where to buy 35mm manual lenses?

Randall_Oelerich

Randall_Oelerich

Veteran
I could use some ideas on where to buy fully manual prime 35mm SLR film lenses, for use with a Letus system that I hope to buy soon. I am sure this has been asked before, my apologies for asking again ( I ask to be cut a little bit of slack, i am having a bad day-- woke up this morning to discover my car vandalized, someone kicked in my driver side door right next to the door handle lock area so that i can not open my driver side door now from the outside, nor use the lock from the outside, sigh). Anyhow, I am looking for a source to buy e.g. a 50mm, 85mm prime lens, with complete manul control over f-stop and focus, to use with a Letus adapter. Preferably buy new so I know the lens is not scratched.
~randall
 
We carry the Zeiss line...not cheap, but they're pretty amazing for adapter use. Aside from providing the highest contrast in any lens we've tested, the Zeiss manual focus movement is silky smooth with plenty of travel and of course aperture is fully manual.
 
Shop at KEH - save a bundle with used and you know what you are getting. Just picked up a Nikon 50mm 1.8 for $70 in fantastic condition...
 
I would to keep the cost of the lens(es) at $300 or less. Something to start out for using the Letus Extreme and filming a few short films.
 
Bookmarked! Thanks Jeff! Nice site (KEH).
Off to the movies soon, afternoon matinee, I need some escapism in a movie theatre and a feedbag of popcorn topped with... well I am not sure WHAT the hell they top it with, some alien sludge. Something to take my mind off my vandalized car. Well, not as bad as that song by Crowded House I guess 9"Now they're towing my car, there's a hole in the roof, ...), at least I have roof on my car.

Jeff Anderson said:
Shop at KEH - save a bundle with used and you know what you are getting. Just picked up a Nikon 50mm 1.8 for $70 in fantastic condition...
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Jeff. Knowing a few (three) focal range sizes helps me know what to shop for. I keep running into those focal lengths other places where I read about this too. So 28, 50, and 85 sounds like a good mix. I am almost ready to buy a Letus, well really buying a Letus is a no-brainer, I am just waiting to hear back from Letus to see if I can buy the Letus Extreme but which the black plastic case and with the blue (rather than red) connectors for the rod system. So then I will order the Letus Extreme, get those three lenses. And a step down ring ($20) to use the Letus Extreme with my current burrito camcorder (Canon VIXIA HF100). Then I need to decide whether to get the Canon XHA1 or XHA1s, but that discussion is on another dvxuser thread. But at least I can get going with the Letus and some lenses and my burrito camcorder.

Jeff Anderson said:
I'd look at 28, 50, 85 for focal lengths and as fast and sharp as you can afford. Ken Rockwell has some nice info/reviews on a variety of older and newer nikons - http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/nikkor.htm
Click to expand...
 
If you're on a tight budget, consider an f 2.8 28-70 zoom. Speaking only for our adapter (all that I've tested!), this lens is very versatile and at least on our adapter, is plenty fast enough.

kenrockwell.com is one site that I've checked out in the past but basically if the still photogs like a lens, you will too. Check carefully for edge fall-off characteristics and if possible source a lens that has 100% internal focussing and zooming. This means it doesn't change length ever physically making mattebox use down the line a whole lot easier.

The glass you have out front is very critical to your results so if Zeiss is out of the budget, check out used Canon FD lenses out too. The 28mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.8 are good...just ensure that they are actual Canon lenses.
 
If you're starting out I would also consider used Minolta MD lenses. You can get most at half the cost of Nikon glass or less, and they don't focus backwards like Nikons. Cinevate Brevis, Letus, Redrock and Sg Blade soon will support the Minolta MD mount.

The drawback of going Minolta is that Nikon glass will for sure work on any future Scarlet or RED implementation whereas it's unlikely that RED will support the MD mount. So if you plan on going the RED route, then yeah stick with Nikons and deal with the reverse focus pain.

You have to take whatever Ken Rockwell says with lots of salt. His reviews are meant for the consumer and are just mouthpieces at times. Try finding more thorough tests/reviews.

KEH.com is a good way to go if you want to get a set of used lenses FAST. Sometimes they don't have what you need - like some of the more unusual lenses - in which case you have to scope out ebay. You pay a little more at KEH but you get piece of mind. Ebay is all over the place in terms of matching the item description. Lots of sellers advertise "like new" or excellent and you end up with a piece of crap.
 
Another satisfied KEH customer. You can get lower prices on ebay or at pawn shops, etc. but you have to be a lot more careful to make sure you're not getting crap for your money.

And yeah, when buying used, there simply isn't any reason to buy the third party lenses except in specific rare cases. If you go with the Nikon mount, get Nikon lenses, if you go with the Canon FD mount, get Canon lenses, etc. They really are worth more money and when buying used "more money" isn't nearly as much as when they were new.

Duncan
 
Agreed...purchasing from an outfit from KEH with a decent rep means someone who knows what they're talking about has inspected the glass. That's worth a lot in my book as even one ebay transaction gone bad will end up costing a lot of time and in the end, money. Even if a lens was $100 more via KEH, I'd still take it over the same lens on ebay for the peace of mind factor alone.

For what it's worth, in the used primes department the Minolta MD Rokkor, Canon FD and even Pentax M42 is good. We've tested all of them (all where 50mm f1.4)using our DSC labs charts collection for CA, sharpness and breathing. They're all decent.

For contrast, nothing we've tested was as good as the Zeiss primes we carry...which is why we started carrying them :-)
 
@ Dennis Wood

Have you any screen grabs from tests on the Zeiss lenses that you could post up? Preferably not lens or rez charts .
 
Danny Salazar said:
what kind of nikon lenses should someone get tho? F, Ai, AIS, etc??
Click to expand...

In general that's a don't-care for adapter use. It all has to do with how the auto-aperture works, how the lens indexes to the camera meter, and how the aperture scale is seen through the viewfinder...none of which makes the slightest difference when used with an adapter.

In general the older you get with Nikon lenses, the cheaper they are going to be to buy, and the sturdier the construction, which would mean Pre-Ai would be the way to go. Of course you'll need to be even more vigilant against age-related issues like sticky/rough focusing, etc. but then again you can still get any of those lenses serviced by Nikon for a reasonable price. If you use a follow-focus you might have trouble getting the gear to clamp on the goofy shape of the pre-Ai lens focusing rings, which would then mean you'd want to look at Ai or newer lenses.

KEH rates exceedingly conservatively. SO what they call "BGN" is often not as bad as you might think, while something they call excellent is definitely going to be a superb example of a lens. It's worth figuring out why they call something a BGN lens - if it's purely cosmetics on the exterior (pain loss/scratching, etc.) then maybe you don't care as much about that and can score a good deal. They're rating that way for the picky collector buyers, but you plan to actually use the dang thing!

Duncan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top