I'm thinking about getting an Albinar MC Zoom Macro 1:3.9 80-200 MM Lens as a cheap way to cover the long zoom. Is this something worth buying?
I don't have any experience with that particular lens but in general, zoom legacy lenses are big, heavy, bulky, a pain to use, and offer subpar image quality. If you are going to use this lens on an Oly camera, you have to manually set your image stabilization for the focal length you are shooting at. So if you change focal length, you have the manually change your image stabilization every time. I have had some nice results with legacy prime lenses, but never legacy zoom lenses.
I have the Oly 40-150 which is good, small, and light. I'm actually planning on buying an old zoom lens--Vivitar 70-210 f2.8-4--to play with it. I'm not going to use IBIS, but I'm just curious how it will look and feel. It's HUGE but for some reason I want it. $150. I'd say for most people it's easier to get the 40-150. Or you could buy a 135/3.5 from many makers for a good $50.
There are three of these Albinar zooms currently on the Goodwill auction site asking $9.99 with no bids, like this one in Texas. It looks like an FD mount to me. You could probably get it for $16.50 with shipping. Is it worth it? Not to me. I want to pay $7 shipped. That's what my Tou 80-200 zoom cost me, and I'll never buy another lens like it, These old zooms are heavy, tricky to focus, and kind of soft with low contrast. With post processing, you can make a decent picture with one. If you browse the Goodwill lenses, there's a lot of 70-210's and 80-200's around $5 or $10 with no bids. There's one sample of the 80-200 Albinar in the lens archive.
If it is the same as the JCPenny rebranded one I have (guessing due to the constant 3.9 aperture) it is actually fairly sharp for what it offers. Heavy, push-pull zoom with refocusing after zoom, but it has a 1:5 close focus option, and is there for when I need the distance. Not soemthing I would spend a lot on, but useful for the occasional need.
I looked through my photos and I found that one of the old zooms I once had was an Albinar 80-200. It was total garbage. I wouldn't pay $5 for it. I'll show you a pic. I don't even know if this was wide open. Pretty bad though {}
Thank you all for your advise. I don't think the Albinar zoom is for me. Is there a good tele legacy glass that's not bulky and heavy that you would recommend?
What about the idea of getting a Panasonic FZ200 as a second camera for long zoom? Tell me I'm crazy.....
