It certainly is nice to have a knowledgable bunch of people residing here within clubsnap.
Admittedly, when i first saw this thread, i expected a ton of people to criticize and bombard the name cosina, citing quality, low resale, bla bla bla...
And we did see a few posts.. expectedly.
However, what put a smile on my face, were the replies of those that shared the sentiments that the name of the tool did not matter, but it was how u put it to good use.
Cosina has been making quality glass since the early 70s, and though not as big a manufacturer as the other giants (Cikon and Nanon), their lenses have been known to be as sharp as their competitors, if not, better for certain generations and models. (esp their primes)
Currently, they're involved in redoing most of the famous rangefinder systems, and are also proud manufacturers of lenses for the leica screwmount and M systems. I personally own a bunch of them, and can simply SWEAR for their optical quality, sharpness that's more shiok than the beef kuehtiao at geylang, and most importantly, a price that's .. er... nice.
When i first began in the comms/journ industry almost 30 years ago, we were issued a number of cosina primes to use, and well, they did their job.... and that's what mattered.
Hence, as what the "gurus" or what their called here, say, use it as a tool, and don't WORRY about its name for:
1. The only lenses that hold their resale values over 3 - 5 years or more, are the leica/zeiss series of lenses. Even the 2nd hand market of nikon glasses arn't necessarily good too, with canon not doing too well either as they tend to discontinue their lenses at a faster rate. Hence, don't worry about it.
2. Quality: this is in my own opinion... As for quality, i honestly feel you're not going to notice a vast difference unless u tend to shoot wide open into the edges of the sun, with constant intentions to blow your shots up beyond 16x20... so.. don't worry too much about it. The older cosinas were built to last and hence, the quality of the images i can say, are on par or are perhaps even better than its competitors.
3. As i suppose you're a beginner, try to learn from what u have, and not get caught up in the "name" game, common amongst the many young dslr shooters u see wandering around. (L, ED, T*, etc) Use what u can afford, live and learn from it.... for it'll only make u appreciate what u can get later.
Shoot well, and most importantly, have fun. :thumbsup: