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Foton 37-140mm F3.5 - a good lens?


Vadim Joy

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Hi, I purchased foton 37-140mm this morning for $250, and the best part is that it already has MFT adapter. Will use it on Blackmagic first. I never used this lens and there are very little reviews online about it. Although some footage looks great. Can anybody tell if that's was good buy or waste of money?)

 

Few years ago I had Lenar zoom, and I liked it. A bit soft but good. I kind of trust Lomo now, and since Foton is made by Lomo it should be good, right?

Edited by Vadim Joy
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I have this lens and really like it, much better than the Lenar I have but that one has some issues. $250 is pretty cheap for this lens on ebay as long as the fungus and cleaning marks are not too severe. I put a bid for $250 last minute on this item too but looks like you beat me too it :). On a side note the aperture went out on mine which is why I was trying to purchase this one for parts. If you find that you don't like it or it cannot be cleaned let me know as I may want to take it off your hands. Good luck with it.

Edited by David Hessel
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I have this lens and really like it, much better than the Lenar I have but that one has some issues. $250 is pretty cheap for this lens on ebay as long as the fungus and cleaning marks are not too severe. I put a bid for $250 last minute on this item too but looks like you beat me too it :). On a side note the aperture went out on mine which is why I was trying to purchase this one for parts. If you find that you don't like it or it cannot be cleaned let me know as I may want to take it off your hands. Good luck with it.

Ah, sorry for outbidding you, David. That's quite a surprise.

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I have two of these lenses… they have quite low contrast and flare easily. not usable wide open for any purposes other than maybe some kind of period b/w stuff (bad aberrations wide open and very low contrast)

 

the mechanics are quite good and if you stop down at least 1 and 1/2 stops they begin to perform though CA may still be an issue in some cases. The long end has bad aberrations past 125mm and wide end is not so good (maybe between 37 and 45mm).

I like the look a lot, I'd say with proper matte box and used between T5.6 1/2 and T11 they are quite good lenses if the CA is not a problem for you (might be with the tiny sensor you're going to use with it. in good conditions the sharpness is not a problem with this lens)

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I have two of these lenses… they have quite low contrast and flare easily. not usable wide open for any purposes other than maybe some kind of period b/w stuff (bad aberrations wide open and very low contrast)

 

the mechanics are quite good and if you stop down at least 1 and 1/2 stops they begin to perform though CA may still be an issue in some cases. The long end has bad aberrations past 125mm and wide end is not so good (maybe between 37 and 45mm).

I like the look a lot, I'd say with proper matte box and used between T5.6 1/2 and T11 they are quite good lenses if the CA is not a problem for you (might be with the tiny sensor you're going to use with it. in good conditions the sharpness is not a problem with this lens)

This lens has F or T stops?

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I'd like to know how is this lens compared to old Cookes. :)

As far as I know Foton were famous in Soviet Union and they made lots of films with that lens. Somebody told me that Cooke is better lens overall, better contrast, better image quality. It seems like it makes objects in 3D space, when for example my old Angenieux requires light to separate background and object.

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