What is the WORST lens you can think of?

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

I recall buying a Pentax outfit from a second hand store some time ago and it had a Hanimex zoom, like an 80-200 or a 70-210. I put it on eBay for $20, not expecting any action on it anytime soon. Much to my surprise, it sold almost right away. Just dumb luck or did the buyer know something about that lens maker that I didn't? It was Japanese made, as I recall, and a decent looking lens. But I had no Pentax SLRs at the time so I wasn't even able to give it a visual tryout.

marcusBMG · Joined: 07 Dec 2012 Posts: 1315 Location: Conwy N Wales

28-200mm in PKA mount, korean made written on it, didn't look bad. i remember twiddling the focus in live view trying to find best focus, except it didn't make any difference! It was better at 200mm.

crop:

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

I've had the Makinon and Korean Hanimex 28s, both are junk.

Drack · Joined: 27 Feb 2011 Posts: 735 Location: Lithuania

My worst lens experience would have to be with an Auto Makinon f3.5-4.5/28-80mm . Apart from really good build quality the lens had nothing going for it. It is very big and uncomfortable to use. The minimal focus distance is ~2.5m, which is really useless. Operating the macro ring and the focus is very awkward. The image quality was also very iffy. Sharpness is relative, contrast was very low and the colors were lame. My copy was mint, so I doubt there was something wrong with it. Anyway, this lens might have been a good, cheap alternative back in the day, but since every single modern kit lens outperforms it, it is completely useless now.