So, I have an off-brand 28mm lens - how to evaluate character?

jay moussy · Jun 5, 2023

In buying a photo grab bag, I ended up with two Minolta SRTs, one with a Promaster 28mm f2.8

I never used a 28mm lens before (shame!), and am not that sensible - more about looking at getting the shot, than attaining perfection.

How could do a rough evaluation, so that I can be aware of lens flaws, or possibly interesting character?

Oddly, prior SRT user had a telephoto adapter in front of the 28mm. Why, I don't know.

faberryman · Jun 5, 2023

jay moussy said:
In buying a photo grab bag, I ended up with two Minolta SRTs, one with a Promaster 28mm f2.8

I never used a 28mm lens before (shame!), and am not that sensible - more about looking at getting the shot, than attaining perfection.

How could do a rough evaluation, so that I can be aware of lens flaws, or possibly interesting character?

Oddly, prior SRT user had a telephoto adapter in front of the 28mm. Why, I don't know.

I believe Promaster lenses were sold by Ritz Camera, and perhaps other camera stores, as their bargain brand. Unless you have the technical equipment to test the lens, the only thing you can do is look at the results. Since this is a wide-angle lens, you might want to take a photograph of a brick wall to see if the lens has any pincushion or barrel distortion, not that there is anything you can do about it.

Whether you elect to refer to any lens aberrations you see in your photographs as lens aberrations or character is entirely up to you. Generally, the more expensive the lens, the more likely it is that the owner will refer to the lens aberrations as character. I am not even sure why anyone would say "My lens has character." If I had a great photograph which was enhanced by my having taken it with a lens with character, I wouldn't give then lens any credit. I'd just say I had exceptional photographic skill and vision.

I have heard anecdotes about people looking at a photographer's work and saying: "These are great photographs. You must have a really expensive camera." The next time I am looking at a photographer's work, I might just say "These are great photographs. You must have a lens with exceptional character." You know, just to see his response.

Sirius Glass · Jun 5, 2023

faberryman said:
I believe Promaster lenses were sold by Ritz Camera, and perhaps other camera stores, as their bargain brand. Unless you have the technical equipment to test the lens, the only thing you do is look at the results. Since this is a wide-angle lens, you might want to take a photograph of a brick wall to see if the lens has any pincushion or barrel distortion, not that there is anything you can do about it.

Whether you elect to refer to any lens aberrations you see in your photographs as lens aberrations or character is entirely up to you. Generally, the more expensive the lens, the more likely it is that the owner will refer to the lens aberrations as character. I am not even sure why anyone would say or post "My lens has character." If I had a great photograph which was enhanced by by me having taken it with a lens with character, I wouldn't give then lens any credit. I'd just say I had exceptional photographic skill and vision.

Additionally check to see if the corners are sharp and if they have vignetting.

MattKing · Jun 5, 2023

I don't know about character, but observing and being able to share characteristics might be achievable in a meaningful way.
faberryman's suggestion respecting distortion is a good one - make sure the wall isn't itself showing distortion
Response to high flare situations would be an obvious test subject you could perform yourself.
The mechanical characteristics - weight, size and handling issues like how "slippery" the focusing is as well as focus throw and direction, visibility of settings, how positive the aperture click stops are - are also clear examples. How well the lens mounts and unmounts is important, as is the size and condition of the filter rings.
When you shake it, does it rattle?

xkaes · Jun 5, 2023

PROMASTER is a name that Sigma has used to sell some of their lenses over the years, so your lens might be of very good quality -- assuming it has not been abused, or used with a tele-adapter.

Lenses typically provide their highest quality results when stopped down about two f-stops -- in your case probably around f8 -- but if you don't make large prints you probably won't notice the difference.

You can make any of the "tests" recommended above, but keep in mind that your results probably won't be as good at f2.8 or f16 -- but you still will want to use those apertures to control depth-of-field, shutter speed, etc.

mshchem · Jun 5, 2023

jay moussy said:
In buying a photo grab bag, I ended up with two Minolta SRTs, one with a Promaster 28mm f2.8

I never used a 28mm lens before (shame!), and am not that sensible - more about looking at getting the shot, than attaining perfection.

How could do a rough evaluation, so that I can be aware of lens flaws, or possibly interesting character?

Oddly, prior SRT user had a telephoto adapter in front of the 28mm. Why, I don't know.

What model number are the SRT bodies? Why anyone would use a tele-extender on a 28 is beyond me, could have been a handy place to store it.
Leica just released a retro 35mm 1.4, famous for soft edges, maybe your 28 is soft enough to qualify

jay moussy · Jun 6, 2023

mshchem said:
What model number are the SRT bodies? Why anyone would use a tele-extender on a 28 is beyond me, could have been a handy place to store it.
Leica just released a retro 35mm 1.4, famous for soft edges, maybe your 28 is soft enough to qualify

These are SRT101s.
Prior owner had labeled each neatly, "Old body", "New body", and with a specifically "Kodachrome 64" and "Gold 100". he also had a bunch of Fuji T64. My superficial investigation tells me he was has been shooting pictures of paintings.

xkaes · Jun 6, 2023

The SRT101s is the Japanese version of the SRT201 -- a very nice camera:

http://www.subclub.org/minman/srt201.htm

ant! · Jun 6, 2023

xkaes said:
The SRT101s is the Japanese version of the SRT201

No, it's the predecessor of the 201, and it was called in all markets the same, before they made the differences: http://www.rokkorfiles.com/SRT Series.htm . Seems the SRT201 was in Japan the SR101 (without T).

grain elevator · Jun 6, 2023

Field curvature is another thing that's easy to test for and interesting to know about. You can take a picture of a textured surface at an angle, wide open, to see it.

Sirius Glass · Jun 6, 2023

xkaes said:
The SRT101s is the Japanese version of the SRT201 -- a very nice camera:

http://www.subclub.org/minman/srt201.htm

ant! said:
No, it's the predecessor of the 201, and it was called in all markets the same, before they made the differences: http://www.rokkorfiles.com/SRT Series.htm . Seems the SRT201 was in Japan the SR101 (without T).

Absolutely NO!
I had the SR7, SRT101, SRT102, SRT201, ... and they were all different cameras.

mshchem · Jun 6, 2023

I recall a friend of mine had a SRT 101 in the early 70's. A nice camera.

ant! · Jun 6, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
Absolutely NO!
I had the SR7, SRT101, SRT102, SRT201, ... and they were all different cameras.

There were the SR line: http://www.rokkorfiles.com/SR Series.htm (SR 1, 2, 3, 7), and the SR-T line http://www.rokkorfiles.com/SRT Series.htm (with your SRT101, SRT102 and SRT201, and many others, and different names in different markets.)

Seems like the SR-T 201 (North America) was also called SR-T 101b (Europe) and SR101 (Japan, even though not part of the SR series, but of the SR-T series).

Dali · Jun 6, 2023

Like Faberryman wrote, use it and make your own opinion from there. It is unlikely to be gem but it is not the only one and guess what, you might be pleased by the pictures it gives. You have nothing to lose.

ic-racer · Jun 6, 2023

Defocus, diffraction, aberrations and movement can appear similar. I'd recommend using a tripod, to minimize variables. If you want to test the worst the lens will do, expose wide open into light sources. If you want to see the best, expose at f8 or f11 in the shade.

xkaes · Jun 6, 2023

ant! said:
There were the SR line: http://www.rokkorfiles.com/SR Series.htm (SR 1, 2, 3, 7), and the SR-T line http://www.rokkorfiles.com/SRT Series.htm (with your SRT101, SRT102 and SRT201, and many others, and different names in different markets.)

Seems like the SR-T 201 (North America) was also called SR-T 101b (Europe) and SR101 (Japan, even though not part of the SR series, but of the SR-T series).

That's correct -- as I stated earlier, to which you replied, "NO".

Perhaps, instead of getting your information from the ROKKOR FILES, you should explore MINMAN which is much older and more complete -- covering all of Minolta's SLR cameras, unlike the ROKKOR FILES -- and more accurate. For example, here is the MINMAN MINOLTA SLR COMPARISON table:

http://www.subclub.org/minman/slrtable.php

Paul Howell · Jun 6, 2023

I have a Sigma 28 2.8 in Pentax K, pretty good lens, wide open not as sharp my Pentax K 28mm 3.5, other wise a pretty good lens at a nice price point.

jay moussy · Jun 6, 2023

I got the whole lot (including some other good stuff I haven't mentioned) for the price of a small pizza so that lens, even slightly flawed, is just bonus!
I will see how flare, vignetting, and distortion show, and then see how I like the 28mm feel.

mshchem · Jun 6, 2023

jay moussy said:
I got the whole lot (including some other good stuff I haven't mentioned) for the price of a small pizza so that lens, even slightly flawed, is just bonus!
I will see how flare, vignetting, and distortion show, and then see how I like the 28mm feel.

Who needs Pizza!! Good call on the cameras!

Sirius Glass · Jun 6, 2023

OP, put the lens on your camera, load the camera with film, shoot a roll of film and then come back and tell us how you thought that the lens did.

xkaes · Jun 6, 2023

And tell us which model of the SRT101s you have -- there were three, A, B & C, but this is not marked on the camera in any way.

250swb · Jun 7, 2023

If you want to waste some film use a tripod and photograph a brick wall square on at maybe ten feet away, run through the apertures in sequence and this will show curvature, sharpness in the centre vs in the corners, indicate the 'best' f/stop and help decide whether you like the sharpness overall. Otherwise just get on and use it, it's only when I don't like something about a lens that I (rarely) do the wall test just to confirm any problems.

4season · Jun 7, 2023

jay moussy said:
How could do a rough evaluation, so that I can be aware of lens flaws, or possibly interesting character?

Quickest way (if you have an adapter) is to mount it onto a digital camera body. Otherwise, it's time to load up one of the Minolta bodies with film! This would be a good time to use cheap or expired film. Try a variety of different apertures.

I had a look at Promaster lenses on *Bay, and they certainly don't look much like the Quantaray/Sigma 28/2.8 Mini-Wide I once owned. That particular lens struck me as nothing special, and no big surprise, as Sigma was concentrating on low price at the time. The only "Promaster" that I'm aware of is a company still doing business selling all sorts of photo accessories, including tripods, lighting kits, and in the past, Cosina 35 mm SLR kits under the the Promaster name.

xkaes · Jun 7, 2023

Think of PROMASTER just like VIVTAR, SOLIGOR, and other distributors. They get gear from lots of manufacturers, including SIGMA, and sell it with the PROMASTER name. I have a few PROMASTER lenses that are exactly the same as Sigma lenses.

Here's what WIKI says:

"Promaster is a brand name used by Photographic Research Organization, earlier styled P•R•O or P.R.O. This is a American photographic accessory distributor known for lenses, filters, tripods, bags, memory cards, and lighting equipment. P•R•O products are sold through independent local stores, giving them access to a wide breadth of products and joint buying power.

The organization was founded in 1958 with six US east coast retailers joining forces. Products branded P.R.O. in the 1960s were most visibly advertised by Ritz Camera (in its days as a regional chain of just dozens of stores). However Promaster remained active after Ritz developed its own exclusive private-label brands, and later when the Ritz national chain entered bankruptcy. Promaster still exists as of 2023."

eli griggs · Jun 14, 2023

Shoot a series of colour AND b&w films, with several different frames of closest focus, the medium distances that are your average rangefinder setting and at infinity.

Then sit down with prints from each, 8"x10" should be ideal quality and, if you can afford to, 11"x14" or 20"x30" prints of the two best images.

Look at the details, grains, colour depth and rendering and see if they please you.

If so, use the lens and let it make the best images it is capable of.

If no, keep looking for your keeper 28, but also keep in mind, some lenses render their best work in either colour or b&w, and give cool and warm images differently, so you may end up with two lenses, or more.

Godspeed

So, I have an off-brand 28mm lens - how to evaluate character?

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