RADOJUVA

According provided by KAMERO AUTO 200mm 1: 3.3 lens; many thanks to Ilya Kostenko (photo flea market of the city of Dnepropetrovsk).

KAMERO AUTO 200mm 1: 3.3

This lens is also known as Makinon, Porst, Magnon, Revue, Promaster, CPC Phase 2, Chinon, Revuenon, Olympia, Kitstar, Helios, Presenta, Rexatar, Prinzflex (the list may be incomplete or inaccurate) and was produced with mounts for different mirror systems. Thanks to the subscriber from Radozhiva groups in VK per list of names.

Outwardly and to the touch, it is solidly assembled, with an old-school design and a built-in telescopic retractable metal hood. The hood in the active position does not hang.

The focus ring has a rubberized insert, wide and comfortable, rotates approximately 270 degrees (3/4 of a full revolution). The ride is very pleasant. During focusing, the front retractable body does not rotate. Focusing occurs by moving the entire lens block. The minimum focusing distance is as much as 3 meters, which interferes with the convenient use of the lens when shooting some small objects.

The diaphragm consists of just six petals... There are notches at f / 5.6 and between f / 3.3 and f / 5.6. The aperture ring has f / 3.3, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22 with one intermediate value between f / 3.3 and f / 5.6 (most likely f / 4). The diaphragm ring has a green 'P42' lettering (most likely an M42 thread marker). DOF scale for F / 5.6, 8 (implicit), 11, 16 (implicit) and F / 22 + notch for infrared operation (has a solid offset). There is an additional 'A / M' aperture mode switch ring, this ring is too close to the aperture ring and can be accidentally caught.

KAMERO AUTO 200mm 1: 3.3 from the review uses the M42 fit thread and is easy to adapt with the appropriate adapters to a large number of modern cameras.

KAMERO AUTO 200mm 1: 3.3

Appearance

For different brands, there were minor modifications to this lens. The changes concerned the color of the inscriptions and the value of the minimum aperture.

Sample Photos

The lens is weak optically. First of all, he gives strong software due to spherical aberrations on F / 3.3. A more or less acceptable picture is obtained starting with F / 5.6. The lens has very low contrast and resistance to flare, especially to side light and the lens hood does not help much. There are tangible chromatic aberration.

I used this lens on the camera Sony Alpha NEX-3N using an adapter M42-NEX. Convert source RAW files with original Sony Imaging Edge Viewer utility; sharpness is set to maximum (+3). It was painfully difficult for me to pick up more or less acceptable pictures from this lens. The yield of successful frames is disastrously small, this is due both to poor optics and the difficulty of shooting at 200 mm of focal length and a light crop camera without a stabilizer.

JPEG source photos can be downloaded at this link. RAW accidentally lost.

Full frame camera Nikon D700 I used KAMERO AUTO 200mm 1: 3.3 with a lensless adapter M42-Nikon F, with such an adapter, the far focus limit is approximately 20 meters (you can shoot portraits to the full height). After the first few frames at F / 3.3, there is no desire to use this lens, so most of the pictures were taken at F / 5.6-11

RAW source photos ('.NEF') can be downloaded at this link.

KAMERO AUTO 200mm 1: 3.3

My experience

Nice and impressive appearance, built-in hood and the inscription 'LENS MADE IN JAPAN' - that's all its advantages. To get more or less acceptable image quality, you should use f / 5.6 and below. At f / 5.6 and under certain conditions with the KAMERO AUTO 200mm 1: 3.3, you can get pretty nice pictures.

Perhaps the combination of a large focal length with a large aperture, because 200 / 3.3 is almost 200 / 2.8 (theoretically, the difference is a third of the stop). In practice, the real aperture, expressed in T-steps, approaches T / 4 at a value of F / 3.3. And visually the rear lens is small enough for a fast lens.

I love old know-how lenses, among them interesting specimens sometimes come across. Unfortunately, this time a miracle did not happen.

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Material prepared Arkady Shapoval.