A bargain-basement zoom with a respectable Japanese pedigree.

Introduction

The Quantaray 28–90mm f/3.5–5.6 Macro comes from an era when camera stores sold their own house-brand lenses, frequently manufactured by better-known Japanese optical companies.

Quantaray was the house brand of Ritz Camera and Wolf Camera, and this particular lens appears to have been manufactured by Sigma.

Made in Japan, the 28–90mm was designed for 35mm autofocus SLR cameras and offers a reasonably useful focal-length range, along with a surprisingly capable macro setting.

Its maximum reproduction ratio of approximately 1:2.3 makes it more versatile than the typical inexpensive kit zoom.

Interestingly, the lens also features a nine-blade diaphragm, something worth investigating when examining its bokeh and stopped-down rendering.

The example tested here is serial number 1172147, fitted with a Minolta AF mount and adapted to a Sony mirrorless camera.

The question is whether this inexpensive relic of the Ritz Camera era has anything interesting to offer modern photographers.

Full resolution downloadable samples from this lens here.

Conclusion

I was surprised. Build quality leaves something to be desired. The surprise was not the vignetting or barrel distortion on the wide end, but the pretty sharp and contrasty images, all the way out to the edges. Albeit with a bit of field curvature. Not bad for a lens you can get for the price of a glass or two of wine in a sit down restaurant.