Quantaray 80-205mm manual focus lens
 

So I was searching on Ebay last week for a UV filter for my Nikon D40 when a lens cought my attention that had 1 minute to go at 0.99 and and no bids with 8 dollar shipping. I thought what the heck and bid and got it for $12.58 which also had a UV filter on the end (awesome!). I researched the lens and couldn't find anything other than it is an older lens for manual focus cameras. A google search sort of comes up with statistical charts and sales pitches.. all i'm trying to figure out is what this thing is good for?? What would someone do with this thing?

The lens is a Quantaray 80-205mm manual focus lens. Below are some photos I took of the lens.

it's a push-pull manual zoom... kind of a fun piece but the push pull is not fun for zooming in video mode. Might make for a neat fast-zoom effect but any rotation of the barrel will change focus.

I asked what this thing is in the context of its relevence to the realm of digital photography with hopes that someone could tell me its importance or what exactly this thing was/is used for.

yea..that push pull thing threw me off. I was wondering about that...

Thanks for the reply.

Thread title changed from "What is this thing??" to "Quantaray 80-205mm manual focus lens."

Please avoid using ambiguous thread titles on this site.

I don't know if you notice or not, but this isn't any ordinary lens. I'm not photography buff. In fact I know nothing about photography. So therefore I am asking what this thing is used for.."What is it?" refers to the mechanics of the lens itself. I'm trying to learn from a body of knowledgeable Professionals who have years of experience in this field. Granted this is a Video forum, but this section is for photo inquiry of which I hope to get professional feedback not unnecessary criticism and a jab to my intelligence.

Thanks.

Chris - sorry for the confusion. Thanks for changing it.

Cheers.

Hi Terry,

I don't allow jabs at anyone's intelligence on this site and have edited this thread to reflect that policy. One thing which might help in the future is to choose your thread title a bit more carefully, such as "What is this lens" or "How is this lens different from others" or something to that degree.

Ambiguity in thread titles is probably one of the biggest problems we have around here. We're all guilty of it to one degree or another; myself included. Asking a question takes just as much thought and diligence as answering one, and all of us need to keep that in mind. I'm just as bad as everyone else in this respect... I'm not singling out anyone. Hope this helps,

I completely understand what you mean because say for instance if I search for matte box I get a bunch of different threads with names that aren't related to my search at all and somewhere in the thread someone mentioned in one line on page 34 "you could also use a matte box" but the entire thread is about "what camera should I buy?"

Terry,

The lens is a "one touch" manual zoom lens. These very very popular in the early eighties and generally had a focal lenght of 75mm to 210mm. The concept was that you could focus and zoom with one action. In use the lenses tend to have a focus shift as you zoomed in or out, and when you focused the lens you could also start to zoom in or out. However, once you got the hang of it, then you could grab some quick shots. When auto focus was introduced by Minolta, these lens types lost their popularity.

The coloured markings are an indication of the depth of field that could be obtained at the various apertures, so if you are using f5.6 then the coloured lines related to that aperture draw in closer as you zoom in, you can now see where the left and right markings fall on the distance scale, e.g the right edge may be on 20ft and the left edge may be on 18ft, this indicates that anything within those two lines should be in focus. Using a smaller aperture of F16 will give you a greater depth of field, at the sme focus distance you may now have a focus depth of 30ft to 15ft (actual depth of field will also vary depending on the focal lenght in use).

You got a good bargain, but in today's digital age it may make a better paper weight than useful optics.

:-( - point noted