Cosina 19-35mm f3.5-4.5

The reason I'm reviewing this lens is because I bid on it in eBay not expecting it to even come close to the price they were asking for it. Along with the auction, there was a "Buy Me Now" price of just under £50.00 including postage and packing. The lens is brand new, boxed and complete with instructions, a hood, and both end caps. I bid on it because it had the Canon FD mount. I forgot about it until I got a notification that I had won the item and should pay up the £20.00, yep, £20.00 including P&P. The average price seems to be around £68.00 when bought used but others are selling it on brand new for as much as £199.99 plus P&P. What I have been doing lately is deducting the postage costs from £20.00 and use the result as the highest bid I was willing to make.

Before I commit to purchasing a lens, I always scour the manual focus lens forums and this lens has gathered quite a following, especially on non-full frame cameras. Of course, on the M43 system, it will have the field of view of a 38-70mm lens and using my focal reducer, it will behave much like a 28-50mm lens with a starting aperture of f2.5-3.2, so we shall see what kind of results I can squeeze out of it. If I don't like it, I can always sell it again for a small profit by starting the bidding at £20.00 plus P&P.

The lens was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday, 5th February. I even got a notification from Royal Mail that it wasn't and is due today. It's also nice and sunny outside, with blue skies without a cloud in sight, and the temperature is a balmy 3C, which is great for taking photographs from my front door. 

When the lens arrived, I let it warm up to room temperature, unpacked it from the carefully protected parcel and attached a Canon FD to M43 adapter. I added the lens data to my Olympus OM-D E-M1 II and promptly went to my front door and took a few shots. it's not very often I buy something brand new.

So here it is:

Some quick test shots taken with my OM-D E-M1 II mostly taken at f5.6, ISO 200.

Some more test shots but taken with the FotoDiox Focal Reducer attached to the camera. This results in a 13.6-25.2mm f2.5 lens (27.2-50.4 on M43) attached. The results surprised me as some contrast was lost and a few of the photographs came out darker.

Is this a replacement for your standard kit lens? No, not really. It's all manual on my system, and as my standard kit lens is the tiny "Lumix 14-42mm f3.5-5.6" it's surprisingly very sharp. When the weather improves, I'll push it through its limits by taking a few high-resolution shots. For a lens that costs £20.00 brand new, including P&P in original packaging, it's well worth having it to try on your gear. Imagine if this had been produced in a Tamron Adaptall 2 mount.