Quantaray 500mm f8 Mirror
Most Quantaray lenses were made by Sigma and some were made by Tamron and Tokina. This lens performs like a Sigma Mirror lens. It is reasonably sharp if you can hold it steady. It has the typical ringed bokeh we see from mirror lenses. Contrast is surprisingly high. While it is not a Zeiss or even a Tamron in quality, it is still far better than any of the off-brands flooding the market.




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Kalimar 50mm f1.7
Filter Size:
Lens mount:
Aperture Range:
Close Focus:
Macro Ratio
Year Introduced:
Tested with...
52mm
Minolta SR
f1.7-f16
.6 meters
n/a
n/a
Eos M3 - APS-C

Kalimar was a distributor for re-branded cameras, lenses, etc. Their products were made by Cosina, Seagull, Zenit and a few others. Their products varied in quality. This lens was probably made by Cosina for Kalimar and paired with their re-branded version of the Minolta X300s.
Most 50mm lenses are designed like the Contax Planar. It is a standard design. Because of this most 50mm lenses are excellent, including those made by third party manufacturers. Only a few stand out as being 'bad'. Yungnuo has managed to make a bad 50mm.
Thankfully Kalimar probably chose Cosina to make their 50mm lens. It looks and feels like a Cosina build. Build quality is typical of an 80's era half plastic lens.
Optically it is soft at f1.7. No surprises there. It sharpens up nicely by f4. It is similar to the Series E Nikkor 50mm f1.8, both in feel and IQ.

ISO 200 - f2.8 - 100% crop

ISO 400 - f4

ISO 400 - f4

ISO 400 - f8 - tight crop

ISO 100 - f2.8