Kino Precision Kiron 28-70mm f3.5-4.5 Macro – Photography, Images and Cameras

I picked this lens up for $9 at a nearby Goodwill Store. I’d heard that Kiron lenses were generally pretty good and already had a Kiron 80-200mm F4.5 Macro zoom that I’d picked up at a garage sale for next to nothing (it came attached to a Minolta X-370). Although I hadn’t used it that much it seemed to be a decent lens. So when I saw this one at Goodwill I thought – for nine dollars what do I have to lose.

I’ve used it a bit now and don’t know quite what to make of it. It’s in Canon FD breech mount and the adapter adds a bit to the length). It’s fairly small and feels very sturdy. It’s a two touch zoom with separate zoom and focus rings. The zoom ring is a little (but not very) stiff. I suspect it will loosen up with use. The focus ring is the opposite. It was so light that I thought at first it was broken (it wasn’t). The zoom range is a bit awkward (42-105mm equivalent on my Nex 5N), not really wide enough on the wide end and the f3.5-4.5 range is decent. In some circumstances (I haven’t yet figured out exactly which) it produces very low contrast images. This doesn’t really bother me much as I shoot in RAW and post-process everything and it only takes a couple of seconds to correct the contrast. The lens also flares badly if you even point it in the general direction of a light source. I suspect that this lens flare contributes greatly to the low contrast images as the more contrasty images were taken with the sun behind me, or in shade. The less contrasty images were taken with light sources in front of me. I do like the color rendition though.

All things considered I’m pleased with my purchase.