A Look Back at Lenses

This woman's job was to assemble and inspect every rear element of the Kiron 80-200mm zoom to ensure that there were no flaws in the multicoating and that every surface was dust-free. She also made a great bowl of nabeyaki udon.

Back during the early 1980s I used to be the marketing communications manager for Kiron, the U.S. marketing division of Kino Optical. Kino used to be one of the major lens suppliers for Vivitar. For those of you too young to remember, Vivitar used to be the U.S. distributor for the Olympus OM system, the legendary Vivitar 283 and 285 flash units, and Series 1 lenses. Series 1 lenses were made by Kino.

Kino decided it would be more profitable to market and distribute its lenses directly rather than through Vivitar. They named their U.S. distributor Kiron. My job at Kiron was to write brochures and instruction manuals, design point of sale materials and answer questions from consumers. For some reason the owner decided it would be a good idea to fly me to Japan to photograph their factory. Who was I to argue?

It was a great education in how lenses are made and assembled--or I should say, how they used to be made and assembled. Kino lens barrels were made of old school materials such as brass and aluminum. Their lenses had aperture rings (remember those?) controlled by levers, springs and cams. They also had functional focusing rings that turned as smoothly as silk.

This emphasis on mechanical design would eventually prove to be their undoing. When the age of autofocus and electronic control dawned, Kiron found itself edged out of the market. It wasn't that the new autofocus lenses were better; it's just that they were more convenient for the consumer. They eliminated onerous tasks such as turning a ring and having to decide for yourself whether the image was in focus or not. And if autofocus meant that your choices were limited to camera-brand lenses, well, that was all for the better right?

All sarcasm aside, I wasn't all that distressed by Kiron's disappearance from the market. I had already moved on to another company and, as history has shown, nothing lasts forever. I will say this though: If you still shoot 35mm film and have one of the older manual focus bodies, keep your eyes on the lookout for Kiron lenses in the bargain bins. For little more than the cost of an entree at a nice restaurant you'll have a solidly made, optically excellent lens that will outlive most of the plastic-fantastic lenses sold today. Just remember that you'll have to focus it yourself. If you can't figure out how, send me an e-mail and I'll send you back some instructions.

Comments

[Chris Klug]

That's kind of a humorous comment, as I tend to shoot film with my old Canon FD set rather than with any modern autofocus lenses and I find it quite enjoyable and relaxing. Now, I wouldn't want to shoot a basketball game with one of those lenses, but obviously people managed to do it somehow. Very nice image.

[Helcio J Tagliolatto]

"Plastic-fantastic" heh heh heh. I admire those who can invent words that express reality in a precise way!!
Excellent image, great text. Coming to this blog is always an enjoyable experience.

I didn't know Kiron lenses were fine, despite its original low prices.

Hélcio
Bauru - BR

[Bruce Robbins]

Gordon,

Do you know which Kiron lenses were the best? I have a 28mm f2 that's OK wide open and very sharp stopped down beyond that. I believe the 24mm f2 performed in a similar fashion. Were there any others that stood out?

Bruce

[Gordon Lewis]

"Were there any others that stood out?"

There were very few dogs, but the 105mm f/2.8 Macro was exceptionally good. If you're into zooms, the Kiron 28-85mm f/2.8-3.8 Varifocal was quite good, as was the 28-210mm f/3.8-5.6. Given the lack of plastics, they were both rather heavy though. The 70-210mm f/4 with zoom lock was also a fine performer. To be honest though, I never used the longer lenses much. Short, light and compact was always my preference.

[Bob Nichol]

I had the Kiron 28-210mm f/3.8-5.6 on a Minolta X570 body. The kit served me well until I went digital in 2003 and I sold it on eBay. It was a nice kit for traveling and the lens performed very well. Like any other lens however, the 28mm became not wide enough and the 210mm not long enough!

[Christopher Munson]

I picked up a 80-200mm f/4 Kiron zoom last year to use with my old Olympus OM-1, for the price of that entree you mentioned. So far I've taken a number of slides with this lens that have pleased me very much. The sharpness, contrast and color are just fine. I think that, interestingly, Kiron outdid Olympus at its own game of light weight and compact size: About the same time this Kiron zoom came out, Olympus introduced a Zuiko 65-200mm f/4 zoom, but that lens is actually noticeably heavier and a bit bulkier than the Kiron. (Anyway, these days one should avoid that Zuiko 65-200mm like the plague because of a defective inner element that self-etches and clouds up the lens, but that's another story!) I would rather have the Kiron than the Zuiko, no question.