Cheap manual focus lenses

[MiguelDpr]

Hi guys. I'm planning to use manual focus lenses, especially for portraits, in my EM-10. What do you recommend me? I guess i have to buy an adapter... (Nikon, Canon, Samyang....).

Thanks

 

[FewButRipe]

I use my Konica Hexanon 85mm f/1.8 for portraits. It's sharp and has character, and physically it is small and is a pleasure to use. I think I paid about $150 for it a few years ago, but they're probably more expensive now. It is my favorite manual-focus lens.

If you want something cheaper, there are a lot of good 50mm manual lenses available for around $50 (eg, Hexanon 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.7, many others that I don't own and so won't recommend).

However, now that I have a Nocticron, the Nocticron is my go-to portrait lens. It's bigger and heavier, it's auto-focus, and of course it can't be considered cheap. But I love the results.

 

[bradevans]

Check the adapted lenses forum - you may get more traffuc

many people just buy one adapter per lens and never take it off

 

[Messier Object]

Hi guys. I'm planning to use manual focus lenses, especially for portraits, in my EM-10. What do you recommend me? I guess i have to buy an adapter... (Nikon, Canon, Samyang....).

Thanks

some of the OM Zuiko legacy lenses perform quite well, however the 2x crop factor may limit their usefulness.

The 50mm f/1.8 is a popular choice and can be found in excellent condition for under $100.

see here for some good info

Olympus Zuiko Standard Lenses at 50mm - Part III

Peter

 

[generikku]

For cheap, you can't beat Chinese made CCTV c-mount lenses. They're about $30 with or without a cheap C-Mount to M43 adapter. Below is a portrait I took using a 35mm 1.7 Fujian (or whatever no name or rebranded name they go by). It's very low contrast and a little soft, which is good for B&W and portraits. The 25mm Fujian isn't bad, but the plane of focus is not flat, which makes for dreamy pics. QC sucks though, as you never really know what you'll get. Oil, gunk, dirt or streaks inside the lenses... hence the cheap prices. Still, if you get a good copy, I think they're wonderful manual focus lenses to play with.

 

[Paulmorgan]

Hi guys. I'm planning to use manual focus lenses, especially for portraits, in my EM-10. What do you recommend me? I guess i have to buy an adapter... (Nikon, Canon, Samyang....).

Thanks

Get a plain old 50mm, Zuiko, Nikon etc, then attach this to a tilt adapter for even more creative focus control.

These tilt adapters work in the exact same way as a normal adapter, its just that your given the extra option of dialling in a degree of tilt if you want it, these cost just a tiny bit more than the plain adapters.

 

[Glen Barrington]

I've had great luck with some 1960's era Canon FL lenses. Those lenses are very compact, because they don't have ANY automation in them and as a result, they aren't much bigger than the native m43s lenses. I'm particularly taken with the 50 mm f/1.8 and the 100 mm f/3.5.

I'm not a portraits person, more of a nature and landscape sort of person, so I don't have any portraits to show you, but the photos below were taken with the 100mm f/3.5 if I recall, and were roughly the 2nd or 3rd photos I took with the lens.





One thing I learned using these lenses, is that focus is critical. I strongly suggest that plan to spend some time practicing before you commit to doing anything critical with these manual lenses.

--
I look good fat, I'm gonna look good old. . .
http://glenbarrington.blogspot.com/
http://glenbarringtonphotos.blogspot.com/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130525321@N05/

 

[TheEye]

A cheap MF lens? It doesn't get much cheaper than old Zenit lenses, comrade! OH WAIT, I know, get an old 50 mm Praktica lens. That's gotta be the king of cheap.

I myself would rather look for decent quality at a fair price compared to something cheap.

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photography-by-thomas/sets/

 

[Felice62]

Konica Hexanon AR 1.4/57. Very nice lens you can buy for €60 or such.

Canon FD 1.4/50 SSC

Konica Hexanon AR 1.8/40

Canon FD 2/35 SSC (also Canon FL 2.5/35)

 

[Alan WF]

Canon FL or FD. New FD tend to be lighter. Here's a good summary:

The Best Canon FD Lenses for Mirrorless Cameras - The Complete Guide

Everything from adapters, variations of FD lenses, pricing & we review the best Canon FD lenses for mirrorless (Sony, Canon, Panasonic, etc)

m43.co

Regards,

Alan

 

[Felice62]

Canon FL or FD. New FD tend to be lighter. Here's a good summary:

http://m43.co/best-canon-fd-lenses-for-mirrorless-cameras-m43/

Regards,

Alan

I own a few FD lenses I used mostly with Sony A7 and A6000.

Some of them are excellent indeed, like the concave FD 2/35 SSC and the 1.4/50 SSC, just to name two...

 

[tkbslc]

Hi guys. I'm planning to use manual focus lenses, especially for portraits, in my EM-10. What do you recommend me? I guess i have to buy an adapter... (Nikon, Canon, Samyang....).

Thanks

For portraits, you have an astonishingly large array of lenses at the 50-58mm focal length. Every single 35mm film camera mount had several in varying price ranges and apertures. It was the kit lens before cheap zooms took over.

I've tried a few and I think the Olympus 50mm f1.8 is an excellent compromise between sharpness, cost, size and adaptability. The Yashica ML 50mm f2.0 is right there as well. Both are under $50 used.

My only reservation is that the Sigma 60mm f2.8 and 45mm f1.8 can both be had for under $200 used. That makes it hard to want to use a manual lens, even to save a bit.

 

[Metaphorce42]

I love the Schneider Kreuznach lenses I've got from my old Exakta. Sharp as a puppies teeth and gorgeous, delicate colors. 50mm f1.9 Xenon, 35mm f4 Curtagon, 135 mm f3.5 Tele Xenar.

If you like something a little more contrasty, I've been getting nice images with SMC Pentax-A 28mm f2.8 and 50mm f1.7. Both lenses from the K mount era. (I wish I had a Pentax 24m m.)

 

[Felice62]

Hi guys. I'm planning to use manual focus lenses, especially for portraits, in my EM-10. What do you recommend me? I guess i have to buy an adapter... (Nikon, Canon, Samyang....).

Thanks

While none of these are 'nice' portraits (both captured at the park with fast moving subjects) it shows that some of the old lenses can do a decent job (plus being fun to use) on with current sensors.




Industar 61 2.8/50 (m42 mount) macro lens wide open on Pana GX7




Konica Hexanon AR 57mm F/1.4 wide open on Oly E-M5ii

Both these lenses costed me under €70 each and they're quite fun to use.

 

[IVN]

For cheap, you can't beat Chinese made CCTV c-mount lenses. They're about $30 with or without a cheap C-Mount to M43 adapter. Below is a portrait I took using a 35mm 1.7 Fujian (or whatever no name or rebranded name they go by). It's very low contrast and a little soft, which is good for B&W and portraits. The 25mm Fujian isn't bad, but the plane of focus is not flat, which makes for dreamy pics. QC sucks though, as you never really know what you'll get. Oil, gunk, dirt or streaks inside the lenses... hence the cheap prices. Still, if you get a good copy, I think they're wonderful manual focus lenses to play with.

I wouldn't recommend the 25/1.4 C-mount CCTV lens. It has quite an odd looking bokeh similar to the "soap bubble bokeh" of the Meyer-Optik Görlitz Trioplan lenses. There is also quite a bit of the "swirl" effect to the bokeh. If you like the effect, then sure, you should try it out. But I don't know many people that do like it.

Aside from that it's tiny, which is a plus (for obvious reasons) and a minus, because the focusing ring is next to the mount and hard to reach - ironically the aperture ring is near the front element and rather easy to turn. I can only reach the focusing ring with my index finger and thumb. And since the ring is rather stiff, it is kind of hard to focus the lens.

One other disadvantage is the rather long minimum focusing distance of the lens. I haven't measured it, but going by my gut I'd say that it's at least a meter, which is very long for a standard prime.

Regarding IQ: expect only a small circle in the center to be sharp at all. Anything outside that circle is very, very soft. In addition the lens has very strong CAs, which CAN'T be corrected in post processing - otherwise you get BW borders around your subjects. These can look rather interesting in BW (kind of a "ghostly effect"), but in color they look horrible. Vignetting is also quite apparent.

I've reviewed the lens on my Nikon V1, but haven't come around to writing a review when used on the OM-D E-M10. Anyway the handling and build quality are the same regardless of the camera it is used in conjunction with. So if you'd like to give it a read: http://bigstreetguns.com/2014/06/review-25mm-f1-4-c-mount-lens/

Here are a couple of photos taken with the 25/1.4 C-mount lens and Olympus OM-D E-M10:

--
Blog: http://bigstreetguns.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26344495@N05/

 

[Tomi O]

Hi guys. I'm planning to use manual focus lenses, especially for portraits, in my EM-10. What do you recommend me? I guess i have to buy an adapter... (Nikon, Canon, Samyang....).

Thanks

For me the decision was obvious because I had a large setup of Nikon lens, but the AI era of Nikon provide a ton of great and small lens. I use all the time the 50 1.4 (but the D version that is AF, but still very small) and the Nikon 135 3.5 QC its the only tele I use, because after try it and check how it balance and perform I knew I didnt need anything else. The Nikon 75 150 3.5 series E its also a known cheap but keeper tele zoom and the Nikon 100 2.8 E its extremly small and more than good enough for the price and specs.

 

[Dreeke]

If you want to "play" with cheap MF lenses pick a small CCTV lens. Personally I have the SLR variants but there are many more.

Funny, this morning I commented in another thread that I wasn't using these enough.
So, to make aments, here are two pictures with the 35mm and 26mm. These are both wide open but the 26mm still has vignetting.


SLR magic 35mm f/1.7


SLR magic 26mm f/1.4

 

[MiguelDpr]

Thanks everybody for your replies. A lot of stuff to study. Love samples of portraits i've seen.... Actually i have 45mm 1.8 (wonderful), 40-150 kit lens (bargain, good results) and the 12-40 2.8 (impressive, a bit heavy however).

My dream is the 75mm 1.8 (tested in Test&wow), but actually i'm in budget....

 

[eques]

Hi guys. I'm planning to use manual focus lenses, especially for portraits, in my EM-10. What do you recommend me? I guess i have to buy an adapter... (Nikon, Canon, Samyang....).

Thanks

There is a Samyang 50 F1,2 which has been reviewed very favourably. It is sold in a M43 version, so no need for adapters.

Of course is it not as cheap as a Canon, Minolta etc legacy lens (EUR 410), but then, it is supposed to be quite good already at F1,2, where legacy glass is very "dreamy" with lots of sherical aberrations.

Peter

 

[MiguelDpr]

Hi guys. I'm planning to use manual focus lenses, especially for portraits, in my EM-10. What do you recommend me? I guess i have to buy an adapter... (Nikon, Canon, Samyang....).

Thanks

There is a Samyang 50 F1,2 which has been reviewed very favourably. It is sold in a M43 version, so no need for adapters.

Of course is it not as cheap as a Canon, Minolta etc legacy lens (EUR 410), but then, it is supposed to be quite good already at F1,2, where legacy glass is very "dreamy" with lots of sherical aberrations.

Peter

Thanks. Any samples with micro four thirds mount? Is there something like a 100-150 mm. 2.8 in manual lenses?