Access P-MC 35-70mm f/2.5-3.5 Macro Zoom, Take I

Cameras and Lenses: Images with a budget-friendly vintage Access P-MC 35-70mm f/2.5-3.5 Macro Zoom, a solid-built all-metal manual focus lens, as a 70-140mm full-frame short zoom on the Olympus Pen E-P5.

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Solid as a tank, being of all glass and metal construction, the lens weighs in at 460 grams and comes with an array of four rings for manning (from back to front): Aperture, Macro, Zoom, and Focus functions. The filter thread is 58mm.

Physically, the lens is lighter and smaller than the Tamron SP 28-80mm 1:3.5~4.2 CF Macro, almost the size of the Sigma Zoom-Gamma 21-35mm 1:3.5~4, both of which I posted earlier.

The zoom range, however, is only equivalent to the S Zuiko Auto-Zoom 35-70mm 1:4 (another post here), but with the ability to shoot in macro mode and the ability to let in more light up front. The widest aperture of 1:2.5 can be used on all focal lengths except when in full zoom at 70mm, where the aperture jumps to 1:3.5.

Olympus E-P5, Access P-MC 35-70mm f/2.5-3.5 Macro Zoom

Using the Macro function is more manual as it requires you to first disengage a locking pin before you can turn the ring to get the macro mode going. Shooting aperture priority means that I do away with the need for another set of fingers on the aperture ring.

Olympus E-P5, Access P-MC 35-70mm f/2.5-3.5 Macro Zoom

I was actually quite pleased with how these test images turned out. Colors are vivid, contrast is good, and bokeh shows a lot of potential. Sharpness, however, is just not here, while precise focusing is made more difficult with an extremely short focus throw of less than a quarter turn from the closest focusing distance of 0.7m to infinity.