Last week one of the very pleasant surprises was finding two old but good lenses from the analog era. Another beautiful September day provided an opportunity for a new search…

When you walk through the flea market week after week doing these reports, people start to recognize you. And this time, just as I stepped into the market…

…I was immediately approached by a kind Turkiyan with the desire to have a portrait.

I am especially pleased when people want to model. The Turkiyan also wanted a photo with his brother Muhammad. But pay attention to the young guy behind them…

His name is Alen and he is extraordinarily photogenic. Finally someone who can replace Alain Delon! 😉

And this is Bosilyka with her younger brother. You could already see her here.

The weather this time was very pleasant for a walk. Maybe that’s why there weren’t too many people interested in refreshment…

And very strangely, the sellers started to disperse earlier. I have already lost all hope of finding another lens like last week, and then suddenly…

Exacta 70-210mm f/4.5-5.6!

I know, you’ll ask: “But @lighteye, so last week you bought a Maginon 70-210mm… What do you need another one just like that for?” It’s true, but Maginon unfortunately only works on the open aperture for now – practically as a reflex zoom. This one is completely functional, and apart from being usually dusty for items from the flea market, it is optically better than Maginon!

It is almost identical to Maginon in speed (f/4.5-5.6 according to Maginon’s f/4-5.6) and is identical in focal length 70-200 mm. Like the Maginon, it was made for the Minolta MD mount. Is there a flaw? Well, it is what’s called a ‘zoom creep’. This one not only creeps, but slides like a champ, and it is necessary to constantly hold it with your hand so that it does not fly to 210 mm, or back to 70 mm if you are shooting upwards. So you won’t blame me for not having complete focal length and aperture data in the following images, as it’s not possible to track them with a lens like this. And I immediately got the desire to try it, but as the people have already started to disperse…

…I thought I would find something interesting on my way back. And indeed, there was an extraordinary chance for testing – football training of youth team in the neighborhood!

As with all older, mechanical lenses, you can’t expect impeccable sharpness or superb contrast here either. A special problem is manual focusing, which can often be deceive despite focus assist mechanisms. I advise you to pay close attention to the shutter speed (minimum 1/350 sec at maximum focal length) and use an electronic shutter to avoid camera shake by a mechanical trigger. However, when you ‘stabilize’ your hand and nail the focus, the results can be quite good, and certainly better than Maginon. Here is an out of camera jpg photo without any interventions, and a 100% crop…

But we have to leave the report from the training match for the next opportunity. In the end, here is just another quick comparison between these two lenses, noting that the difference may not be so great in favor of Exacta, because maybe only my hand trembled a bit while shooting with Maginon…

If I find a way to compare them without bias, you will have that report as well. Until then, thank you all for your patience.

Thanks for being with us this week again!

The photos in this #wednesdaywalk taken with the Fujifilm X-T20, Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS, and Exacta 70-210mm f/4.5-5.6 lenses.

This post is made as a contribution to a photo challenge done in collaboration of two of our members: @tattoodjay hosts a competition called “Wednesday Walk” and @elizacheng’s contest called “Make me Smile”.