Sun 85-210 f4.8 a short review

[MalcolmL]

Pros: Gun grip, quite sharp, well built, compact
Cons: Aberrations, corner softness
Sharpness: 8 CA: 6 Bokeh: 7 Handling: 10 Value: 10 Coma:6

I bough this lens for curiosity value and it filled the last gap (yeah right !) in my lens arsenal. Its turned into a useful lens and I quite like it althought it is nowhere near the IQ of the Komura 135 that I have reviwed here.

The gun grip is cool as it aids in hand held shooting stability. The trigger allows preset stopdown which is really usefull. Its a bit intimdating ! There is a tripod bush at the base of the trigger

THE BAD
Coma is quite bad
Soft in corners
There is lateral CA to a significant degree
There is vignetting wide open
Minimum focusing distance is far too long (I have not measured it yet)

THE GOOD
Looks cool
Bokeh pleasing
Well made and solid
Sharp stopped down a except corners
Great colours
Useful FL range

My use - did not know really what I would use this for but it makes quite a good portrait lens wide open as its soft / sharp ratio at 4.8 is quite pleasing. Used like this its aberrations become irrelevent and you have the flexibility of a zoom.

Price paid 25 NZD. For this price I cannot complain about the shortcomings.





Nice wide for portraits. Bokeh not bad


Quite sharp



Vignetting


Coma


CA


crop to show some CA

[Phenix jc]

Thanks for sharing : I've exactly the same lens which came for free with another lens I wanted. Never tried it, the lens is sleeping somewhere, so I enjoy reading your review. Mine has its lenshood you can reverse on it.

[ManualFocus-G]

Great review and an interesting lens I like the way you tested for multiple aspects of performance.

[MalcolmL]

Thanks for your feedback