Canon & Manual Lenses

Ste Manns

Ste Manns

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Hi all,

Following on from my (unnoticed! :'() question a few days ago about which lens to go for in the 70-200 range, I did a search on the subject but to be honest I'm none the wiser really as, typically on a forum, there are so many differing opinions on the subject.

Anyhow - I have noticed a few topics on using old manual lenses with modern dslrs, and this interests me - yes mainly because you can get good quality optics for a lot less money, but also because in my current price range I'm thinking I may be able to get something comparable to an L lens, image quality wise.

However I'm struggling to put the hours in on research, I don't have much time to spend on photography at the moment due to my little one being ill and needing a lot of care, and work and so on. So, can someone give me some tips and advice on which lenses to look out for, what adaptors they need to work with my Canon 50d and so on. I shoot in manual anyway so I'm quite happy adjusting aperture manually and manually focusing. I just don't know which lens to look for or what adaptor I need to fit the lens and so on.

Also, I'm quite happy to go for a prime rather than a zoom - I'm looking for something good for portraiture, a zoom comparable to a 70-200 would be nice but if the consensus is use say a 135 prime then I would be happy to look at that too. Also, I'm looking for a good fast lens, say f2.8.

I already have a 50mm f1.8 which I love, but when I'm using lights I want something longer. As these lenses can be had for reasonable money, it might be the case that I can have two of different lengths instead of looking for a zoom?

Anyhow, those of you experienced in this, what would you recommend? I hope I haven't rambled on too much! Please forgive me for sounding thick maybe but if you don't know about these old lenses then for me at least it seems quite daunting and baffling, the sheer number of manufacturers and so on makes my head spin!

Many thanks

Ste
 
old zooms tend to be poor quality. :thumbsdown:

old primes ... well ... that's another matter :thumbs:

you can get old EF zoom lenses on Ebay for around £30 ... that's the way I started my collection.
 
Manual focus zooms aren't very good at that time so you have few that I could recomment.

Some Zeiss lenses (for Contax cameras) are really good but the price could be higher.

Search for Vario-Sonnar 35-70mm f/3.4, 28-70mm and a really good one Vario-Sonnar 100-300 f/4.5-5.6

Primes you have a lot that will work on Canon. I already had dozens of lenses but now I'm only using Carl Zeiss and I love them.

For portraiture Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm f/1.4 is amazing! Sonnar T* 135mm f/2.8 is really good too. I use the Tele-Tessar T* 200mm f/3.5 and I really like it too...

You can check my flickr and see some pictures:

www.flickr.com/photos/lazzarosphotography


Any doubt please send me PM or something. I'll help if needed.

Regards,
Ivo
 
A couple of good primes would be better, ideally about 85mm for portraiture on a crop body, but there are a lot of good 100mm M42 lenses out there, adapters for most lenses available ot the Bay.also quite a few 135mm at reasonable prices.


Dave.
 
Thanks guys,

I will give the old zooms a wide berth then - thankyou for that!

Lazzaros - that's exactly the information I need to help me get started, thankyou. I will hopefully have some time this weekend to have a look. Are the primes you recommend all the same mount or will I need different adaptors? Where I live there's only really Jessops nearby and I know they won't have any information for me never mind 2nd hand lenses in stock, however there is one particular shop in Manchester I intend to visit soon that maybe able to help, failing that it's the 'bay which I'm not that fond of! I prefer to see things in the flesh before I buy, call me old fashioned!
 
Ste

I'm not an expert at old MF lenses by any means but I year or two back I was given a Carl Zeiss Jennar 135/3.5 M42 lens and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Also, have a look at http://forum.manualfocus.org/, full of good information

Russ
 
Hi Russ,

I found, more by luck than anything else, a Jupiter 135/f4 on a market stall in Leeds on Saturday, along with two 58mm/f2 (one by Helios and one by Chinon I think) all M42 fit.

I asked the guy who was selling them what they fitted but he didn't know, I haven't had dealings with old MF lenses so I didn't know what I was looking at, but at £3 each I thought it was worth the gamble! Anyhow, I've got them home and cleaned them carefully and await my £2.49 adaptors! I can't wait, I'm really looking forward to trying them out.

From a bit of research on the net I've determined that the Jupiter is a Russian copy of the Carl Zeiss 135/f4 and is supposed to be incredibly sharp with nice bokeh but time will tell. The Helios is also supposed to be a little cracker.

I'll give these lenses a go, if I like them I will certainly be on the lookout for some more.
 
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