Kiron on Nikon

[Deleted]

I was fooling around this evening on the edge of our subdivision with my Nikon D300 and a Kiron 80-200mm f/4 macro manual focus lens. Kiron knew how to build lenses. I picked this lens up a couple of years ago on ebay for $35 in mint condition. Just noticed in the upper right corner of the image there is a speck--thought it was on the sensor. Turns out it is a parachutist!.

[nikonbob]

Wayne

My one and only experience with a Kiron lens mirrors your own. That Kiron 24/2 was a well built lens with an extremely high optical quality. I would not turn my nose up at another one.

Bob

[Deleted]

It's my understanding that Kiron went out of business because their lenses cost so much to make they had to price them close to prices for OEM lenses. In some cases, however, they were as good if not better than original lenses.

[nikonbob]

Well, as long as we are swapping stories about Kiron lenses I seem to recall that there was a falling out with Vivitar. Again, I vaguely remember that some of kiron's lenses were to close to Vivitars which Kiron had made for them. However it went down I will agree that it was a pity to loose a good lens maker. I think we should not say any more about Kirons as it may drive the prices up similarly to what has happened to certain Vivitars.

Bob

[Deleted]

I had a Vivitar Series 1 f/2.8 35-85mm lens, made by Kiron. Huge piece of glass. The lens felt like it machined out of a steel billet. It was a "varifocal" rather than a true zoom (you had to focus whenever you zoomed). I sold it when I went to a DSLR because I just didn't use it that much--wasn't wide enough. It was very sharp except when wide open the edges were a little soft. I also have a Kiron 4-element 2x extender that I occasionally use with the MF lenses.