Cheap Prime Lenses

[DDirector]

How is this lens/price?
Contax Zeiss Sonnar T 85mm f/2.8 - $300

I found it at a store that sells vintage camera gear

[ROCKMORE]

I would be aware that older lenses can be sharp, but may have CA. (Purple fringing high contrast areas.
I would look at Nikon and Pentax primes, but I would test the CA in a few different brands before investing in a huge collection.

Here are the CA tests comparing the Olympus Zuiko 85-250 against the Canon 55-250 IS. I'm now curious how much CA is in other vintage glass.

[ROCKMORE]

In all fairness, these Olympus OM lenses are quite sharp and can produce some great images. This was shot with my OM Zuiko 50mm macro.

[c3hammer]

It looks like the bottom pic between the Canon and OM is from the Olympus? Sharper, but with some purple fringing.

My Nikkor 600mm has terrible fringing. It's cyan in the background and magenta in the foreground. Definitely a crazy look depending on which part of the bokeh is most easily seen.

Cheers,
Pete

[DDirector]

M personally going to stick with the Contax Zeiss lenses. They may be a bit more pricey from what I was hoping, but looking at the reviews and pictures of sharpness & contrast, it looks like a really nice lens!
Doesn anyone know if all the Contax Zeiss lenses will fit on the T2i? - what about a RED?
It would suck if only a few were to work and others wouldn't.

*Speaking of the Contax Zeiss Sonnar lenses

[ROCKMORE]

It looks like the bottom pic between the Canon and OM is from the Olympus?

Yes the bottom is the OM lens. You can tell because the 85-250 is so much heavier than the plastic 55-250 that the camera tilted down when I changed lenses on a locked heavy tripod.
I suspect that the CA problems would not be as apparent in low contrast scenes. I guess most older glass suffers from some level of CA.

[ROCKMORE]

Here is a side by side between the Tamron 17-55 non at 50mm vs the OM 50mm macro vs the Canon 55-250 IS @55mm

[ROCKMORE]

Here are 2 shots with Olympus OM lenses with a macro tube on a budget.
OM 50mm 1.4 and OM 50mm Macro.

[Victor Nhat Nguyen]

just wondering, what happen when you put macro extension tube on a macro lens?

[ROCKMORE]

just wondering, what happen when you put macro extension tube on a macro lens?

That shot has the extension tube on with the macro lens fully extended. Without the extension tube the 50mm macro produces a frame similar the the other image posted above.

Here is another shot taken with the Olympus OM 35mm 2.8 with the macro tube. The shot isn't as dramatic because the sun went behind the clouds, but it shows the 35mm standard lens with the macro tube focuses almost as close as the OM macro. This is a very inexpensive macro setup on a budget.