35mm Lens Madness

Well, I found a few Nikon lenses today, but they were all f1.8, not f1.4, and they looked to be about from the 80's or 90's. The guy said he'd let one go for $40. What do you think?
 
As long as the glass is clean, go for it. The reason Nikon lens from the 80's are cheaper is because the don't have the autofocus feature and thus are less popular now.
 
Wayne Kinney said:
the aperture in EOS lenses is electronically controlled by the EOS camera body. With the lens on a 35mm adapter, there is no such connection, and the EOS lens is usually set at wide aperture.

I have heard of a trick that you can attach the lens to the EOS body and set aperture, then remove power of something similar that will keep the aperture where it is, then you can put the lens on the adapter. I've not tried it, though.
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1) Mount EOS lens on EOS body
2) Set desired aperture.
3) Press DOF preview button (this will cause the iris to close to desired aperture)
4) While holding DOF preview, push the lens release button in and twist off.

When the lens comes off the iris will still be wherever it was when you pushed the DOF preview button. I can't guarantee it wont cause your lens to explode or anything, but I tried it on all my EOS lenses and it works.
 
I've never bought a camera lens before, so how closely should I be looking at them? What should I look/look out for?
 
Look through the rear element to examine a lens. Check for dust BETWEEN the elements, check for scratches on the rear element as well as mold throughout.
 
Also, look for oil on the aperture blades. This can get on the len elements.

I recently purchased a 28mm Minolta MD 2.8 off of eBay and when I checked it thoroughly, it had oil all over the internal lens - could have been due to shipping, but it cost me $ to have it professionally cleaned. Buyer beware. Go to a local cam shop. They deserve your money more, anyway.
 
The F stop difference between 1.4 and 1.8 is less than one stop. It is unlikely that you would use the lens wide open unless you were looking for an extremely shallow depth of field; unlike cine lenses the lenses for still photography do not have markings that correspond to light transmission (T stops) the F stop rating is a ratio of the size of the exit pupil and the focal length of the lens. My 180mm 2.8 lens transmits more light than my 80-200 2.8 lens because of the fewer air to glass surfaces. Zoom lenses are more complex and loose light through the design.

Cheers

Ross
 
Just got a used Canon FD lens. Fits on Letus, nice pic, etc. Question: there is a manual aperture ring that turns, along with a push button marked "A" in green (I assume for an auto setting). When I spin the dial, nothing happens - i.e. the lens is wide open - no movement of the aperture inside the lens. Is there a trick to engaging it? I also have a zoom lens that I borrowed - same deal with that one. Wide open.
 
DammitJanet said:
Well, I found a few Nikon lenses today, but they were all f1.8, not f1.4, and they looked to be about from the 80's or 90's. The guy said he'd let one go for $40. What do you think?
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I don't remember the links, but I've read on a couple of different sites that the 1.8 is actually sharper than the 1.4. Personally, I got the 1.4 myself and even though it's not recommended to use it wide open (too shallow dof, softer pic wide open, etc.) I just know that there's gonna be one day (night) that I'm going to need all the light I can get.

Bionicpix said:
Just got a used Canon FD lens. Fits on Letus, nice pic, etc. Question: there is a manual aperture ring that turns, along with a push button marked "A" in green (I assume for an auto setting). When I spin the dial, nothing happens - i.e. the lens is wide open - no movement of the aperture inside the lens. Is there a trick to engaging it? I also have a zoom lens that I borrowed - same deal with that one. Wide open.
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Canon lenses require a trick to get the iris to work right on 35mm adapters. Do a search.

By the way, what's in your lens kit collection?

I was thinking of going with an 18mm (or 20mm) and a 24mm (or 28mm) for tight rooms and establishing shots, a 50mm for dialogue/ots shots, and if my budget allows also a zoom lens for those kung-fu jump zooms...
 
deedive said:
from what i read most people with adapters have nikon f mounts. What is the advantage of a canon fd mount. Its not like u can buy a digital slr that fd mount lenses will work with? Plus i've seen alot more nikons used. Is the quality better?
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CAnon glass is as good as nikon, but cheaper.
 
snodart said:
I'm using a Canon FD f/2.8 28mm and an FD f/1.4 50mm. f/2.8 is a little slow for the 28mm, but can still produce nice images.

Keep in mind that "fast" and "slow" just refers to the lowest f/stop setting. So a lens with a minimum f/stop setting of f/2.8 is considered "slower" than a lens with a minimum f/stop setting of f/2. It doesn't mean much more that that.

If you do end up going with Canon FD, there is a little "trick" you will need to do with some FD lenses to engage the f/stop lock lever.

f_stop.jpg


The lever above is normally engaged when attached to a camera. I just cut a small piece from some from brass flat stock (hobby stores), cut it to length, slid the lever over, and inserted the brass piece. Easy fix and works fine. I had forgotten it was even there until you mentioned FD lenses.

Good luck
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About the FD apeture pin mechanism. Thank You Snodart.
 
Sorry. Missed the sticky. I'm new here (funny it didn't come up with a search). Thanks for the replies - all good. I've got a very nice Canon FD 50mm, as well as a Vivitar 75-205mm zoom with macro focus (this is my fave). On the 50mm, the switch locks over, but I guess I need to do the "jam" trick mentioned for the zoom.
 
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The small, round white dots? Those are automatic floodlights going on, as it's nightfall. The ones behind the telephone poll are bright lights at a basketball court for a school back there. Or were you seeing something else? Those are taken at full zoom (205mm). Wasn't really "locked off" or anything, so there was probably some movement as I was just panning around.
 
Bionicpix said:
The small, round white dots? Those are automatic floodlights going on, as it's nightfall. The ones behind the telephone poll are bright lights at a basketball court for a school back there. Or were you seeing something else? Those are taken at full zoom (205mm). Wasn't really "locked off" or anything, so there was probably some movement as I was just panning around.
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No, I mean in the overall image. If you look at the center it seems brighter than the edges. There seems to be a halo of light in the center of the image, if you will. It's easier to pick up on if you've built one of these things, because it's an annoying challenge. I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed this and if it's characteristic of the Letus line.
 
letus 35's (as far as is know) dont use a condesnser lens. some times depending on the achromat, optics and distances used by the adapter designer, a condenser lens is needed. it helps focus the light in one direction, and this helps even out the GG illumination, and help combat the "hotspot" in the middle.
 
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