Phoenix 100mm f/3.5 Macro Lens Review

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

On receiving the lens, I was first struck by its very light weight, specially as it is not an especially compact optic. The construction is almost entirely plastic - not the tough polycarbonate used in Nikkors and Tamrons, but a type which feels harder and more brittle. I have no doubt this lens would crack open if dropped. However, the lens mount is not plastic - it is metal.

The lens barrel is a double-extension type (one extending barrel inside the other) and the lens is more than twice as long when extended fully. Surprisingly perhaps, the front element does not rotate during focusing. (It is an oft-repeated fallacy that front element rotation is a function of internal focusing - it is not). The inner extending barrel is printed with scales in meters, feet and magnification ratios for both the "bare" lens and the lens with the 1:1 adapter fitted.

At full extension, there is a slight wobble in the barrel - about the same amount or a little less than my first Nikkor - the old Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6D AF lens.

Again surprisingly, the aperture scale is engraved (or molded) rather than just printed onto the plastic.

The filter threads are 49mm, and take a matching 1:1 macro adaptor. Without the adaptor, the lens can focus to a maximum 1:2 magnification ratio by itself.
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