Lens Brand?

S

shoook

Active member
I know the debate never ends about what brand of lens is best. Is there a certain brand that is most popular among adapter users? Is there a brand that is cheapest? Is there a brand that is best? Or is it all just relative?
 
canon FD is popular because they're cheap, but people state that Nikons are sharper.. I dunno if this is true or not.

Huy Vu, what did you shoot the jennifer chung video with?
 
So as far as bang for your buck Canon FD is the way to go? It's just very nerve racking to choose a lens brand because most adapters only ship with one lens mount and it's difficult to tell which is best when I've never before used interchangeable lenses on a camera.
 
I use Canon FD lenses. They're excellent, much cheaper than Nikon and as good or better. Of course, when you're talking about lenses you can't really lump brand into a whole. Some lenses will be sharper than other even within the same brand.
 
...and if you were looking for the very "best" lens to use on an adapter...it is most likely to be a true cine lens (PL Mount) . And they cost huge $$$$$ each.

Brand would not really come into it at this point.

BTW : I own and use Nikkors and they are excellent. I have also have a PL Mount for my Letus Elite so I have a choice.
 
Zeiss lenses are great and the best one can get, but what about brands like Pentax,...
I'm thinking about getting a Pentax PK mount for my SGpro. Heard good things especially about the smc lenses. What do you guys think about Pentax?
 
Having used Canon FD, modern Nikon mount and Zeiss ZF, I think the Zeiss ZF are the best. Very well built, nice to use and the image is stunning. Watch the video on the cinevate site about the Zeiss ZF lenses, Dennis does a good job of explaining the pro's and cons of them.

They are expensive, so if you are starting out, Canon FD is a good way to go. Ive been using a set of FDs for a while now, and whilst they are not quite as sharp as the Zeiss lenses, they are pretty good for what I paid for them.

Since the camera bodies that the FD lenses are for have been out of production for 20something years, these lenses are pretty much obselete in the stills camera world, besides collectors and people that use old cameras. This means that there are a lot of people selling their old lenses, and no one is there to buy them, apart from us adapter users.

I got an 85mm 1.8 Canon for about £80, and its in as new condition, very nice lens. Comparing this to the Zeiss ZF, its physicaly smaller, a little slower, and not qutie as sharp. The ZF is about £1000 in comparison.

Id go with FD id your starting, they are cheap and available, but beware of Canon FD *FIT* lenses. Any FD lenses that are not made by cannon, are, in my experience, a little bit crap. Pentavision and sigma etc etc made FD mount lenses, and they are all abit plasticy, wobbly mounts and dodgy optics. Make sure you only get Canon ones, and the newer twistlock style (where the whole body of the lens rotates to lock) is nicer than the old breechlock style, where there is a silver ring that tiwsts round to lock the lens on.


The newer lenses are a bit fiddly, a lot of them dont have manual apature control, and they are all pretty plasticy with very short focus throw, which is hard for focusing on adapters.

Id stick with either FD for the lower budget, or splash out on ZFs.
 
Nikon is the way to go. specially because of the mount.
they haven't changed for like 40 years (I think)
I did a test for the Nikon and Zeiss ZF lenses once.
the thread should be somewhere......
 
Yea it sounds like the Nikons provide the best balance between budget and performance. Would you guys agree this is the case?
 
shoook said:
Yea it sounds like the Nikons provide the best balance between budget and performance. Would you guys agree this is the case?
Click to expand...

it's all up to you.
you already said you're going for the Nikon. why do you need to ask the same question ?
 
I haven't decided because I honestly have no idea. Thankfully I'm in the right place to be asking this kind of question.
 
IMHO I think older Nikon glass is better than the older Canons but the Newer Canons are better than Nikons. So... If you are going to buy brand new lenses go Canon if you are going to buy used lenses go Nikon.
 
Huy Vu is that a pro or a con that it has no iris ring? would you think for pairing up with an adapter that an FD would be better then the EF?
 
If using an adapter, you'll want the iris ring of the Canon FD. This allows you to change the aperture (DOF) of the SLR lens easily.

For what it's worth, the Nikon mount is by far the most popular mount sold with Letus adapters. I too prefer the older Nikon lenses. The ones I use are all from the 1970's.
 
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