July 10, 2025
#513
Gentle reader,
It's been a while since I've written anything, the last, also being camera related, was this article: The Robb Collections: Fifty-Year-Old Time Capsule Found: Rare "Black Chrome" Kodak Pocket Instamatic 60 Camera Deluxe Set Is it Better than Digital?
For longtime readers (thank you!) you know of my long history of collecting cameras as well as being a photographer in many formats from 16mm to 4x5" sheet film. I have come a long way from that first film camera my parents gave me in the 1960's to now.
It was either one of these, sold by Sear Roebuck & Company or this one:
Yep, that's me, all 155 pounds and 6'3" tall.
It looked something like this, although I have never been able to find one for sale.
Before the Internet was released to the general public to be able to use, before there was anything with "Smart" in it's name, or a name which started with "i", we went to STORES to buy things. We read magazines and newspapers for our news and to see what was on sale and where.
Shopping malls were where people shopped and teenagers hung out. There were no cell phones, no Internet, nothing whatsoever "digital". And, there were CHAIN STORES.
Ritz Camera Store in 2009.
As you can see, both of these images are copyrighted. But, some years ago, the US Supreme Court ruled that once an image was uploaded to the Internet, it lost it's creator's control and anyone could use it.
Ritz Camera Store going out of business.
And to my utter surprise, it seems that Ritz Camera is back from the dead.
A little, quick history of camera lens manufacturers. There used to be MANY of them! Many countries around the world made their own cameras and lenses and some startup companies wanted a piece of the interchangeable lens pie. They are called: "Third Party Lenses".
The ones which have lasted are: Tokina, Tamron and Sigma. In my considered opinion, the last, Sigma, makes the best quality ones compared to the camera company's own branded lenses.
That's where Ritz Camera came in. They made a deal, since Ritz had hundreds of stores in many countries, with Sigma of Japan to sell Sigma lenses under their store brand of: QUANTARAY. Supposedly, they were identical in quality to Sigma branded lenses. Ritz sold films of all kinds, including 8mm and 16mm movie film and all kinds of things one might want or need to support their image making hobbies. And, of course, you could drop off your film and pick up the pictures the next day. I shopped there regularly.
And below, next to a later-model, but optically the same, Sigma lens. BOTH are made for Nikons APS-C sensor DSLR cameras.
ONLY Pentax and Nikon kept the SAME lens mount from their FILM camera days. Even their (and other branded Pentax K or Nikon F mount lenses) earliest manual focus lenses will mount on and can be used on their digital SLR bodies. Albeit with manually setting the aperture and shutter speed with the oldest lenses.
Obviously, the Sigma lens, based upon size, weight and serial number, is much newer. I could not find, on eBay, a Sigma lens of the same age as the QUANTARAY lens.
Both are APS-C Digital lenses.
The QUANTARAY lens is larger, heavier and longer than the newer Sigma lens.
The lens cap of the Sigma is 62mm compared to the other's 72mm. The focal length and variable apertures are identical optically.
I mounted my Nikon D300 on my carbon fiber tripod, getting the lens height centered with the subject matter: A ceramic statue of Gollum for Peter Jackson's epic Lord of The Rings trilogy of films, a piece of petrified wood and a very realistic looking Horned Toad, native to the southwest United States and Mexico, but made of resin.
A note on photos: Click or Tap on any image and ALL can be seen in a new window over the article. Better to judge each pair.
I took a series of images without flash, from the marked focal length on the QUANTARAY lens. The Sigma's markings are a little different, so I had to guess if I was getting the Sigma lens exactly at 80mm, for example.
Each of the focal length images are stacked below, starting at 28mm for both lenses.
QUANTARAY at 28mm.
Sigma at 28mm.
QUANTARAY at 35mm.
Sigma at 35mm.
QUANTARAY at 50mm
Sigma at 50mm
QUANTARAY at 80mm
Sigma at 80mm
QUANTARAY at 135mm* see below
Sigma at 100mm
 |
| QUANTARAY at 200mm |
Sigma at 200mm
QUANTARAY at 300mm
And finally, and most telling, Sigma at 300mm.
You can form your own opinion as to which lens is the sharpest based upon side-by-side comparisons of each pair of lenses.
In looking at the markings of both lenses as they are right in front of me, the following sticks out: On the QUANTARAY, 50, 80 and 135 (*it is not marked for 100mm) are about equidistant with a shorter distance between 135 and 200 and slightly longer to 300mm.
The Sigma lens distance between 28 to 35mm cannot be determined based upon it's markings. 35 to 50, 50 to 70 (not 80) and 100 are about equidistant. 100 to 200 is slightly wider and 200 to 300mm.
Obvious to me after looking at the article's preview is that I shot the Sigma image at IT's marked 100mm while shooting the QUANTARAY at 135mm! As some used to say, not me though, "My bad." Each pair of images, even though the tripod-mounted camera did not move, each lens has a slightly different view. Almost as if the camera was lower when shooting with the Sigma lens, which it was not. Odd...
Feel free to let me know your conclusions below or via Facebook. Also, please take a look at my other two blogs: Pictures of Nancy. The Love of My Life. and: People Say I'm Special. But I Don't Know Why
Thank you SO much for taking the time to read my article and view my images. I can never thank you personally, but, I truly appreciate your doing so.
Scott Robb
July 10, 2025
#513
