Lenses Galore!!

As you might realise, I'm a fan of the old things. I drive a Land Rover Defender 90. I use a wood burner for my main source of heating and I have an Alpha Industries Parka to keep me warm when I'm outside (you know the one - the same as the US army use for their extreme weather manoeuvres).

As some of you will also know I recently acquired a Canon 550D Digital camera. As mentioned - a great piece of kit. From the last blogcast, you'll discover that I have been purchasing bargain lenses that have an M42 mount that I'm using with my EOS adaptor and 550D. All is well and good in the household of yester-year. That is until I found some reviews discussing one of the lenses I have recently bought: the Sunagor 28/2.8 (Nope, I hadn't heard of that brand either).

It's not easy to recognise a quality lens from a virtual distance, but what I do know is that if it hasn't cost me too much (and in this case we're talking about less than £20), then I consider this a risk worth taking - especially as the average Maccy D meal for two is in this region (and the lens is going to last much longer - and likely give much, much more pleasure).

I digress.

So a couple of weeks ago I won a bid on the bay for said lens (the Sunagor) and waddaya know - it's a beauty. Ok so the brand is one of those 'bargain bucket' sneered at brands that other more professional types berate in their for-blog-casts, but for me it's a beauty.

Here's why.

It has a maximum aperture of f/2.8. It has really good contrast and saturation. I can get to within 15 cm of the subject and still focus. It has great bokeh for a wide angle lens. It takes great pictures. And - best of all - I only paid sixteen quid plus postage.

I've only done some initial tests, but I like the results (here they are).

So I hope you'll agree with me that the results are pretty impressive for a bargain bucket lens I got for less than a night out with the missus. I like this lens so much that it's likely to be my main lens (with a magnification factor of 1.6 the 'proper' focal length calculates to about 45mm). It doesn't end there though as I just laid out a slightly bigger wedge for a Chinnon 55/1.4. Again another bargain bucket sneered at brand, but I'm telling you - the bokeh with that is incredible (don't worry, I will post some snaps from this lens soon - WTS).

At work we have a set of Canon lenses that meet some of the specs of my recently 'liberated' lenses, so when I get chance, I'll do some proper comparisons. But already I know that I'm not going to beat the Sonagor for value. Call me biased, but I seem to remember that in the Good Book we are encouraged to love the lost and the lonely. Sonagor 28/2.8 we love you. Much more than 'wise' people do.