Which lens + adapter will you buy with 300$ budget.

B

BhambuNath

Well-known member
Hello Friends,

My total budget left for lens + adapter is 300$. I want a lens which can give me good low light performance within this budget.

If you had 300$ for lens and adapter, which one will you buy?

Thanks.
 
Cieco7 Nikon Adapter-$100 or so.

Nikor 50mm f/1.4 pre AI-$100 or so.

Nikor 24mm f/2.8 pre AI-$100 or so.

Find these oooolllllld pre AI lenses used, for cheap, make sure they're in decent working order though...if there is not a long description and lots of high res pics don't buy.

The nikon 50mm is a little long on the GH1 but it's cheap, great shallow DOF, great low light, and a great lens.

f/2.8 isn't exactly fast but it's decent low light and since it's 24mm should have nice deep DOF and a nice field of view on the GH1..not super wide but totally useable.

You can use your 50mm for most 1-shots and a lot of low-light stuff, you can use your 24mm for wider stuff, medium shots, etc, and just get further back and get wide shots with it in low light...but you might have to turn ISO up a little higher than with the 50mm. A faster 20-24mm is very expensive.
 
I picked up a Nikon 35mm f1.4 which was THE journalist lens in the 60s and 70s. Every time I rent my lens package this seems to be the lens people rave about. My 50mm f1.4 also sees a lot of action.

I don't have a GH1 yet, but I know that the sensor is going to make all my Nikon Lenses appear to have double the focal length, so I'm guessing the 28mm f2 and 35mm f1.4 will be my most popular.

Here's my list of lenses:
Nikon Prime 18mm F3.5 AI
Nikon Prime 28mm F2 AI
Nikon Prime 35mm F1.4 AI
Nikon Prime 50mm F1.4 AI
Nikon Prime 85mm F2 AI
Nikon Prime 105mm F2.5 AI
Nikon Zoom 50mm-135mm F3.5 AIS
Nikon Zoom 20mm-200mm F4 AIS
Extension Tubes for Macro

My next purchase is a McPelang 8mm and Nikon 200mm or higher.
 
A set of 24/28, 35 and 50 mm should cover most of your needs if on a budget. I'm happy with my ciecio7 FD adapter and second hand Canon FD lenses.

20mm 2.8
28mm 2.0
35mm 2.0
50mm 1.4
100mm 2.8

Hunting for a 85mm but they are scarce around here.

You will need ND filters in daylight. Cokin or Formatt HiTech filter systems and NDs for them are a reasonable budget option. Or a Fader ND. Since you are in India I guess checking Hong Kong suppliers on eBay if you can't find gears like this locally can be a better option than ordering from US / Europe.
 
This is a slippery slope. $300 can easily turn into $3000 when it comes to lenses. Lock away your credit card!!

Canon FD 50mm F1.4 is very good and half the price of the Nikons. Finding a wider lens than that which is F2 or faster is difficult for this kind of money though - unfortunately. And 50mm is more like telephoto on the GH1. The other disadvantage is that it's very soft at F1.4 so it's really a F1.8 lens in practical use. However the only lens I have that isn't soft at F1.4 is a Leica 25mm Summilux which is 5x the price of the Canon 50mm F1.4.

I recommend a Sigma F1.8 DG Macro of the 20,24 or 28mm variety. Stretch your budget to this and it is many lenses in one. Also it's macro capabilities are astounding. It's not quite as good as the Zeiss or Lecias obviously (especially for colour, bokeh and contrast), but it's very good value. You do however see a very large difference between F1.8 and F1.4 when you're stuck for light.

A 50mm is not really suitable as a general walk around lens. 28mm is much more versatile. A Zeiss F2.8 28mm T* and Contax adapter might be within your budget if you look around for long enough on eBay. You sacrifice a lot of low light performance with a F2.8 over a F1.4 but this is a very very high resolution lens with incredible colour reproduction and inky contrast when it comes to blacks.

The lenses I own right now (some of them will be sold if I don't use them enough to justify the cost) in order of favouritism:

Zeiss 85 F1.4 T* (Contax Yashica)
Leica 25 F1.4 Summilux (4/3rds)
Canon 10-20 F3.5 (EFS)
Zeiss 28 F2.8 T* (CY)
Zeiss 135 F2.8 T* (CY)
Sigma 28 F1.8 DG EX Macro (Nikon AFD)
Zeiss 50 F1.7 (CY) - has a warmer tint than the Canon
Canon FD 50 F1.4 (FD) - is a very nice lens for £50
Olympus 14-42 - (4/3rds) - E420 kit lens is cheap, light, wide, has AF and is sharper than the GH1's kit lens
 
I am working with a similar budget and here is what I got:

ciecio7 Canon FD Adapter = $75
Canon FD 35mm f 2.0 = $75
Canon FD 50mm f 1.4 = $50
Canon FD 85mm f 1.8 = $135

With shipping and handling everything still came under $400 and I'm pretty happy with it so far. You could probably skip the 50mm but I wanted a fast lens and it was really cheap.
 
Yeah with Canon stuff you can probably get more lenses but the Nikon stuff has better optics typically.
 
Ben_B said:
Yeah with Canon stuff you can probably get more lenses but the Nikon stuff has better optics typically.
Click to expand...


Thanks for your inputs, friends...

I'm more inclined towards lower iris than wide shot and better color sampling as for me the only thing is to capture the movie scenes which will be shot according to script outside in the dark in the available lights and I can always move away from the subject to get the wider shot...

The first suggestion from Ben sound interesting, if there is something more in that same category?

Please keep posting your suggestions so that I can come across more wider options.

Thanks.
 
It's the Nikon version.

It works as a full manual lens but also as a full auto/on-camera aperture controlled lens on a nikon camera....which made it more expensive for a feature I dont need (but that's all it had.)
 
Ben_B said:
It's the Nikon version.

It works as a full manual lens but also as a full auto/on-camera aperture controlled lens on a nikon camera....which made it more expensive for a feature I dont need (but that's all it had.)
Click to expand...

I'm totally new in this lens stuff, can you please explain what kind of lens adapter will I need to mount it on GH1?

On ebay it's saying (http://cgi.ebay.com/Sigma-24mm-f-1-...nses?hash=item53dc6bdc6f&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14) that it's an EOS lens. Does this mean that I need an EOS adapter to mount this lens, in that case it will be great because I can use another EOS canon lens I have with me.

Thanks.
 
Yes.

I got the Nikon version...I am using a Ceico7 Nikon adapter. That lens comes in different flavors (canon, Nikon, etc.)

No adapter will allow the auto features to work though.
 
That said this lens is a little funky...does some weird focus stuff...it seems very sharp and narrow DOF at macro distances but very soft and usable for deep DOF at normal distances...the focus ring is VERY sensitive...so basically at close distances you get a tiny little band of focus that's pretty visible, at longer distances it is softer and more stuff seems in focus. Really happy with it though it gets a nice image.
 
Ben_B said:
Yes.

I got the Nikon version...I am using a Ceico7 Nikon adapter. That lens comes in different flavors (canon, Nikon, etc.)

No adapter will allow the auto features to work though.
Click to expand...

OK, got it now.

One more question, can the iris be controlled manually? I've heard that on some lenses you can only set the iris electronically and once it's set to a particular opening you can't change it if it's mounted using an adapter.

Thanks.
 
BhambuNath said:
OK, got it now.

One more question, can the iris be controlled manually? I've heard that on some lenses you can only set the iris electronically and once it's set to a particular opening you can't change it if it's mounted using an adapter.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yes. On the 28mm Sigma F1.8 DG EX Macro I have, it has an iris ring.

Some of the newer digital camera lenses don't but this one is an exception, at least on the Nikon mount version. Can't speak for the Canon EFS one.
 
Yeah this one has an iris ring, which can be changed manually. The Iris ring has a little clutch that can engage to allow it to also be controlled electonically if you're using it w/o an adapter on whatever camera it's designed for. The focus ring also has a clutch system where it pops up and down for manual focus/autofocus...but again this does not apply to use on the GH1.

I would not recommend blowing all your money on this lens though.

Get a few old, fast, cheap canons/nikons instead...unless you know you'll be doing macro work.
 
Finally I've decided to get this lens - Canon EF 50mm f/1.8II.

Main reason being that it's available in India...
 
Ummm... you will not be able to adjust aperture on it as that's controlled by the Canon camera electronics and I haven't seen any EF adapters for m4/3 mounts but guess there are somewhere.
 
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