Anti-crisis review # 3. KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC KINO PRECISION

KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC KINO PRECISION

KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC KINO PRECISION JAPAN. increase.

This is a quick overview.

The bottom line is very simple: at an online flea market I found one of the cheapest manual telephoto lenses for Nikon and decided to see how he shoots. This time the subject became KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 ø55 MC 36421284 KINO PRECISION JAPANwhich was bought for only $ 15. The low price point is due to the fact that it originally used the Minolta MD mount, but was redesigned for the Nikon F mount with the loss of automatic iris control. The alteration was of high quality. The lens trunk was slightly bent, but this did not affect the image quality in any way.

Initially, Kino Precision Industries produced lenses for third-party manufacturers (Vivitar, Soligor), but in 1980 began to manufacture and sell lenses under its own brand name Kiron. At one time, quite good lenses were produced under the Kiron brand. Due to the fact that the Kiron brand is little known nowadays, you can take advantage of this and find a couple of good and inexpensive solutions from Kino Precision in the secondary market.

The main thing about the lens

  • KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC - lens type 'reversible PUSH-PULL', for which the maximum focal length is available when the piston ring is closest to the camera mount
  • high-quality assembly, the lens does not change its length when the focal length is changed, the piston ring is wide, rubberized, easy to handle
  • the focusing ring rotates approximately 90 degrees, during focusing the lens trunk rotates and extends forward. Manual focusing is inconvenient due to slow focusing ring travel
  • high-quality multi-coated optics, which produces more or less normal color on digital cameras. The 'MC' marking on the lens barrel pays off
  • there is a very convenient and successful focal length lock “ZOOMLOCK” (zoom lock). This lock prevents the spontaneous movement of the piston and firmly fixes the focal length at the selected value. This lock allows you to conditionally make a fix with a convenient focusing from the lens. This lock is lacking in many similar piston lenses
  • there is a good macro mode with a maximum magnification of 1: 4, which is very good for such lenses. The closest focusing distance is approximately 1.1 meters
  • aperture blades total 6 pieces
  • lenses were originally produced for different mounts of different popular systems in the period 1981-1987

Appearance

It's important: A very similar lens with a large aperture and no zoom lock was produced at the same time: the KIRON 80-200mm f / 4 MACRO 1: 4 MC KINO PRECISION JAPAN.

Sample Photos

Important: the final result is greatly influenced by the settings Picture Controlwhich is responsible for the settings for managing snapshots. If you correctly configure it right in the camera, you can very quickly get a good result in JPEG. Likewise, you can easily and quickly develop / convert the original RAW ('.NEF') with an even better result. For example, the pictures in the gallery below were converted using the original free utility Capture NX-D v 1.4.6 in just two or three clicks. Picture Control applied during conversion D2XMode1 (Native mode for some Nikon cameras, similar to Neutral NL mode) with Sharpening +9, Saturation +1, Active D-lighting High, Noise Reductions Faster +5, Lateral Color Aberration Auto. This immediately allowed us to obtain a pleasant picture with good sharpness, color and tonal transitions, to remove some of the optical imperfections of the lens. These are simple and very important points that can radically change the final result and the impression of a particular lens. Of course, the KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC is not optically brilliant, but with such simple manipulations you can get a pleasant result.

Basic examples of photos with RAW source files helped me make a photographer Natalya romanenko (instagram)who used this lens for about a month.

Download RAW c source photos Nikon D700 can at this link (50 files, 700 MB).

The image quality of the KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC KINO PRECISION JAPAN is inferior to the budget one Nikon Lens Series E Zoom 70-210mm 1: 4.

KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC KINO PRECISION is afraid of backlight, at F / 4.5 it is moderately sharp, sharpness improves significantly at F / 8. On open apertures, it has a good pattern with 200 mm lemon-shaped unsharp discs.

focal length 80-200 paired with maximum aperture 1: 4.5 can blur the far / foreground very strongly at 200mm, and also allows shooting at relatively fast shutter speeds and low ISOs.

My experience

If you do not peer into the details and just enjoy the photograph and the process of obtaining it, then such manual telephoto cameras can often surprise and delight. A 210/4 or 200 / 4.5 ratio is a very attractive combination for little money. True, there is a huge number of frankly weak lenses of the 80-200 / 4 class (4.5), the search for a normal copy may take some time.

Such conventionally 'simple' lenses are a challenge for the photographer and make him look for new methods of shooting, the right subjects and come up with his own processing methods. Even for $ 15 with the KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC, you can get quite a pleasant result in the photo without any serious effort or investment in processing time.

KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC is an interesting budget 'anti-crisis' solution.

KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC KINO PRECISION

KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC KINO PRECISION JAPAN

All Original Similar Nikon FX Telephoto Lenses

Below is a list of all Nikon Nikkor telephoto lenses without high aperture and with auto focus support:

  1. Nikon AF Nikkor 70-210mm 1: 4, 1986-1987
  2. Nikon AF Nikkor 70-210mm 1:4-5.6, 1987-1993
  3. Nikon AF Nikkor 75-300mm 1:4.5-5.6, 1989-1998
  4. Nikon AF Nikkor 80-200mm 1:4.5-5.6D, 1991-1999
  5. Nikon AF Nikkor 70-210mm 1:4-5.6D, 1993-2000
  6. Nikon AF Micro Nikkor 70-180mm 1: 4.5-5.6D ED, 1997-2005
  7. Nikon AF Nikkor 75-240mm 1:4.5-5.6D, 1999-2000
  8. Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4-5.6D ED, 1998-2006
  9. Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4-5.6D, 1998-2006 (?)
  10. Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4-5.6G, from 2000 to 2014, black or silver
  11. Nikon AF S Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6G ED VR IF SWM, from 2006 to 2017
  12. Nikon AF S Nikkor 70-200mm 1: 4G ED SWM VR IF N Nano Crystal Coat, from 2012 to the present day
  13. Nikon AF-P Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6E VR ED, 2017 to present

The names of the lenses are indicated according to their spelling on the case.

Other similar reviews:

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Material prepared Arkady Shapoval. Training/Consultations | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Telegram

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Comments: 18, on the topic: Anti-crisis review # 3. KIRON 80-200mm f / 4.5 MACRO 1: 4 MC KINO PRECISION

  • Neo

    At first glance, the picture is no worse than my Canon 70-200 / 4 L IS. And this is the most important thing

  • Natalia

    Nice bright lens, it was a great pleasure to shoot with it!

  • Sergei

    It is a pity that they did not indicate the weight and length of the lens in the review, as well as the size for light filters.

    • Neo

      The diameter of the filter in the name is written 55 mm, and the weight and length apparently changed due to the limits

  • Nikich

    Nice picture, whale lenses will never squeeze this out. Looks like my Takumar 135 3.5

  • Yuri Molchanov

    Very nice lens, thanks for the review!

  • Nikolai (sn797)

    About two years ago, I had KIRON at my disposal. True, not 80-200mm f / 4.5, but 70-150 f4 Macro. "Sharpened" was a factory for Nikon and also sold me within $ 20. Hope the new owner is still happy with his purchase! If he were on my Canon, I would definitely wear it and try new sensations. It is quite possible that I would have kept it for myself, but I didn’t want to bother with adapters, which I also don’t have :) The set included a hood and a cover ... In general, pleasant memories of this glass remained, despite the fact that I did not make them not a single shot :) Simply, it was somehow so cool, memorable, perfectly assembled, glass-iron :) I looked at Radozhiva and remembered my KIRON. I will try to find a photo in my archive and add, maybe someone will be interested to see the KIRON 70-150 f4. And on my YouTube there is a video where he is spinning on my spinner :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOTXGfqI_YE&pbjreload=101
    Sorry, if I'm not in the subject, but still a review about KIRON. And yes, thanks for the review! It was interesting to read!

  • Victor

    Good day. Thanks for the interesting information. I would like to ask Arkady a question, and maybe after that we will wait for changes in the materials for testing lenses. Why, when uploading test photos, do not indicate the aperture value at which the shooting was made. This is the most important parameter for both shooting and lens. We see ISO, shutter speed, but not aperture. Do you propose to calculate the aperture yourself by these two parameters? Why not give another aperture value?

    • B. R. P.

      This and other manual lenses do not transmit the aperture value to the camera, therefore, in order to fulfill your wish, it is necessary to write down or memorize the aperture value for each frame, which is technically difficult. So you are unlikely to see changes. Aperture is indicated in reviews for autofocus lenses.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      This only applies to some manual lenses. It's just too lazy to record or adjust the keys on the cameras to change lenses without a CPU, when you shoot a lot - it is very distracting. Moreover, these photos were prepared by Natalia, it is an additional difficult load for her. She shot almost 3000 shots with him.

  • koba

    A really good lens, I myself use Nikon AF 70-210 / 4 almost every day (which inside is the same manual Nikon 70-210 / 4) and I would not say that this lens is much inferior to it.

  • Rodion

    In general, Kiron seems to be one of the few Japanese firms that produced nice optics at that time. Their Vivitar S1 70-210 / 3.5 left a very pleasant impression, although the MDF was very uncomfortable, as was the macro mode.

    • Arkady Shapoval

      I gave Natasha this lens for review, then she did not want to return it, and at first I did not even believe that the pictures were taken with it :)

  • gogen

    I have never seen any bad lenses from Kino Precision. There were four lenses from their production, and all left an extremely positive impression. Very well assembled, as they say “for centuries”. True, difficult to maintain, apparently the manufacturer did not expect that one day these lenses would be disassembled)). Therefore, if you come across Kiron-s with a fungus, or traces of condensation, it is better to go around.
    PS I hope someday Arkady will have the opportunity to review the Kiron 70-210mm f4. Very decent glass.

  • Alexander

    The picture was taken today. D90 200mm, 5,6

  • Human

    Hi. I went to your site and wanted to read my favorite articles about lenses. But I came in from a different device. How bad everything is without adblok! Solid advertising. And so - the reviews are great. I often read with pleasure!

  • Michael

    Good afternoon.
    There is such a lens.
    At first I wanted to sell, but kept it for myself.
    You won't get much for it, and a photo will bring more pleasure than $20 :)

    https://flic.kr/p/e6gRJ7
    https://flic.kr/p/e6bdqB
    https://flic.kr/p/e6bdt6

    The only thing that is not convenient now is to wrap a Canon M50 on it, in fact, you hold the lens, and the camera is held on it.
    On Pentax K10 looked more harmonious :)

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