Manual lenses for M43

[Carpy2001]

Hi all, hope everyone is well.
As the title says I am looking to explore the world of cheap manual mft lenses. I have no idea what specific focal length I would like or should start with, and the more I watch youtube videos, the more confused I get lol.
So does anyone have any experience with these type of lenses?, or any recommendations?.
The reason for Manual lenses is purely down to budget, I know that cheap often means inferior, but at this moment in time cheap is all I can afford lol, even the likes of the Oly 45mm is too much.
I was thinking about the likes of the TT Artisans 25mm f2, 35mm f1.4.
Any help or advice would be most welcome.

Cheers Andy

 

[Sangoma]

Why do you want to explore them? Just for fun or is there a purpose?

Most of the time a normal zoom (Panasonic or Olympus) will give better quality.

The TT Artisans lens is fun, mainly as it is a "nifty fifty" equivalent, but there are better quality 25mm lenses

 

[Carpy2001]

Why do you want to explore them? Just for fun or is there a purpose?

Most of the time a normal zoom (Panasonic or Olympus) will give better quality.

The TT Artisans lens is fun, mainly as it is a "nifty fifty" equivalent, but there are better quality 25mm lenses

For fun Steve, and they can be had for cheap lol.
Plus they may help me stop just zooming a lens to the max, and teach me to zoom with my feet.

 

[trevorbray]

How about adapting film era lenses .
A canon FD to M43 adapter and Canon FD 50mm should only cost around £50. Check out eBay.

 

[skullfunkerry]

I don't have any experience of MFT, but on Fuji (APS-C) I've had a few manual lenses:

Samyang 12mm F/2 NCS CS - really good, very sharp, have actually bought it twice, since I sold the first one and regretted it.

TTArtisan 25mm F/2 - quite liked it; it had a nice filmic look when I got it right, but found it quite hard to focus accurately. Nice and small though, and really cheap.

7Artisans 35mm F/0.95 - liked it a lot. My favourite focal length, which helps, and pretty easy to focus. Good in low light, and razor thin depth of field. Only sold it because I wanted an autofocus lens.

Helios 44-2 - picked it up on eBay for about £20, bought an adaptor for about £5. Not great optically, and quite low-contrast/desaturated looking wide open, but lovely bokeh with a swirly look.

 

[Carpy2001]

How about adapting film era lenses .
A canon FD to M43 adapter and Canon FD 50mm should only cost around £50. Check out eBay.

I have the Pentax smc m 50mm f1.7 with adapter, I like the lens and was wanting to mabe try a few that fitted an M43 mount.

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

The one lens I've found useful on M43 is Tamron's Adaptall 500mm mirror lens, shown here on my Olympus E-PL5...



I find it gives quite pleasing results...

 

[BillN_33]

Hi all, hope everyone is well.
As the title says I am looking to explore the world of cheap manual mft lenses. I have no idea what specific focal length I would like or should start with, and the more I watch youtube videos, the more confused I get lol.
So does anyone have any experience with these type of lenses?, or any recommendations?.
The reason for Manual lenses is purely down to budget, I know that cheap often means inferior, but at this moment in time cheap is all I can afford lol, even the likes of the Oly 45mm is too much.
I was thinking about the likes of the TT Artisans 25mm f2, 35mm f1.4.
Any help or advice would be most welcome.

Cheers Andy

are you thinking about older MF lenses - I tried lots maybe 15 years ago with the Oly and Panasonic G1

cheap adapters do work - I have a few, maybe more somewhere, Pentax lenses are good and inexpensive - buy a couple of 50mm to start with if you want to experiment......... but you will find none as good as the M43 Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 the Lumix G 20/F1.7 stuck on an Oly EP1

 

[huxleypiggles]

Start with M42 Mount lenses because there are lots of them and they can be very inexpensive and the M43 - M42 adapters are cheap. For a first lens pick choose an Industar 50 3.5. Russian, well built, cheap and pancake size and take it from there.

Good luck.

 

[realspeed]

Before deciding on any lens think about what you want to photograph. next set a fixed budget, then suit for a lens suitable for your requirements. Also it may help if mentioning what camera your using ForMFT lens

 

[Carpy2001]

Before deciding on any lens think about what you want to photograph. next set a fixed budget, then suit for a lens suitable for your requirements. Also it may help if mentioning what camera your using ForMFT lens

Not got anything specific that I want to photograph, although I have just planted some bee/butterfly friendly plants in the garden in the hopes of attracting a few insects to shoot. Othewise it is just general stuff in my area that catches my eye.

Sorry maybe should have said that I use Mostly olympus EM1 mk1, but also have an olympus Em10 mk2.

As for budget, needs to be less than £100.
Thanks Andy

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

As for budget, needs to be less than £100.

The Tamron AD2 500mm I mentioned above can be found for £60, if you look around.

 

[woof woof]

I was thinking about the likes of the TT Artisans 25mm f2, 35mm f1.4.
Any help or advice would be most welcome.

Cheers Andy

For the price this could be well worth a try especially as it's available new so that does away with the lottery that old film era lenses can be and of course you wont need an adapter so it'll be more compact on the camera than a film era lens and adapter. You also get f2 and film era lenses wider than 50mm and faster than f2.8 can be expensive. I have the FF TTartisan 50mm f2 in Sony mount.

I have used film era primes a lot on MFT and although you lose the corners and edges of the frame where old lenses may be weaker you'll get the extra magnification the crop factor brings and I think some old lenses begin to show weaknesses on MFT which may not be so noticeable on a larger format with reduced magnification. That's been my experience anyway, lenses which I thought were really quite poor on MFT do much better on FF. IMO.

If sticking to film era primes I'd avoid some of the older screw mount and other stuff as although they can be cheap the optical quality sometimes just isn't there especially at wider apertures, unless you're aiming for a funky look. I'd stick to later mainstream SLR manufacturer and 3rd party lenses such as Canon FD, Olympus Zuiko, Minolta Rokkor, Sigma, Chinon and others even. If you look and wait you can still find these at reasonable prices but buying can be a lottery so be prepared to potentially receive lenses with issues and have to return them.

Years back I had a Voigtlander 25mm f0.95 in MFT mount and I thought it was incredible as it showed detail and sharpness across the frame which none of my other MFT lenses could match and the f0.95 aperture gave a look that none of my other MFT lenses could match. I know this isn't the market you're looking at but one day, who knows?

Good luck with all this.