What lenses to buy next

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Polaroid22

Well-known member
Hello,

I am looking for a new set of lenses. I already owned canon L, leica R, Contax zeiss, sigma and sigma ART lenses. I am looking for manual EF(or pl) full frame lenses that have character. Price per lens max 2K. And Fstop between 1.2 and F2.8.

Any recommendations? (I like the cooke look, anamorphic is too expensive atm otherwise I would be all over that)
 
Polaroid22 said:
Hello,

I am looking for a new set of lenses. I already owned canon L, leica R, Contax zeiss, sigma and sigma ART lenses. I am looking for manual EF(or pl) full frame lenses that have character. Price per lens max 2K. And Fstop between 1.2 and F2.8.

Any recommendations? (I like the cooke look, anamorphic is too expensive atm otherwise I would be all over that)
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It sounds like you already had a good selection of lenses you have tried. What was lacking in the ones you had? At $2k or under per lens you're in still lens price range unless you're talking Samyang or Rokinon. Or you can scan Ebay and look for older, weird stuff like Zenits or other Com Bloc glass from the 60s-70s? Which camera will you use these on? What about Lomo Petzval? Or you could check out the Laowa lineup, they make some kind of quirky, interesting optics that are very good quality for the money.
 
Polaroid22 said:
Hello,

I am looking for a new set of lenses. I already owned canon L, leica R, Contax zeiss, sigma and sigma ART lenses. I am looking for manual EF(or pl) full frame lenses that have character. Price per lens max 2K. And Fstop between 1.2 and F2.8.

Any recommendations? (I like the cooke look, anamorphic is too expensive atm otherwise I would be all over that)
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Well, you’re definitely not getting any Cooke’s for that... ; )

I agree with Dan, for your stated budget, you’re going to be in the Rokinon/Samyang territory with modern, manual “full frame” lenses purchased new.
 
The Sony Cinealta lenses come in PL mounts, and are supposed to perform very well for the money. You can pick them up for a pittance these days as they weren't very successful.


**EDIT**
I missed your "full frame" requirement. The Sonys are only S35mm.
 
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Grug said:
The Sony Cinealta lenses come in PL mounts, and are supposed to perform very well for the money. You can pick them up for a pittance these days as they weren't very successful.
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Ah didnt knew they covered full frame. So that might be a very good option.
 
NorBro said:
Supposedly there are two sets of these lenses; Version 1 and Version 2.

And V2 are the better lenses (I don't know).
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Those lenses are Super-35, not Full Frame. The difference between the versions is more robust housings. he first set only had three lenses, were plastic bodies, and only shipped in a kit with the F3 camera.

And these are the opposite of "lenses with character."
 
Whenever I hear people saying they want lenses with "character" or "personality," I think of someone setting up a person on a blind date and in response to the question of their looks are told that they have a "great personality."

For your relatively small budget, you may want to look at some vintage stills glass that may have inferior or isotope-aged coatings. You may also want to consider the Petzval lens mentioned above or something from LensBaby. And you may wish to consider a really cheap old zoom lens from a lower-level company like Quasar or Vivitar. A cheap zoom from the 70s or 80s will have a lot of "character."
 
Mitch Gross said:
Those lenses are Super-35, not Full Frame. The difference between the versions is more robust housings. he first set only had three lenses, were plastic bodies, and only shipped in a kit with the F3 camera.

And these are the opposite of "lenses with character."
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Just for the record, I kindly would like to point out that I never said they were full frame or that they had character.

Quoting me with your particular response may imply like I did.

Maybe I should have corrected his/her understanding based on what the Sony marketing paper says, but I use my Sigma 18-35 on the 5D Mark IV in HD (FF) at 35mm with just a little vignetting, so I didn't really think twice about what "coverage" may mean to someone, especially in this/their conversation.

The info on the two separate versions is relevant...good to know, thank you.
 
Since you don't particularly need any lenses but seem to have GAS, I would suggest buying vintage lenses. They are generally cheap, but still give you the thrill of trying out a lens. My suggestion is to just search for M52 mount lenses on ebay. M52 pretty much guarantees that the lens is not at all going to look like a new lens since it is one of the oldest mounts. The Russian lenses all have a lot of character. I personally have a set of mostly single coated Yashinon lenses. I never use them since I almost only do corporate, but it has been a good hobby.
 
Thx guys, yeah a lot of vintage lenses have a lot of character. One thing I do not like about vintage lenses is the fact their coating is bad for shooting back lit subjects, as it will milk up the image so hard. Are there anti flaring filters out there or something? (even mattebox does not suffice, as sometimes I have the sun or other light in my framing, for example the sunset/sunrise)
 
samphibbs said:
SLR Magic APO’s
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Quite sceptic about slr magic. I have had products of them before, rangefinder and anamorphic adapters, and they were all quite bad. So I said to myself I would never buy anything from slr magic again. Not seeing a lot of character in those lenses so far either. Allthough John Brawley seems to love them.
 
Mitch Gross said:
Those lenses are Super-35, not Full Frame. The difference between the versions is more robust housings. he first set only had three lenses, were plastic bodies, and only shipped in a kit with the F3 camera.

And these are the opposite of "lenses with character."
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If the optics are the same, perhaps I would rather go with the plastic housing if the weight is alot less as the v2 are weighing 2KG per lens. That is quite heavy, and plan them to use them also on a pocket 4K on a DJI ronin S. (I think it still can be done though, but less weight is def better for my back)
 
You can probably find the original three lenses for very little money, if you can find them at all. They are not particularly repairable, so if anything ever happened to one people would just throw them away. Note that these lenses are only available in PL mount.
 
Yeah I need therapy. Im selling a lot of old stuff. But have not sold any lenses yet. And there are lenses in here that I have not used for 2 years. So its better to sell them and buy some new stuff. Or sell everything alltoghter and buy a atlas orion lens ^^
 
Polaroid22 said:
Thx guys, yeah a lot of vintage lenses have a lot of character. One thing I do not like about vintage lenses is the fact their coating is bad for shooting back lit subjects, as it will milk up the image so hard. Are there anti flaring filters out there or something? (even mattebox does not suffice, as sometimes I have the sun or other light in my framing, for example the sunset/sunrise)
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Lenses with "character" yet with the most modern and flare resistant coatings?
 
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