Kelda Lens

[Paul Windass]

Could anyone please advise if Kelda are a good lens for a Canon DSLR camera. A friend has bought one, telephoto up to 800, and he says they are not too bad, BUT, you only pay for what you get. Should I invest in one of save for a full on Canon? Please let me know...

[James G]

Paul,
take a look at the link below

http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/rev...elda-85mm-f1-8

My very quick perusal suggest that the portrait lens at least is capable of reasonable performance.

I'd search for other reviews of Kelda lenses to decide if they are worth your while.

As regards your second question

Should I invest in one of save for a full on Canon?

Canon lenses are quality items which would always be worth the effort of saving for.

But if finances are a significant issue, or you are still feeling your way finding the kind of photography you are interested in, I would suggest comparing a number of manufacturers of Canon mount equivalents.

eg Tamron and Sigma.

I have several Sigma lenses and several Canon,

[chauncey]

Running a google on MTF tables for that brand turned up nada...let that guide you.
Pull one of your friends images into PP software and examine at 200%...that'll show imperfections.

[Krawuntzel]

Hello Paul
I strongly advice you not to buy it. You will come to hate it. Save the money for some other brand, or have more fun investing the buck in a nice dinner.
Erwin

[rpcrowe]

During the old film days, I occasionally shot with lenses that were not "automatic" meaning that they would not stop down from wide open to the f/stop selected when the shutter was pressed. These were often used on old-time single lens reflex cameras and were for me a total pain to use.

If you wanted to shoot at say f/11, you would need to focus wide open (no way of focusing at f/11 because the image would be too dim) and then look at the lens to manually close down the aperture to f/11.

Then the preset lens came along which allowed you to select an f/stop and set it into the lens. You would still have to manually need to open and close the lens for focusing and shooting but, you did not need to look at the lens (and thus look away from your subject) when shutting the aperture down. You simply twisted the aperture ring until it stopped at the selected f/stop. That was an improvement over the previous technology but, still a slow and cumbersome PITA way to shoot!

Some single lens reflex cameras had buttons which would stop down the lens when pressed and open the lens when released. This was still miserable, IMO, to work with,

I have no desire to revert to the wet plate processes of Civil War days nor do I have any desire to revert to the technologies of the 1940's and 1950's in any of my lenses...

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Paul,

I don't know the brand, but suspect that Richard has hit on the major problem - lack of modern ergonomics - and electrical connections to pass EXIF data.

Even if the optical performance is passable, the lens coatings are likely to be below the modern 'norm', resulting in lower contrast images (correctable in PP to an extent) and potential for worse flare if a light source is in shot.

In summary, anything that seems to be to good to be true, usually isn't (true)

It'll very likely be more trouble than its worth - unless you are a specific type of personality that can put up with it and are shooting subjects that don't mind waiting while you do all that manual focusing and stopping down, etc., then the additional PP time.

Can you borrow your friend's lens, perhaps while out on a shoot together?

[rpcrowe]

Paul, If you are bound and determined to get a manual focus lens. I have heard some good things about this lens...

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...=REG&A=details

The advantage of this over the Kelda would possibly be better image quality but, definitely that, "Special chip allows the use of camera's focus confirm, auto exposure, auto metering, auto white balance" and "Designed for use with full-frame cameras, and may also be used with APS-C cameras"

SORRY, I thought you were shooting NIKON. Since you are shooting Canon, the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 is a reasonably priced lens with excellent IQ and the bells and whistles (auto focus etc) than would make me happy.

If you are using a lens designed for a full frame camera on a crop camera, you would be shooting at the sweet spot of the lens.

The reviews of this lens on the B&H website look pretty promising. I believe that this is the same lens as the Samyang 85mm...

[inkista]

+1. The Samyang 85/1.4 (aka Rokinon, Walimex, Bower, Phoenix, Pro-Optic, Vivitar, etc.) has a good solid reputation, if you want to put up with the inconvenience of a manual-only non-reporting lens.

The main thing to keep in mind with a non-reporting lens is that you have to manually focus. You have to manually set the aperture via the aperture ring on the camera. Because the camera can't control the aperture, the only modes you can use on the camera are M and Av. You will be stop-down metering, not wide-open metering, because the camera can't control the aperture (i.e., the more you stop down, the darker the viewfinder gets). There won't be any lens EXIF information (i.e., focal length, aperture setting used, etc.) If you aren't shooting something moving, or you can prefocus, the manual focus may not matter so much to you. If your eyesight's bad, or you shoot sports, then an EF 85mm f/1.8 USM is probably a better choice.

This is just me, but I love my EF 85mm f/1.8 USM. It's very fast on the autofocus (good enough in some cases for indoor sports), very pleasing both on crop and full frame, and at around US$350, it's not going to break the bank as lenses go. I'm really not sure that going with an all-manual $150 cheap lens is necessarily worth it, given the chromatic aberration issues. But it's up to you what you like in a lens, what your personal budget is, and what's "worth it."

[rpcrowe]

I don't know about U.K. prices but, if price is a major issue, I would definitely consider a used Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens over any of the manual focus models. Just be sure you don't get an FD model which will not work on a digital camera, even with a converter.