Is 20 year old lens up to snuff?

I've got a brand new Olympus E-300 with14-45 kit lens, which is fine

for a lot of situations. But, of course, I need more reach. Have been

playing around with my 20 year old Tokina ATX 50-250 (35 mm equiv),

using K adapter for Oly -- a potentially good investment given I have

several K lenses. Here's a handheld shot taken with the Tokina at

about 150mm (35mm). F5.6, underexposed originally and processed with

Elements 3.0. Color correction with just a tad of unsharp.

 

Realizing, of course, that the (heavily cropped photo) is posted on

the web I'm wondering if this appears to be of quality roughly

equivalent to some of the moderately priced telephotos available for

the Oly. Anyhow, I thought some readers would be interested in what an

old lens can (or cannot) do.

 

The photo is at Myolympus.org:

 

http://myolympus.org/document.php?id=1735

 

Thanks.

20-30 and even 40 years ago they made great lenses. At least the some companies did. I don't know about the Tokina in question nor am I interested in pixel-peeping. You have the lens, it works, you seem to like it so, use it and enjoy it!

I have a Tokina 50-250 as well. They are some what rare. I could tell you that at 135mm/f5.6 it is sharper than my EF28-135IS. Too bad there is not an AF and IS version of this lens. This old lens "could" & up-to modern snuff.

From Modern Photography test of this lens.

 

"The resulting slides shot in practical picture taking situations were nothing short of remarkable with superb sharpness and contrast and no noticable color aberrations. At 1.4 macro, the transparencies were exceptionally crisp with no distortion detectable."

Tommy, Marc:

 

Thanks. I guess I have a diamond in the rough. I've toted that lens all over the world and last used it about four years ago. In its second or so year it decided not to focus and I had it repaired for the grand total of $25 (a lot in those days). Interestingly, a 25-50 (non-ATX with, if I recall, good reviews) is so far not making my E-300 happy. I've done some shooting with the ATX and a 2x doubler and results are equally stunning. So, no dslr extended zoom for me.

 

Possession of this lens almost persuaded me to get a Pentax dslr, but at the end of the day compatibility with batteries, etc. (I have an Oly 5060) and the dust cleaning system persuaded me to go with the E300.

<img src="http://www.askisaac.com/images/suzec.jpg"><p>

 

That image is unprocessed 100% crop from a canon EOS 20D with an 18 year old lens on it. Works for me.