Those 3.5 / 23mm lenses...

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 960 Location: Austin

I bought one, but can't hardly find any info on them.

Sold under lots of brands. A Japanese page states the maker as Tomioka. Elsewhere it is suggested the maker is Sun. But more importantly, I have found barely any examples of photos taken with these lenses. There used to be a thread on this forum with pics from a Chinon version, but the links are all down.

Has anybody used one of these? I didn't pay very much so I'm not expecting much, but it'd still be educational to see some results from others.

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

I once had a Hanimex Automatic 3.5/23.

But I have not used it much. At that time I only had my 350D and I did not find the lens very useful those days.
Because I also already had the Nikkor-N.C 2.8/24 and this is a much better lens.

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 960 Location: Austin

I finally got around to developing a roll I tested this lens on.

Here's a wide open shot. The lens is rather soft wide open, and seems to be afflicted with coma. It has a "glow" wide open, but the glow only appears on the outside edges of objects.

There is noticeable barrel distortion too. It is actually pretty sharp at f8 and f11, but even then the corners are noticeably soft. It could be a fun lens for street photography, but it is not the one to go to for landscapes or other work where corner to corner sharpness is needed. I paid about $25 for my example, and at that price I think it would be worth it, but if you need an ultrawide and are willing to pay more - pay more.

Lloydy · Expire: 2022-01-01

I actually like that picture, technically crap or whatever, it's a good image. Cool

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 960 Location: Austin

It's not the camera it's the photographer.

Here's another showing flare and distortion.

hifisapi · Joined: 25 Sep 2012 Posts: 941 Location: USA

damn that is a lot of flare and distortion. I never liked inexpensive 24mm lenses.
My SMC Pentax K 24/3.5 lens is extremely sharp, very little flare, and virtually no distortion.
I recommend one of those in m42 (super multi coated takumar) if you would like similar...

Mos6502 · Joined: 20 Jun 2011 Posts: 960 Location: Austin

I got the flare on purpose, but did not expect the distortion. I kind of like the ghosts it makes. Confused

It'll probably stay in my collection because it is kind of fun to play with such a wide lens on my old cameras, and I don't really need one enough that I'd feel like paying for it.