The Vintage Lens Thread

That's a good question. Every individual lens is different. It was true when they were were new and it's more so now. So whether they will blend or not may depend on a lot of the choices the filmmaker makes.

Sorry for the confusion. Hadn't heard of that lens, the Helios 40-2 85mm f/1.5. Expensive but fast.
 
Let's chime in here and give you guys the best 28mm lens recommendation anyone can give you:
Olympus OM Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 - 50-60$.
I looked up the price, initially I wanted to write it down as 30$, because that's what they went for when I got mine (half a year ago, I bought mine for 20€). Liked all vintage lenses this one's gone up.
Seriously, this is the best piece of glass in this focal length. There's absolutely NO reason NOT to get it. This would even be a steal for 150$. I'm a big fan of Olympus Zuiko lenses and they're color rendition, absolutely gorgeous.

I'm a photographer actually, but I just like browsing around this forum and dare calling myself quite the vintage-glass enthusiast and 'expert' (well, not expert, but I know what I'm talking about ;) ) Among all my lenses there's about 6 I shoot with regularly of which 5 are at least 30 years old (as well as the others lying in the closet). The only modern lens I own is the Canon 85mm f/1.8 because it's simply amazing and even vintage glass can't compete with it (I'm in the presumption vintage glass generally is better than modern-day glass)
If anyone's got any questions or wants recommendations, just shoot me a PM.
 
How many blades does the apurture on the Zuiko 28mm f3.5 have? Didn't Olympus make a 28mm f2.8 as well?

I do know they made a 50 f1.2 and a 21mm f2.0 that are to die for if you can find them. There is a 21mm f3.5 available locally, but it's $400 and a bit over my need right now, but still tempting.

In any case another shout out for the color and sharpness with vintage Zuiko's!

Cheers,
Pete
 
c3hammer said:
How many blades does the apurture on the Zuiko 28mm f3.5 have? Didn't Olympus make a 28mm f2.8 as well?

I do know they made a 50 f1.2 and a 21mm f2.0 that are to die for if you can find them. There is a 21mm f3.5 available locally, but it's $400 and a bit over my need right now, but still tempting.

In any case another shout out for the color and sharpness with vintage Zuiko's!

Cheers,
Pete
Click to expand...

Yes, they did make a 28mm f/2.8 version as well, but imo, not worth the money as you probably won't be shooting at f/2.8 anyway. It has 6 blades.
They made a 28mm f/2, but it's rare and pricey (of course).

The 21mm is absolutely gorgeous, I'm always trying to get it for a steal (hoping no one else is watching it), but no luck so far :P And yes, the 300€ pricetag is pretty hefty.
The Zuikos are extremely nice. I'm a big fan of them!
 
There's a lot of the om zuiko 28mm 2.8 lenses going for like $140-$260 on eBay at the moment but I was able to get one the other day for $60 so I'm quite pleased with that. It was one of four OM zuiko's I bought recently, I got:

- 28mm f2.8
- 35-70mm f4
- 50mm f1.8
- 75-150mm f4

Still bidding on:

- 135mm f3.5
- 200mm f3.5

Spent around $180 all up so far...
 
I've got the Nikkor 85mm f1.8 and I think it's great. Very sharp and 1.8 is real nice for a longer lens (especially on APSC). I've heard their later f2 is a tad sharper wide open but, for video, you can't beat this one for the price.

I also want to recommend the Nikkor 105mm f2.5. I'd prefer f2 but f2.5 isn't bad and I actually really like the look for my strong close-ups over the 85mm. There's just something nicer about how it compresses the space and separates the subject from the background. At f1.8, the 85mm gives you roughly the same background but, since you're closer, the seperation doesn't feel quite the same. It's hard to articulate but I like the 105mm more.
 
Hi,
I recently bought two vintage lenses, a Pentax-M 50mm 1.4 and a Vivitar 28mm 2.5 for the 600d. They shoot great images but strangely the metering is way off in video mode. When I am in manual still mode the meter works perfectly fine, but as soon as I switch to video the meter always indicates a few stops of underexposure (I made sure to apply the same settings to compare video and still metering: shutter 1/50, wide open, same ISO, but the difference is huge). When I attach the kit lens, metering for stills and video reads the same though. I don't know if this is common with vintage lenses, I hope you can help me out.
BTW, I use a k-mount to eos for the pentax and a m42 to eos for the vivitar, both by Fotodiox, so I think it can't be the adapter that's causing this.

Thanks a lot
 
robo3687 said:
There's a lot of the om zuiko 28mm 2.8 lenses going for like $140-$260 on eBay at the moment but I was able to get one the other day for $60 so I'm quite pleased with that. It was one of four OM zuiko's I bought recently, I got:

- 28mm f2.8
- 35-70mm f4
- 50mm f1.8
- 75-150mm f4

Still bidding on:

- 135mm f3.5
- 200mm f3.5

Spent around $180 all up so far...
Click to expand...

Nice! I've never tried vintage zoom lenses before because I don't really trust them somehow. Could you tell me how you like the two zooms you currently have?
 
I have a Zuiko 35-105 f3.5-5.6 push-pull zoom that is very nice. The only thing to not trust is your ability to hold it steady and pulling focus. Manual lenses in general, especially the push pull zooms require training. Zen, martial arts like training :)

Here's a stills sample with my T3i at 35mm f3.5. Pretty nice for daytime and wide open!

Cheers,
Pete

randy zuiko sample.jpg
 
Jordan_S said:
That's a good question. Every individual lens is different. It was true when they were were new and it's more so now. So whether they will blend or not may depend on a lot of the choices the filmmaker makes.

Sorry for the confusion. Hadn't heard of that lens, the Helios 40-2 85mm f/1.5. Expensive but fast.
Click to expand...

The speed is not why the 40-2 is expensive.

http://www.modelmayhem.com/po.php?thread_id=766721

Check out the very bottom image on that thread. It's all about the highlights.
 
are there any good vintage wide angle lenses? got helios 44, jupiter 11a, also waiting for takumar 50mm f1.4, (really enjoying vintage lenses for the price actually) so i thought maybe there are proper wide angles from the past?
 
mcnys said:
are there any good vintage wide angle lenses? got helios 44, jupiter 11a, also waiting for takumar 50mm f1.4, (really enjoying vintage lenses for the price actually) so i thought maybe there are proper wide angles from the past?
Click to expand...

How wide we talking?

On the semi-wide range; I found a Nikkor 35mm f2 for $85 and a Nikkor 24mm f2.8 for $100. I've also seen plenty of 28mm f2.8 takumars for super cheap ($30-$40).

If you want wider (and I do), then you're in trouble. There's a lot of Nikkor 20mm f2.8s floating around but they are very expensive ($300-$500). There was a Nikkor 18mm but it got terrible reviews and it's even more expensive ($600-800). I've seen a few Russian 18mm lenses floating around camera shows but they tend to be slow (3.2 at the fastest) and have terrible flares. There are some vintage 16mm lenses (Zentar and Nikon) but they're fish-eye lenses and won't really serve you for every-day video.

The sad truth is that, on a crop-sensor, your most affordable option is to try to find a modern zoom kit that can open up to f2.8 at 18mm.
 
You could try the Leica R 19mm f/2.8 2nd version, *if* you can find one, and *if* you can find the £1100 or so (Say $1600) that it'll cost. Mind you it's a superb lens, and should be at that price.
 
The Tamron SP 17mm f3.5 is a very good lens that can be found at a reasonable price point.
The Mir 20mm f3.5 is also a good vintage lens.
The Cosina 19-35mm f3.5-4.5 is a very good value for money wide zoom with very slight vignetting on full frame on the wide end.
But if you need to go wider, then Tokina it is.
 
If budget's a concern at all and you're looking for ultra wide, I'd say go with the Samyang 14mm. Better on center sharpness and CA (though not as good on edge contrast), at WAY less money, and it's going to cover full frame better.
 
Ah, yes I'd forgotten the Samyang (Got a Leica fixation ATM) It could well be worth a look, esp if you're only using the centre of the image circle.
 
kostas said:
The Tamron SP 17mm f3.5 is a very good lens that can be found at a reasonable price point.
The Mir 20mm f3.5 is also a good vintage lens.
The Cosina 19-35mm f3.5-4.5 is a very good value for money wide zoom with very slight vignetting on full frame on the wide end.
But if you need to go wider, then Tokina it is.
Click to expand...

3.5 just isn't fast enough for a lot of us. All my other primes open up to 2.8 at least so a 3.5 would through everything out of balance.
 
DavidBeier said:
3.5 just isn't fast enough for a lot of us. All my other primes open up to 2.8 at least so a 3.5 would through everything out of balance.
Click to expand...
Sure, faster is better, and some vintage lenses that indicate f 3.5 tend to be actually closer to f 3.8 or f 4.0 which is slow, but when budget is a concern, half a stop of light (from 2.8 to 3.5) could be well compensated by cranking up the ISO by half a stop.
Unless you are already shooting all the time at f=2.8 and ISO=1600.

Regarding the Samyang 14mm, it is a trully brilliant lens on full frame, especially for photography. Sharp and fast, wide wide wide.
However, the strange moustache type distortion (that cannot be corrected in video) makes it a bit awkward to use for videography. Even on crop sensor.
 
kostas said:
Sure, faster is better, and some vintage lenses that indicate f 3.5 tend to be actually closer to f 3.8 or f 4.0 which is slow, but when budget is a concern, half a stop of light (from 2.8 to 3.5) could be well compensated by cranking up the ISO by half a stop.
Unless you are already shooting all the time at f=2.8 and ISO=1600.

Regarding the Samyang 14mm, it is a trully brilliant lens on full frame, especially for photography. Sharp and fast, wide wide wide.
However, the strange moustache type distortion (that cannot be corrected in video) makes it a bit awkward to use for videography. Even on crop sensor.
Click to expand...

But at 17mm F/3.5, you have to wonder if it would be marginally better than the kit lens at the same size and speed.
 
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