Quantaray 35-80mm Test Photographs

For less than $10, I picked-up this Quantaray NF AF 35-80mm, f4-5.6 multi-coated lens with a Nikon mount.   The lens has a 6-blade aperture and was made in Japan.    

Background: Quantaray is made by Sigma and was distributed exclusively for the Ritz chain of photography stores. I could not find much information on this lens from a basic online search, but I believe it was manufactured in the 1990's. Online user's forums pan the lens as consumer grade quality, yet in general were satisfied with the resulting image quality.

As you can see from the images below, the images show good sharpness. With all manual lens photography, I use 'focus-peaking' on the NX1 to dial-in the best focus. With this particular lens, the focus-dial at the front of the lens body has minimum resistance during rotation and thus feels loose. However in use, I observed that there is sufficient resistance on the focus-dial, so the focus will not drift.

A Fotasy lens mount adapter was used to adapt the Nikon flange mount to the NX1.

  

Landscape Photography with the NX1 and Vintage Lenses

All photographs were taken with the following vintage lenses and a Samsung NX1 digital camera.: Kiron 28-85mm f2.8-3.8, Vivitar 300mm f5.6 and a Hanimar 135mm f2.8 

Location: West side of Santa Rita Mountains - Southern Arizona by Bart Santello.  All images were taken in RAW format and manipulated in Adobe Lightroom v5.7.1

 Kiron 28-85mm Lens

 Hanimar 135mm Lens

 Vivitar 300mm f5.6

 Kiron 28-85mm

 Kiron 28-85mm Lens

  Hanimar 135mm Lens

  Kiron 28-85mm Lens

  Hanimar 135mm Lens

 Vivitar 300mm f5.6

  Kiron 28-85mm Lens

  Kiron 28-85mm Lens

  Hanimar 135mm Lens

  Hanimar 135mm Lens

 Hanimar 135mm Lens

Promaster Spectrum 7 100-300mm f/5.6-6.7

The Promaster Spectrum 7 100-300mm f/5.6-6.7 MC Tele Macro is a telephoto zoom lens for 35 mm SLR cameras.  The one I own has a Pentax K-mount and was mounted to my Samsung NX1 using a Fotasay adapter.

Given a 1.5 crop factor for the NX1's mirrorless system, that makes this lens a 450mm equivalent.  Let's see how the lens performs from the photos below.

 100mm Focal Length   f16  /  1/100 sec  /  0EV  /  ISO100

    ....and zoomed-in below:

           300mm Focal Length   f16  /  1/100 sec  /  0EV  /  ISO100 

 200mm Focal Length   f8  /  1/60 sec  /  0EV  /  ISO100

Testing a Tokina 28-70mm

Nikon-mount RMC Tokina 28-70mm f4 lens (SN 8444718) adapted to the NX1.   Took it out for a few photographs today.  The adjustment ring closest to the camera (not the aperture ring), sets the focal length (28mm-70mm).  The wider ring toward the from of the lens is for focusing.  

Note: I noticed when taking long distance photographs, I had to back-off infinity to achieve focus.

This is a good sharp lens for it's age. 

Townsite of Arivaca, Arizona near the international border with Mexico.

70mm       f11      1/200sec       ISO100       0.0EV

 

 28mm    f4    1/1000sec     ISO100      -0.3EV

  

28mm     f8       1/1000sec    ISO100      -0.3EV

  

50mm   f11   1/640sec  _ISO200   -.3EV

28mm    f8   1/640sec    ISO200   -0.3EV

50mm   f11   1/800sec   ISO200    -0.6EV

50mm   f5.6     1/800sec    ISO200    -0.6EV

 35mm     f8    1/640sec    ISO200    -0.3EV

Samsung 85mm f/1.4 ED SSA

This 85mm f/1.4 ED SSA (Super Sonic Actuator) is a professional prime lens from Samsung Electronic, made for their NX-mount line of cameras including the NX1.   It is a very sharp lens with fully automatic electronic functionality with the NX1 via firmware.   The only drawback with this lens is the automatic focusing which can be clunky at time - hunting for the right focus especially when light is poor or when you add a Neutral Density (ND) filter.  

The photographs below are presented 'as-photographed'.  These photographs show the exceptional imaging quality of the Samsung NX1 camera with its back-lit 28-megapixel APS-C sensor.

Note: With sensor crop factor, this lens images at 35mm focal length equivalent of 130mm

f2.8  /  1/1000sec  /  ISO100  /  0EV 

f2.8  /  1/1000sec  /  ISO100  /  0EV 

 f1.8  /  1/320sec  /  ISO100  /  0EV

 f7.1  /  1/1000sec  /  ISO100  /  0EV 

 f3.2  /  1/1600sec  /  ISO125  /  0EV 

f4  /  1/1600sec  /  ISO100  /  0EV 

Tele-Astranar 400mm f6.3 Lens Test

Found this Tele-Astranar 400mm f6.3 lens in a thrift store for $15.  The thread mount looked like a M42, and although the diameter was about right, the threads on the Astranar looked dense (finer) than the M42 mount adapter I have for my NX1.   

Then after doing some research I found that threads where for a T-mount (or T2-mount) so I ordered T2-to-NX adapter online.
  

The Astranar is a 'preset' lens meaning There is a second ring which lets you control where the other aperture ring stops (the one that actually closes the aperture down). So if you recompose an image you can quickly turn the aperture all the way open so the viewfinder is bright, then stop back down to your shooting stop without taking your eye away from the viewfinder (below).

Below are test photographs. All images are at f-stop 6.3 (open).  All images below are 'as-photographed'

 f 6.3  /  1/500s  /  ISO100  /  EV 0.3 

f 6.3  /  1/500s  /  ISO100  /  EV -0.3 

f 6.3  /  1/200s  /  ISO100  /  EV 0.0 

Close-up showing resolution

 f 6.3  /  1/125s  /  ISO100  /  EV 0.0

f 6.3  /  1/125s  /  ISO100  /  EV 0.0 

f 6.3  /  1/125s  /  ISO100  /  EV 0.0

Overall I really like this lens even though the it is not that sharp and lacks in contrast and color saturation.  However, the photo above shows this lens has some inherent artistic potential.

I will have to try next taking some RAW format photographs and try to improve in some of the lens's shortcomings in post. 

Olympus ZUIKO Auto-W 28mm f2.8 - VIDEO TEST

This is a 4K video test of a vintage Olympus ZUIKO Auto-W 28mm f2.8 adapted to a Samsung NX1.  I'm impressed with this Olympus lens. Nice and sharp.  I will add some still images and lens specifications at a later date.

There are two parts to this video: As recorded and fast grade using Film Convert.  Skip to 2:47 to begin the 'graded' part of video.

[Please note that the point of this test is for the video only. The camera-recorded sound is poor due to acoustics of the setting and crowd noise.]