Ricoh Rikenon P Zoom 3.4-4.5/35-70 on NEX-3

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

This is a tiny, very light lens, all plastic barrel but feels well made. It's surprisingly good, a little less sharp than ideal wide open and with some quite bad CA, but close it one stop and the sharpness and CA become good, close it another stop to f8 and the CA goes away and it becomes very good. So as long as you don't shoot it wide open, this is a capable little lens. Best of all, I paid 99p for it, brand new, unused in the original box.

These are all at the70mm end, first one is wide open at f4.5, second f5.6, third f8.

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These are at infinity, f8, at the 70, 50 and 35mm settings:

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Lloydy · Expire: 2022-01-01

I think this 35-70 range of lenses were designed for performance rather than budget price, and it doesn't seem to matter who made them I've got my favourite Rokkor, a Tamron, Pentax and a Vivitar 35-70, and they are all very good. ( I think the Rokkor is exceptional )
These lenses were probably the ones aimed at the SLR owners as their first new lens purchase, and the manufacturers made them 'good' rather than 'cheap' to keep the buyer loyal.
The original buyers would hardly ever shoot them wide open, mid range they were excellent - like this Rikenon. It does what it was designed to do, work very well in most situations, and it's hard to argue with that ideal.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

I agree, used sensibly, very capable of good results. I have the equivalent Konica 35-70 and it's less sharp but doesn't have the CA.