What's a Magnicon?! Time for another cheap lens test!

For those following my Instagram there was a teaser picture of an upcoming review of an extremely awesome Tamron Adaptall II 35-70mm CF Macro a while back. I love the lens and have gotten some great shots with it, macro and other. But the downside of buying a 33 year old lens? It’s bound to develop a quirk or two. Unfortunately my Tamron has developed focus creep. At either end of its focusing range macro included, the lens is a gem. Any other point in its range? Look at it wrong (ha pun) and its out of focus. There are possible fixes for this so hopefully in the near future it will be back in action.

Great visually and buttery smooth action. Uncontrollable focus creep has got the Tamron out of any usable action for the time being. But what can take its place for macro duty while being even cheaper than its $40 +/- price? “Ebay time!”

Warily, I logged back on to ebay to begin the search again. After loosing a bid at the last minute for an original SMC Pentax FA-50 2.8 macro. I wanted the lens a little to much, even going as high as $90, it ultimately sold for $96. I would have loved the lens I’m sure, but it was way beyond a simple budget replacement for a budget lens. Time to look again with a little more brain and a little less heart. I hopped on ebay again (I love amazon but it isn’t the best for good older lenses) and opened up the lens section of the Pentax forums to double check what I was finding. More Tamrons, early Sigmas, tons of no name odd balls and great lenses with question areas too big to risk putting money down. In my search I came across several different types of lenses from the brand Magnicon. What was it? Who’s was it? The forums had a few reviews on various types and all were good. A quick google, lead to the info that Magnicon was the “store brand” for a now defunct except in name Canadian camera store chain called Blacks (think Ritz Camera here in the US I’m assuming) the lenses being produced by Vivitar or Tokina. Quality ranging from great to good depending on the model and who did the manufacturing, it was a risk but finding a supposedly excellent Magnicon “macro” lens at a great price, it was a risk I felt was worth it.

At $20, with overall good reviews of every Magnicon lens I could find info on I felt it was ok to take the risk on one of the companies lenses I couldn’t really find any info on. Worth it? Very much so!

A few days later and this Magnicon was in my hands. I was actually decently impressed at first looks. Full metal construction, comfortably weighty, soft but not “free” movement on the slide style focal length adjustment, pretty unused looking overall and..why won’t it fit on my camera? !@#$ It even says PK on the lens!

Now would be a good time to mention when buying film era third party “K” mount lenses. There might be cutting at times.

It turns out that some manual era third party lenses have a larger diaphragm lever flange than it really needs to be. No problem with a deeper bodied SLR but with a DSLR is becomes an issue and the lens will not sit flush on the body like it should. What do you do? Easy cut the excess off! Now I’m not crazy (well with this). This “trap” as it’s known is easy to find out about and so is the fix. I suggest Mark Roberts (https://www.robertstech.com) wonderful site that has a great write up on the issue as well as lens info and great blogs and photo sets. The short of it- a couple of screws, a quick dremel, and a quick cleanup and voila! From wrong to right!

Lens modification done a quick hold your breath test fit and it’s fit and worked perfect ever since! Now I can’t speak from experience on if older third party lenses can have issues on newer Nikons and Canons but I imagine since both companies have changed mounts several times since even the early 90’s adapters have fixed every like issue if there has been any.

After the fun of modifying the lens, the fit ends up perfect.

Once on camera the Magnicon has simple controls-pull in and out for focal length, twist for focus, a very nice clickable aperture ring with a push in lock button for auto aperture mode that at least in my case works on modern cameras. At first I was concerned with movement that happens holding the lens vertically as it will “slide” under its own weight but this turned out to be nothing once mounted no matter the shooting angle, as hopefully your not holding your camera by the lens. The rubber knurling is great and the focus action is smooth and responsive. The biggest negative being how close the aperture ring is to the camera body. While the movement and feel is actually embarrassingly satisfying, if you feel you will need to adjust aperture quickly or often, switch it to auto mode so you can control it from camera.

Alright, now with all the boring stuff out of the way how does the lens actually do?

In short the lens shoots amazing! Nice, crisp and and sharp. The sweet spot does seem to be in the f/5 range, with sharpness dropping off a bit at narrower apertures. Macro on a lens that can be had so inexpensively is by far this lens’s greatest selling point and also its biggest sales gimmick. While not bad in the least it should defiantly be labeled as “close to macro” or “macroish” with a whopping 1:5 magnification and the closest focusing distance being about 0.31m from subject. Compare that to the Tamron (also not rreeaallyy a true macro lens) 1:3.5 and 0.25m.

Aperture range is f/3.5-22 with f/3.5 being available in the entire 35-70 range. The lens is also threaded for 49mm filters.

The pictures below were taken on a quick mid morning hike. As you can see color is great, crisp and sharp. Bokeh is pleasing if not a bit muddy and a weird laser pointer type flare can happen if when sunlight hits the lens just right (Third photo). As you can see on the second photo, when seriously pixel peeking the focus is tack sharp. An extension tube is being purchased so an update may be coming soon!

Closest “Macro” you can get on the Magnicon 35-70mm Macroish. However with how sharp the lens is, I am tempted to try it with a quality extension tube.

No, this isn’t how macro the Magnicon is. What it is, is surprisingly tack sharp as superzooming on this picture of a wild flower shows.

When hit with angled light just right a strange laser point type flare will show itself (left of center in image). I have recreated this result several times. A few from this exact composition with different settings. Only with extremely bright as in midday sun light. It could be an imperfection in my lens only.

In closing the Magnicon 35-70mm Macro shows that a lens doesn’t have to be expensive or “big brand” to be quality. It’s far from being top tier at any one thing, but it’s also not bad at any one thing. It’s just a good solid, pretty all purpose lens that shows that compared to many of today’s budget friendly options 20+ years ago even cost conscious companies still tried to put out quality products. Magnicon lenses can be found for any of the late 80’s-mid 90’s popular mounts- Nikon, Canon, Minolta and of course Pentax so defiantly pick one up cheap and have fun!

Next up will be a quick jump to something a little different, thanks for reading and stay tuned!

Hiking Florida primeval and picking up ticks along part of the Florida Trail.

Jurassic park? Land of the lost? Really it seems to fit a lot of both!

Chuluota wilderness area (CWA from this point on) is located in southeast Seminole County and at 625 acres can seem a little generic by description alone. Central Florida natural areas tend to be located in areas of pasture land, pine trees, scrub brush, very little cover except for pockets of canopy, sugar sand beautiful,? Yes but it can make one area feel like 100 others. CWA fits all of these in spots but overall is one of the nicest most varied hiking ares around.

This was my second outing to this not so little gem. I had been out a few days before to see what it was like and needed to come back for more. CWA is also a feeder park for the Florida Trail (floridatrail.org) a 1,300 mile explorers paradise that starts in the panhandle and works its way down to the everglades. Wearing vans and jeans I decided “sure why not!”

Hidden down a dead end road and next door neighbor to the Charles H. Bronson State Forest. CWA is an amazing place to get lost for the morning, or day!

The trail head is easy enough to find. Enter the park, look left. Signage is obvious. Unlike the CWA itself however the Florida trail is hiker only. So if you brought the horses or the bikes just stick with the CWA trails for the day, you will still leave happy. The Florida trail is marked on the parks map and in several places crosses over the CWA trails and at many points comes within earshot of those same trails. Eventually though it separates and you end up on your own.

Trust the map for all your needs. Paper copies are available at the bulletin board as well, and while helpful can be a little hard to read not being in color.

The hiking along the trail is easy going for even a decent walker. The biggest obstacles being roots, with gradual elevation changes in places. In February (Florida’s “dry” season) the hiking was entirely dry up until my turn around point roughly 2 miles in. The Florida Trail Association which is a volunteer group that up keeps the trail has done an amazing job keeping the trail cleared and well marked. On the entire hike the only litter I came across was a lone red bull can hidden under a tree stump.

In the short area of the trail I hiked almost all of Florida’s faces could be seen. Scrub, dry swamp, oak forest, swamp, all of it amazing to see.

After about an hour and a half I hit a 2x4 bridge that signaled a warning that things might get mucky and it was right, about 200ft passed the “bridge” I couldn’t go further without more serious hiking gear ( really have to work on getting some).

So about the tick thing?: Bring some spray and prepare yourself and loved ones for the notorious, get to know your family better “tick check” when you get home. I have been biking, hiking, camping, horseback riding, paint balling and growing up in the backwoods of Florida my whole life and I have never EVER seen the amount of ticks I saw on this hike. Crawling on my shoes, my camera (if I set it down). Like ants at a sugar factory!

Wildlife: While I went early in the morning and am quite a quiet walker, the close quarters of the trail left much to the imagination. I would often hear a deer, eagle, hawk, boar etc. to no avail as the brush and tree cover blocked almost any view passed 30 feet. I would often hear movement just in time to see a figure disappear further into the brush. Smaller song birds where everywhere, making it feel like a true rain forest!

Wildlife could be hard to capture and see, but not hard to hear. A woodpecker gives me a chance for a image.

The CWA and the portion of the Florida trail hiding inside it are both great journeys and worth the drive and time to explore. Just bring plenty of water, mud boots and bug spray. A huge credit to both Seminole County and the Florida trail association at up keeping and protecting such a beautiful place!

Sunrise Photography at the Indian River!

After a long week at work, I needed time out and away from the daily routine. But where to go? When I have “photography block” and I’m not sure where to head out and explore or things are not “right” (real or imagined) for places I’ve scouted before, Brevard county is my fall back area, north/central Brevard to be exact. Why?

Most of my dads family have lived there my entire life. So over 30+ years the area has become this Orlando natives second home, and honestly compared to the craziness and constant growth the Orlando area has become the Brevard area is my 30 minute drive to tranquility.

I woke up at 4:00 AM, grabbed the gear and stopped by Wawa for gas and coffee. This has become the tradition when I’m going out to explore and it gives me time to narrow down ideas.

Today the Indian River was the winner and I’m glad it did!

Along the drive east I remembered fishing under the 528 bridge and decided it might be a good place to start the day. Its a bit of a trick to get under the bridge, especially in the dark that involves getting off the 528 on the Merritt Island side, get back on heading west and pull off a 70 mph highway in the dark onto a seriously hidden dirt road (no 4x4 needed) and like magic your under the bridge!

As soon as I parked I knew I had made the right call. Clouds, light wind and lights from nearby Cocoa and west Merritt Island illuminated the area. I pulled out the gear and began composing.

Luckily it being a work day, I had the spot to myself, and minus a few left overs from fishing trips before me the area was clean and safe to wander around.

Thanks to a bit of planning on the app Planit! and a lot of luck, I was able to catch the moon rising with sunrise hot on its heels.

As the sun began to rise cloud cover began to creep in. I assumed the day was over, while I was packing up I just miss an osprey making a catch, “Well guess the morning isn’t over yet”.

Along with the birds fishing boats begin running the river, either planning to fish the river itself or heading to one of the channels connecting it with Sykes Creek, the smaller Banana River and eventually the Atlantic itself, I am dying to finally get the guts to wave one down to drop me off at one of the many islands on the river. I’m just dying to explore them! How I’d get back is a problem I probably worry about after the fact, knowing myself.

At dawn the shrimp boats start to head out.

Bird watchers will love the Indian River as at dawn thousands start making their way from spending the night on the Island to spending the day on the mainland (and visa versa)

All in all visiting the Indian River is a beautiful, peaceful and almost spiritual way to spend not just a morning but anytime of day. And not just under the particular bridge I visited. There are many parking areas (both official and not so much but they are easy to see during a drive by). No matter what you are into, swimming, fishing, photography, bird watching or just a picnic!

Growth is showing it’s price on the area however, the water not as clear, the fish not as abundant. The state and local area needs to address the issues and lack of flow the Indian River now has due to slowing and in some cases even closing routes of flow to and from the ocean. More visitors and more public outcry will do more to further helping this problem. Plus its FREE!!!!