This is a gem of a lens, which works well on a wide range of cameras. It’s relatively cheap, versatile, and can produce some very nice pictures.
Ken Rockwell calls this lens “dinky”, but also writes that it “works ridiculously well.” He adds: “Incredible means unbelievable. The performance of this lens is so good that no one will believe it possibly can come from a lens this cheap.”
The lens is amazingly small and light (190g). It does extend when you zoom, but not by much. The filter ring does rotate when it focuses.
I wanted to try it out a bit more than I can with a film camera, so I mounted it on my D800e.
Here are a few shots. Remember this is a 36 megapixel camera. No processing done other than saving from raw to jpeg.
I’d say that’s rather good for a kit lens from around twenty years ago. It seems pretty sharp, probably sharper than you’d need on a film camera anyway.
What can you complain about? Well, it’s all plastic so it is not likely to stand up to tough use. That will be of concern to some. Me, it doesn’t bother.
And you might wish that it was a bit wider than 28mm, and a bit longer than 80mm (Iike my 24-120mm f/4G), but surely you realize that is a tall order for what you pay.
And what do you pay? I paid around 500 SEK for mine. Right now on eBay in Europe, the cheapest is less than 300 SEK.
It’s worth noting that it comes in two models: one silver and one black. I have both versions. The silver one came with my (also silver) N55 (F55), the other one is black and I bought it to go on my F75. Silly really, since I already had the silver one, but looks are important.
As it turns out, I don’t use it that much with my main analog camera, the F75. However, when I need it, I need it, so it’s good to have. I usually carry it together with batteries and a couple of rolls of film in a small shoulder bag.