Why is B&H selling Oly 70-210mm f4.5/5.6 so cheap?

What is wrong with the Olympus OM 70-210mm f4.5/5.6 lens that B&H is

selling it so cheap? It rates pretty good on the lens test sight.

Anyone care to offer an opinion?

It seems to actually be a 3rd-party zoom with the Olympus name slapped on it.

 

The 'Olympus' lens sells at B&H for $99. A suspiciously similar Phoenix brand lens at

B&H goes for $89. Another suspiciously similar Vivitar lens in Olympus mount sells at

Adorama for $79.

 

Why is it so cheap? For one because it's a slow lens -- the widest the lens goes at

210mm is f/5.6, which can be less than useful. Also, it's quite possibly a mediocre

lens. At that price I'd expect that shots larger than 4x6" would show problems in

sharpness, color rendition, contrast and/or fringing.

That's got to be the Cosina manufactured lens for the Olympus OM2000. It wasn't up to the old "Zuiko" standards, and is causing confusion because Olympus allowed it to be called a "Zuiko" lens, but it does a disservice to that name.

Henry, the 70-210/4.5-5.6 was paired with the 35-70/3.5-4.8 for the Cosina-produced camera, the OM2000. They are "S" Zuikos - the budget line. All were built by Cosina, and not generally thought to be up to typical Oly standards for build quality. They are not to be confused with the 35-70/3.5-4.5 produced by Oly as an "S" zoom which has a fairly good rep. This is not to say that Cosina doesn't build nice cameras and lenses. The new Voightlander Bessa R2 and the lenses that accompany it are thought to be outstanding and that product appears to be enticing people back into rangefinder phtography who don't want to pay Le*ca/C*ntax/Nik*n prices. Side note: Cosina-Voightlander also makes a wonderful 40/2 in OM mount for about two-thirds of what the Oly version costs.

That makes sense. However, I'm confused as to the 70-210mm rated on this <a href="http://members.aol.com/olympusom/lenstests/default.htm">site.</a> It performs pretty good, especially for the money. I have Cosina LTM lenses that I use on my Leica M4-2. Actually, I had three and sold two recently. I still have the Nokton. These are nice lenses.

I am not sure Henry that the "issue" with these lenses is strictly how they perform on a test. Remember that many of these lenses are now at least ten or more years old. The real issue is longevity that derives from build quality. There is no doubt that significant portions of the Cosina-built lenses are plastic and that does seem to directly affect the length of time that a lens will performed as designed.

Jamie, <p>Point well made. I'll continue to look for an affordable telephoto length, but I'll also continue to keep this lens in mind. Thanks Jamie and thanks to everyone else for their insight.