Whenever I have some free time which is not so much nowadays, I always like to visit to my local camera store’s, Biggs Camera’s, “trash aisle”. It’s basically a small hallway tucked in the back of the store (near the bathrooms) where boxes of junk and things not worth selling, languish in the dust. Most of the time, it’s junk, but on occasional the employees will throw away some treasure, you just have to really dig around.
We can all agree that most zoom lenses from the 1980s and older are complete garbage. Annie Leibovitz, in her early days, once said that if you used zoom lenses, you’re not a pro. That still rings true for me as I refuse to use zooms even when I’m shooting something as inconsequential as a friend’s birthday party.
So I’m rummaging through the usual box of zoom lenses from Tamron, Focal MC, Sigma etc and I see a girthy fat barrel lens that resembles a vintage zoom, but looks to thick and short to be one. Turns out it was a 105mm macro lens made by Kiron. Now if you know thing about lenses, the macro lens, in any era, any guise are one of the easiest lens formulas to perfect and make right. This example by Kiron was a known winner in the vintage collection circle.
I check the optics against the light and see that it’s flawless so I proceed to go up to the counter and let the guys know that “yo, I’m takin’ this!” This is what the lens produced:
Audley Yung 
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