have a Pentax ME Super in it. And it still had an off-brand 28mm and 80-200, plus a winder and a flash. Paid $12 for it, got a decent case out fo the deal (which I can use). I have a Pentax KX, but didn't have any use for the lenses so I sold them on eBay and got almost 5x what I paid for the case of stuff just off those two lenses. Know anybody who needs a Pentax Winder ME II? Cool

That thrift shop is mostly about clothes. I wonder if I can make money selling clothes on eBay . . . Very Happy

walter g · Joined: 20 Feb 2010 Posts: 2463 Location: NC, USA

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

walter g · Joined: 20 Feb 2010 Posts: 2463 Location: NC, USA

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Definitely a sweet deal. I keep waiting for one. Best one I've had similar to that is coming across an Oympus XA with flash and manual at a yard sale for $5. Oh, oh! and a Minolta AF-2 (or something like that -- AF with manual wind) for free at another yard sale, cuz the seller thought it was busted. I keep waiting for that great QL17 deal though . . . Cool

nemesis101 · Expire: 2015-01-22

So far, the stuff I have got at thrift stores (well Goodwill actually) has done me quite well. Apart from the stuff I have kept, I have bought and moved on quite a bit - like 5 Lenovo laptops almost new (about a year old) that were just minus their hard disks - an easy replacement and with Linux loaded they cost me 69 dollars each, and that was with the docking stations.. they sold on the bay for an average of 340 dollars each Smile

So far the camera gear has netted me $3,103 in profit to date... and I can still feel good about helping a charity store Smile

Doug

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Well, speaking of Goodwill (hijack alert!), I just won some Canon gear at their auction site. Not really an incredible deal, but I got the item I wanted and I'll sell off the rest. I should be able to make enough off the items I don't want such that I'll get the item I do want for free. Guess I can't really complain.