Super Komura 925

[diddy]

A recent addition to my collection:



Performance: Better than expected, quite good for a 40 years old zoom lens. Construction quality is excellent, it features as zoom and a focusing ring (not one of those awkward push zooms). It is really nice to work with. Optical quality: Well no surprise here, it wont compete with any of today's zoom lenses, but for such a old lens it is actually performing quite well. I like the color rendition quite a bit.

[rbelyell]

sorry to say all the pix are coming across very soft on my monitor...
tony

[Oreste]

[diddy]

Thanks for your feedback. Please note that all pics were taken at f/5.6 and my focus is probably not always spot on. Sure, it's no lens for pixel peeping, at f5.6 it is not very sharp, but acceptable. We have to remember that this zoom is very old - probably one of the first ones after the Zoomar was launched, considering that, it performs ok ... I've seen zooms of that age that perform way worse.

[Oreste]

[Minolfan]

Well, may be my monitor is not up to date, but the second picture looks good for me

[luisalegria]

I believe this one came out in 1968 or so.
Its an early zoom, but not one of the first.

[luisalegria]

"why bother with it?"

Because its cool, of course. Its a very handsome piece and compared to a lot of other zooms even from much later days its a pleasure to use.

[Oreste]

[woodrim]

From what I know of Komura - and maybe I'm the second biggest fan behind Luis - I would expect their zooms to outperform others of the period. I wonder, does it use the many blade, circular diaphragm? Seems acceptably sharp, but I'm strictly a prime user, and my Komura primes are exceptional.

[SonicScot]

Nothing wrong with these shots at all, I've seen much softer examples from people recently yet nothing was said about the softness of their images.
Sure, the lens might not win awards and the photographer might not get the focus spot-on in every shot, but who amongst us does every time?
I'll add that I agree the lens is a handsome beast and would probably look cool hanging off the front of most cameras.

[diddy]

@woodrim: This zoom lens has only 6 rounded aperture blades. I prefer the primes normally as well and I really like the built quality of the Komura lenses, so I thought I give this zoom a try, especially as it was selling for a very low price. It is certainly a very nice lens to look at (I got it in very good condition, it seemed like new apart from some small scratches at the bottom of the barrel). It is also very easy to use ... a lot of zoom lenses released in the 80s have this awkward push mechanism with which it is very difficult to zoom precisely.

@luisalegria and woodrim: which komura lens series are you mainly interested in (preset unidapter, auto unidapter, komuranon, ...)?

@Oreste: Why bother with it? It's fun. I like trying out some old lenses, even if they are nothing special. Will I keep this lens? ... I am not certain yet. But I can say I enjoyed shooting with it.

[Oreste]

[luisalegria]

I collect all Komura lenses, and I will take any which I can get at a good price. What I have so far are some of the preset teles.
I have all the Visoflex mount range. I have both of the Uni-Auto zooms (the 925 and the 75-150).
The prime auto lenses are scarce. The large aperture preset lenses like the 135/2.3 aren't really rare but they have a cult following and tend to be very expensive.
I also have the 200/4.5 rangefinder coupled lens, the longest such lens ever made. A real curiosity that.

[luisalegria]

My take on the 925 -

http://forum.mflenses.com/super-komura-90-250-4-5-uni-auto-m42-mount-t15360,highlight,%2Bkomura.html

Generally,
Easy to get focus on DSLR bodies (some lenses have it, some don't, never figured out why); pleasant to use due to maitaining focus while zooming, two touch, which I like, controls are impossible to mistake (having as many lenses as I do, I am easily confused. Or maybe its old age.). Pleasant to use, nice images if not necessarily super sharp wide open. Has the typical Komura slight "golden" color. I guess it was their coatings.

[diddy]

@Luis: I enjoyed reading your review! I've seen so far 2 versions of this lens. The barrels are fairly identical, but the engravings on the focusing and zoom ring are different. Yours also seems to have a pin on the bottom to disengage the mount, which mine hasn't (mine is M42 mount as well).

[SonicScot]

[Oreste]