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marcusBMG
Joined: 07 Dec 2012
Posts: 1318
Location: Conwy N Wales
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 Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 5:49 pm Post subject: Sigma APO 300mm f4.5 doesn't like Lumix G1 M/43?? |
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marcusBMG wrote:
I just acquired this in CY mount. Smart lens, good handling with IF, nice case.
So I wheeled it out on my G1, an old camera these days but I have next to nothing invested in it and I have adapters for just about all the common vintage mounts except OM. The Sigma "APO's" I think are supposed to be the premium lenses, so I had good hopes for this. I think it's one of the earliest ones to have that designation, MF and no "zen" coating, puts it ...1980's? However:
UGH! Horrid fringing and ghosting, veiling flare, soft. Actually I could see that IQ wasn't up to much using magnified focusing in the evf. My first instinct was to write it off as a bad one and send it back.
However I persevered, snapping away at an obliging sedge warbler at the RSPB, this was as sharp as I could get, f11 (I gave up on trying any lower f stop). After PP in Lightroom, resize to 900px and sharpen, this was as good as I could get, and actually it's pretty decent considering the very large crop to 1500px from 4016px.
Later I squeezed it onto a PK-NX adapter and tried my Samsung NX20. 20MPx OoC jpg's.
Nothing (note the resolving of the wee bug, f8 ) too wrong with that! The resized, slightly sharpened f11 image turns out nice.
That's more like what I was expecting from an APO, comfortably better at this ~ closest focus range than the tamron preset t-mount 300mm f5.6 I used as a point of comparison. A longer range subject however did show some of the problems observed on the G1.
So far my tentative conclusions are that it's better at close focus, and a write off sub-f8 on my G1 for eg birding. Have any of you experience with one of these? Any thoughts/observations on compatibility/variability with digital?
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pentax ME super (retired)
Pentax K3-ii; pentax K-S2; Samsung NX 20; Lumix G1 + adapters;
Adaptall collection (proliferating!) inc 200-500mm 31A, 300mm f2.8, 400mm f4.
Primes: takumar 55mm; smc 28mm, 50mm; kino/komine 28mm f2's, helios 58mm, Tamron Nestar 400mm, novoflex 400mm, Vivitar 135mm close focus, 105mm macro; Jupiter 11A; CZJ 135mm.
A classic zoom or two: VS1 (komine), Kiron Zoomlock... |
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WolverineX
Joined: 19 Apr 2009
Posts: 1693
Location: Zagreb , Croatia , Europe
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 6:26 am Post subject: |
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WolverineX wrote:
are glass elements inside the lens clean?
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my tools:Oly E-M5 + 45mm/1.8 + Oly E-520 + 12-60 + 14-42 + 70-300 + Sigma 105mm + FL-50R + EC20 + SRF-11 ring flash
http://forum.mflenses.com/wolverinex-testing-my-lenses-series-link-list-t39524.html |
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buerokratiehasser
Joined: 12 Jun 2011
Posts: 470
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 7:04 am Post subject: |
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buerokratiehasser wrote:
I have no experience with this lens.
It looks like the typical smear glow of Wide open low quality lenses, like my Sun 300/4.5.
And then some.
May be aggravated by small sensor.
That or someone took it apart and inserted the correction elements the wrong way.
I think haze alone cannot produce this amount of spaced glow, it looks like optical formula problem. |
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marcusBMG
Joined: 07 Dec 2012
Posts: 1318
Location: Conwy N Wales
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 2:15 pm Post subject: |
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marcusBMG wrote:
| WolverineX wrote: |
| are glass elements inside the lens clean? |
Yes the lens looks optically good. No sign of balsam haze particularly...
I did look closely at the lens for signs of tampering - nothing to note. It is certainly possible there is an optical flaw in there somewhere, perhaps from new. Most often if an element in misassembled the IQ is shot, period. But sometimes there are small correctional elements that wouldn't have a big effect, or even no effect along the optical axis, if the wrong way round, or even missing.
That first crop is pretty close to the optical axis however, and the close up shots of the flower are not showing immediate deterioration of IQ away from the axis. As it happens the seller was also selling an old sigma YS 300mm f4, which he sent me by mistake. That lens was if anything even worse wide open - same results as this review thread actually.
http://forum.mflenses.com/sigma-sq-300mm-f-4-m42-t36952.html
Maybe sigma just hadn't got the hang of things yet...
_________________
pentax ME super (retired)
Pentax K3-ii; pentax K-S2; Samsung NX 20; Lumix G1 + adapters;
Adaptall collection (proliferating!) inc 200-500mm 31A, 300mm f2.8, 400mm f4.
Primes: takumar 55mm; smc 28mm, 50mm; kino/komine 28mm f2's, helios 58mm, Tamron Nestar 400mm, novoflex 400mm, Vivitar 135mm close focus, 105mm macro; Jupiter 11A; CZJ 135mm.
A classic zoom or two: VS1 (komine), Kiron Zoomlock... |
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marcusBMG
Joined: 07 Dec 2012
Posts: 1318
Location: Conwy N Wales
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 2:33 pm Post subject: |
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marcusBMG wrote:
I took some more test pics, of the dredger. The weather was cloudy, without the bright sun and associated reflections a lot of the fringing and ghosting disappeared. Still soft at f4.5, with a fog of veiling flare. f4.5, f5.6, f8; last pic is with a tamron adaptall 300mm f5.6 (AD1, v1), f5.6. Samsung NX20, jpg's.
_________________
pentax ME super (retired)
Pentax K3-ii; pentax K-S2; Samsung NX 20; Lumix G1 + adapters;
Adaptall collection (proliferating!) inc 200-500mm 31A, 300mm f2.8, 400mm f4.
Primes: takumar 55mm; smc 28mm, 50mm; kino/komine 28mm f2's, helios 58mm, Tamron Nestar 400mm, novoflex 400mm, Vivitar 135mm close focus, 105mm macro; Jupiter 11A; CZJ 135mm.
A classic zoom or two: VS1 (komine), Kiron Zoomlock... |
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buerokratiehasser
Joined: 12 Jun 2011
Posts: 470
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 3:20 pm Post subject: |
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buerokratiehasser wrote:
Now wait a moment, it could actually BE the Sun 300/4.5!
The pipe, the girdle, the tripod mounting..
Is that on the front a hood you can pull up to shield against flare??
Would be pretty nasty to sell that as "APO" however .. |
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Gerald
Joined: 25 Mar 2014
Posts: 1196
Location: Brazil
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 5:07 pm Post subject: |
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Gerald wrote:
It's a shame that your APO Sigma 300mm F4.5 performs so poorly. I'm sure the lens design is very good, it was one of Sigma's pride at the time:
I have the APO Sigma 400mm F5.6 which is the sister of the 300mm F4.5. Both lenses must have been designed by the same team.
APO Sigma 400mm F5.6 alongside Meyer Telemegor 400mm F5.5
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If raindrops were perfect lenses, the rainbow did not exist. |
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marcusBMG
Joined: 07 Dec 2012
Posts: 1318
Location: Conwy N Wales
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 7:17 pm Post subject: |
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marcusBMG wrote:
Very interesting info there Gerald, thanks for posting the scans. Do they have a date on them?
How do you find the APO 400mm?
_________________
pentax ME super (retired)
Pentax K3-ii; pentax K-S2; Samsung NX 20; Lumix G1 + adapters;
Adaptall collection (proliferating!) inc 200-500mm 31A, 300mm f2.8, 400mm f4.
Primes: takumar 55mm; smc 28mm, 50mm; kino/komine 28mm f2's, helios 58mm, Tamron Nestar 400mm, novoflex 400mm, Vivitar 135mm close focus, 105mm macro; Jupiter 11A; CZJ 135mm.
A classic zoom or two: VS1 (komine), Kiron Zoomlock... |
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Gerald
Joined: 25 Mar 2014
Posts: 1196
Location: Brazil
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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Gerald wrote:
The ads are from 1981. The prices before taxes in the Cambridge Exchange of New York were as follows at the time:
300mm F4.5 ........ $ 318.00
400mm F5.6 ........ $ 428.00
Correcting for the period inflation, the prices are as follows:
300mm F4.5 ........ $ 1024.90
400mm F5.6 ........ $ 1151.33
They were expensive lenses. I bought my brand new 400mm F5.6 in 1982 or 1983. The mount was M42.
My idea was to make a refracting telescope. Unfortunately, within a few years the lens cement began to deteriorate
and a haze began to form from the edges to the center. And the haze increased, increased... I wanted to cry.
About three years ago I discovered that someone was selling on eBay the same lens, but with Canon FD mount.
The photos of the listing showed the lens was clean inside. I won the auction for $13!
My idea was to replace only the hazy groupg, but to my surprise, I noticed that Sigma had silently modified the design.
The optical parts were similar but not interchangeable. A solution was to try to replace the Canon FD mount by the M42,
which fortunately I managed to do.
I believe that the APO 300mm F4.5 is a very handy lens, and if it were optically good, it would be a great value lens to own.
I would be very happy if you could find and solve the problems of your lens.
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If raindrops were perfect lenses, the rainbow did not exist. |
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marcusBMG
Joined: 07 Dec 2012
Posts: 1318
Location: Conwy N Wales
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| Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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marcusBMG wrote:
I already decided to return the lens. Too many in the project box already...
But I'll keep looking, though I doubt I'll match your $13 score!
_________________
pentax ME super (retired)
Pentax K3-ii; pentax K-S2; Samsung NX 20; Lumix G1 + adapters;
Adaptall collection (proliferating!) inc 200-500mm 31A, 300mm f2.8, 400mm f4.
Primes: takumar 55mm; smc 28mm, 50mm; kino/komine 28mm f2's, helios 58mm, Tamron Nestar 400mm, novoflex 400mm, Vivitar 135mm close focus, 105mm macro; Jupiter 11A; CZJ 135mm.
A classic zoom or two: VS1 (komine), Kiron Zoomlock... |
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