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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Kiron 28-105mm f3.2-4.5
Filter Size:
Lens mount:
Aperture Range:
Close Focus:
Macro Ratio
Year Introduced:
Tested with...
67mm
Olympus OM
f3.2-f22
.3 meters
1:4
n/a
Eos T2i - APS-C

Kiron, a company formed from ex-Nikon engineers, was the first 'off brand' company to offer high quality wide-tele zoom lenses. The 28-105. 28-85 and 28-200 were excellent lenses. Perhaps too good, because when they refused to produce low quality lenses, they couldn't compete with the cheap plastic lenses being offered by major mfg's, and went out of business. In fact, Kiron lenses cost almost as much as lenses from the major brands.
This lens is sharp wide open at 28mm and still sharp at 105mm.
Contrast is good and shadow detail is excellent. Contrast is consistent thru the entire range.
Color rendition is excellent. Fringing is very low. Distortion and vignetting are absent on the sub frame T2i.
Bokeh fringing is subdued and monochromatic. It is unlikely that it will be noticeable in real world shots.
Focus is well dampened but there is a long slow turn to reach infinity. This is expected because the lens is full time macro. Focusing on the T2i is not easy. One touch zooms are typically difficult to manage on D-SLR's. If you are able to comfortably use this lens it will produce excellent images.

ISO 400 - f4.5 - 105mm 100% crop

ISO 400 - f4.5 - 105mm

ISO 400 - f4.5 - 105mm - 100% crop

ISO 800 - f4 - 100% crop

ISO 400 - f5.6- 105mm - 100% crop

ISO 800 - f4 - 50% crop - macro range

ISO 800 - f3.2 - 28mm - bokeh

ISO 800 - f4

bokeh fringe - f3.2 -28mm

bokeh fringe - f4

bokeh fringe - f5.6 - 28mm