After buying my Pentax *ist Ds body the first thing I did after testing it with my old pentax K mount lenses was looking for some prime lenses with different focal length of those I own. After looking for a while on ebay, I realised that if I wanted lenses to used them on both my Pentax body and the Canon EOS 400D I had for repair was to get M42 screw lenses and two adapters for both bodies. As the cost of all this was growing I got a cheap 28mm lens. This was the m42 screw mount Miranda 28mm f2.8.
When I looked on the internet for some info on the lens, I read that Miranda in fact was a reseller, so they didn’t make all their lenses, just some of them. I found that my Miranda 28mm was in fact made by Cosina, and after looking for a cosina 28mm picture I confirmed that info. The picture above is exactly my lens, the only thing different is the inscription on the front of the lens.
It’s been a while since I got the lens, so far the things I’ve got clear is that it is an average lens, it’s worth what I paid, around €15, for it but if you need sharpness and there’s not enough light, then this is not your lens. With the diaphragm open wide it’s too soft and it starts to perform well when closing the diaphragm to 5,6 or below.
More info on:
- Pentax Forums
- Manual focus forums (1) (2)