Vintage Lenses: Any Advise?

[Albi86]

If you're buying vintage lenses, read this first:
http://www.similaar.com/foto/lenstests/lenstestsc.html

and once that's clear, start the buying madness

http://www.similaar.com/foto/lenstests/lenstestsa.html
http://www.similaar.com/foto/lenstests/bokehtests.html

Hi! I knew some lenses wouldn't keep the pace of modern digital sensors, but I'm also sure the good ones would still be good. As I said, my 25-years-old nifty fifty is so much better than any modern MK2 I've seen.

I would like to get a setup of old, possibly all-metal, manual focus fast primes.

I am a child of the AF generation, so I'm very little experienced in this sense and I don't know which ones are worth having nowadays.

I'm interested in 20-28mm, 30-40mm, 50-60mm, 85-100mm and 135mm. A standard setup.

Please share your opinions with me. Doesn't matter about brands, as long as they can be adapted and that it makes sense to buy them price-wise.

Thank you!

Contax-Zeiss Primes have less issues being fitted to EOS camera than the FD lenses. Plus, They're awesome.

Do you have any direct experience?

 

[RLPhoto]

If you're buying vintage lenses, read this first:
http://www.similaar.com/foto/lenstests/lenstestsc.html

and once that's clear, start the buying madness

http://www.similaar.com/foto/lenstests/lenstestsa.html
http://www.similaar.com/foto/lenstests/bokehtests.html

Hi! I knew some lenses wouldn't keep the pace of modern digital sensors, but I'm also sure the good ones would still be good. As I said, my 25-years-old nifty fifty is so much better than any modern MK2 I've seen.

I would like to get a setup of old, possibly all-metal, manual focus fast primes.

I am a child of the AF generation, so I'm very little experienced in this sense and I don't know which ones are worth having nowadays.

I'm interested in 20-28mm, 30-40mm, 50-60mm, 85-100mm and 135mm. A standard setup.

Please share your opinions with me. Doesn't matter about brands, as long as they can be adapted and that it makes sense to buy them price-wise.

Thank you!

Contax-Zeiss Primes have less issues being fitted to EOS camera than the FD lenses. Plus, They're awesome.

Do you have any direct experience?

http://leitax.com/Zeiss-Contax-lenses-for-Canon-cameras.html

Had a 50mm 1.4 zeiss once, never really used it much.

 

[NormanBates]

If you're buying vintage lenses, read this first:
http://www.similaar.com/foto/lenstests/lenstestsc.html

and once that's clear, start the buying madness

http://www.similaar.com/foto/lenstests/lenstestsa.html
http://www.similaar.com/foto/lenstests/bokehtests.html

Hi! I knew some lenses wouldn't keep the pace of modern digital sensors, but I'm also sure the good ones would still be good. As I said, my 25-years-old nifty fifty is so much better than any modern MK2 I've seen.
[\quote]

I didn't say anything on the contrary. Very few modern lenses can match the lovely image quality of my Leitz primes from the 60s and 70s, and the ones that do tend to cost at least $1500, sometimes $5K or even $12K, so, between 4x and 30x the price I paid for most of them.

But while buying my vintage primes I did get some lemons: maybe 30% of the lenses I've bought (both on ebay and on more reputable sources) came out damaged or wrongly assembled.

 

[Albi86]

Thank you, I'll be careful on what I buy and from who!

 

[AJ]

How about a set of Samyang primes.

Not vintage, but they are inexpensive, high performance, and manual aperture+focus. They come with an EF mount so no need to mess with adapters.

 

[sootzzs]

How about a set of Samyang primes.

Not vintage, but they are inexpensive, high performance, and manual aperture+focus. They come with an EF mount so no need to mess with adapters.

Depends on how you look at it: compared to 50-150$ vintage lens 399-599$ Samyangs are expensive.

Sorry to interfere your post, Alibi86, but on the same issue: I'm looking for nice cheap (no more than 150$) old MF lens for macro (like the Nikon 105 f4 Micro). Any ideas on that? Is it a viable idea?

Also you should check Keh.com. They have very good deals on vintage lenses from.

 

[Jon Gilchrist]

But try to show me any affordable 50mm or 55mm shift lens...

It's not 50/55, but I have an Olympus/Zuiko 35mm shift (no tilt) that I picked up off ebay with an EOS adapter fairly cheap. I don't remember the exact price, but I think it was under $200.

Samyang has a 24mm tilt-shift that looks remarkably like the TS-E 24 without any electronics that they showed at Photokina. I'm still waiting on price, but it should be a great lens.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

The idea occurred to me because I have a 25-years-old Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 MK1, which is better built and easily sharper than any MK2 I've seen. And it also focuses more consistently.

I have had several of the old Metal Mount 50mm f/1.8 lenses, and, while I prefer them, they are no sharper and do not focus any better than the new ones.
I've actually had 3 of the various re-incarnations, the original made in Japan Metal Mount, the made in Japan Mark II, and the made in Malaysia MK II.
The real focus ring and the metal mount on the Mark 1 are what sets it apart. Differences in sharpness are just copy to copy variations, since the optical formula is the same.
The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 MK I have right now is pretty inaccurate as far as autofocus goes on my 5D MK III. AFMA of -11 fixes that. It also has more variation from shot to shot than my other lenses. Different copies will vary.

 

[akiskev]

As others said, go for C/Y mount lenses (Zeiss) and M42 ones..

Some great and inexpensive choices are:
Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f/2.4
Zeiss 80-200 f/4

The Takumar 50mm is very nice too, but I prefer the Planar 1.4...

 

[florianbieler.de]

When you want to use a Takumar 50mm 1.4 SMC on a full frame, you'll run into the problem with the mirror hitting the back of the lens. You can mod the lens though, wrote a bit about that on my website www.florianbieler.de. Going to try the lens out as soon as my M42 adapter arrives.