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Lens has a complete metal casing and weights 0.6kg. It feels very solid and
has a bit of the "barrel of glass" feeling of old manual focus gear. Only the
small play of the focus tube (a fraction of millimeter) which I think is done for
easy auto focus disturbs a very good overall impression. It takes 58mm filters
and is supplied complete with a soft case.
Optical
The lens has 9 elements in 8 groups. A 6 element Gauß-maingroup extends
for focusing while a 3 element correction group is static at the back of the
lens. This should give a constant optical quality from infinity to 1:1. The front
element is deep inside the lens so there is no great need of a lens hood, and
I've not had any problems with flare. The lens is really sharp wide open while
stopping down 2 stops can increase it a bit, no matter if you use it at macro
distance or at infinity. The contrast and color rendition are also very good. The
photos taken with this lens are a bit warmer than those taken with my FA 50 F1.7.
As expected from a mid tele prime lens I haven't noticed any distortions so
far.
Handling
Handling is very nice - the first thing to mention is the switch on the lens
for choosing focus range. The FULL range is not so interesting because it takes
some time to focus from infinity to 1:1 when the AF hunts and I have not been in
a situation where I need it. The second position is LIMIT. You can choose either
a focus range from infinity to 1:4 or from 1:4 to 1:1. I find the range from
infinity to 1:4 (ca. 0.6m) very useful because you get a normal 100 F2.8 with a
very fast AF reaction. For macro work I normally use it in MF which is the third
position on the switch. There is also a clamp which increase the friction of the
focus ring so you get a very smooth manual focus feeling. The grip of the focus
ring is quite good but I would prefer some structure on it. Even though this is
not an internal focusing lens the front element doesn't rotate.
Compatibility
As you would expect I have not had any compatibility problems. But so far I've
only tested it on one body - a
Pentax
MZ5/ZX5
Price
I paid DM1200 (ca. $670) in November 96. The various third party macro lenses
are said to be very good optically, but because of the build quality, the focus
range limiter and the good manual focus abilities I found this price fair.
Because of the versatility, the very good optical quality and the good
handling, this is my 'standard' lens. I won't do a praise hymn here but I can
really recommend this lens.
Editor's Note:
Where to Buy
The SMC-FA 100 is
stocked by Adorama, a retailer that pays photo.net a referral fee for each
customer, which helps keep this site in operation. For additional retailer
information, see
our recommended retailers
page and
the user recommendations section.
copyright 1998 Andreas Busse
The picture at the left top was taken in the neighbourhoods garden. I used my
ZX/MZ-5 in aperture priority with the lens at F5.6 on AGFA Scala 200
(BW-slidefilm). The picture at the right top was taken on vacation in Coritiba
(Brazil). I used my ZX/MZ-5 in full auto mode. Film was FUJI Sensia II 100.
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