Legacy glass: what do you shoot most often?

Personally I really like the tiny Pentax 110 lenses, these little gems have no iris/ aperture blades and are therefore constant f/2.8 lenses. Because of this DOF restriction and tiny appearance they are great fun on a m 4/3 camera.





Not my camera, but to give an impression:



Besides my Pentax 110 lenses + adapter I also use my other Pentax lenses:

-M 28mm f/3.5
-M 50mm f/1.7
-M 100mm f/2.8
-M 135mm f/3.5

The 50mm 1.7 is by far my most used lens of these, It's great for portraits and has a superb look and feel while clicking the aperture ring and focusing.

Because I really miss an affordable low light lens wider than 50mm I just won an Ebay auction on a Konica AR 40mm f/1.8 lens, I also ordered the adapter. I hope this is as great as many have described on this forum.

drwho9437 said:

For me the tactile feel of a brass thread on a MF lens and the click of the aperture dial is evocative. I Just enjoy moving the ring and seeing my subject come into focus.

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My Nikon 50mm f/1.8D is slightly plasticky by comparison to your Pentax, but it's extremely sharp and contrasty for a $100 lens. The IQ even compares nicely to my Nikon lenses that cost over $1,000.

I know what you mean about manually bringing your subject into focus though. There is definitely some satisfaction in that, even though there are times when autofocus would be more useful. I much prefer manual focus on m4/3 to trying to do it on my DSLR. I'd probably feel differently with the viewfinder of a full frame DSLR, but on APS-C the viewfinder just isn't big enough to just focus well unless your subject is very large in your viewfinder (I can do it more easily with long telephotos and macros). But with m4/3 the zoom-to-focus feature makes manual focus a breeze to use. I can manually focus quickly and accurately with my GF1.

drwho9437 said:

I am sure many of you feel similarly, so what glass do you find you use most often?

I just have a Pentax 50mm f1.7 which makes an okay portrait or short tele.

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For me it makes a fantastic portrait and short tele lens! In fact I never used this 50mm lens that often with my Nikon DSLR. Since my Nikon cameras are APS-C I always found 50mm to be kind of in between on them. I use a 35mm prime much more often with my Nikon D200. 50mm on APS-C is fine for portraits, but I think it's much better on m4/3. The extra crop factor makes the 50mm much more appealing to me on m4/3, and my Nikon to m4/3 adapter is usually mounted to my 50mm f/1.8. I use it quite often for both portraits and video.

Sean

I really enjoy the manual aspect of using my Super Takumar 50mm/f1.4 which is from an old Pentax Spotmatic from the 60's and can be had for ~$100 or less at auction. It's thoriated, slightly radioactive and yellowed over the last 45 years which means I always have to pull the white balance back in post, and that I don't sleep in the same room as it.







(Also, I'd definitely be happy to take any critiques).

I like my Super Tak quite a lot, too. FYI, I just recieved a set of three extension tubes for it (M42) that I bought on Ebay for the ridiculous price of $5.80 ... including free shipping! They're annodized aluminum and seem to work fine.

Serenoa said:

This is an interesting thread with all the various lenses that are being used.

I'm just getting back into photography after many years. With my G2 I have been using the lenses from my very old Minolta srt101. The Rokkor 55/1.7 is sharp and nice but the one I was surprised by was a Vivitar 20mm f3.8 wide-angle that is a close focus (5") lens. It is rather awkward looking with an 82mm filter size.

This photo is with the Vivitar 20mm and I slightly enlarged it from the original for printing. I really like the creamy look of the backgrounds with this lens.

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Interesting, I'm waiting for a 17mm Vivitar-lens for Minolta MD that I bought on an auction site. I have high hopes for the lens since a lot of people claim that it's very sharp. I don't know how it compares to your 20mm, but I did look at that lens too but most of the lenses I found on eBay were too expensive. Usually between $100-200 + shipping which I found to be a bit too expensive.

I would be really nice to see what your camera looks like with the lens attached!

For mpetersson - Photos of my G2 with the Vivitar 20/3.8 attached and Minolta MD to m43 adapter. I think one of the benefits of being up in years is that you are more likely to have a closet full of old cameras and lenses. Like others posting here, I much prefer the feel of manual focusing and using an aperature ring.

Serenoa said:

For mpetersson - Photos of my G2 with the Vivitar 20/3.8 attached and Minolta MD to m43 adapter. I think one of the benefits of being up in years is that you are more likely to have a closet full of old cameras and lenses. Like others posting here, I much prefer the feel of manual focusing and using an aperature ring.

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Thank you for the photos! It might just be me and my weird interests, but I think that setup looks really nice. Like you said before it's an odd-looking lense with it's huge front element, but I like it. It makes me a little sad those lenses were so expensive on eBay, I would have liked one. I'll keep my eyes open.

On the other note I really enjoy manual focusing and the feel of older lenses as well. I have been collecting different cameras for a while now with different lenses. I never really guessed that I would be using those lenses on a digital body, but it's a nice added bonus. There is something really attractive about older, all-metal lenses.

I like the look of those! I actually have this lens in an old Asahi Pentax kit that belonged to my father-in-law in the 1960s. I've been thinking about ordering an m42 to m4/3 adapter... eBay has some that are only $10.

I have a few other legacy Nikon lenses, but the 50 is the only one in my carry-around bag.

I have the m4/3 14-42 Mk1 kit zoom, and the m4/3 40-150mm. For legacy glass, I have an OM 135mm f3.5, a Kiron OM mount 80-200mm zoom-lock lens (huge!) and an Olympus 50mm F3.5 macro.

Of all the legacy glass I have, I most definitely use the 50mm Macro the most. Might be a phase I'm going through, however, but macro has been really interesting to me lately.

The beauty of the OM lenses is that they are not only great quality glass, they are also quite small. This makes them a perfect match for my E-PL1.

They are getting more expensive lately, I've noticed. I suspect others are starting to notice the advantages of the Olympus OM glass.

Took this a few minutes ago with the Super Tak 50 and aforementioned extension tubes....

Just got my first legacy lens "canon FDn 50mm 1.4". So far i love it.

move along people -- no text here

works great wide open
--
to me........to you

I have a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro that I shoot with every so often on the GF1. It's a much lighter combo to carry around than my Nikon D200 with 80-200mm f/2.8 zoom. It's a very light macro... a little plasticky, but very good image quality. Not as solid feeling as my Tokina 12-24mm f/4 (which is built even more solidly than my Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8). Tokina makes fantastic lenses.

I have tried a number of legacy lenses, including OM and FD, which are nice lenses, but what has really hooked me is Zeiss glass, which I use on my GH2. I have a 28/2.8 Distagon and a 50/1.7 Planar. They are a joy to use, for their IQ -- resolution and incredible micro-contrast -- and for the ease with which they focus. I am waiting for a Flektogon 35/2 to arrive that I just purchased. I wish that it were possible to use MF glass for wide angle, but the Pany 7-14 covers that beautifully. I do have a Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5, which is a wonderful piece of glass, and when the Flektogon gets here I want to see if I still want the Nikon as the Flektogon goes down to 2:1 also.

What I have discovered is how much pleasure and how much fun MF is on the GH2 no matter what lens you use. It's amazing what you can get for such little money. What has surprised me is that with the Zeiss glass I hardly ever use my Pany 20/1.7 these days, and the kit lens pretty much stays in the bag. (No I'm not going to get rid of the 20).

Yes I'm a convert.

Michael

Michael Everett said:

I have tried a number of legacy lenses, including OM and FD, which are nice lenses, but what has really hooked me is Zeiss glass, which I use on my GH2. I have a 28/2.8 Distagon and a 50/1.7 Planar. They are a joy to use, for their IQ -- resolution and incredible micro-contrast -- and for the ease with which they focus. I am waiting for a Flektogon 35/2 to arrive that I just purchased. I wish that it were possible to use MF glass for wide angle, but the Pany 7-14 covers that beautifully. I do have a Micro-Nikkor 55/3.5, which is a wonderful piece of glass, and when the Flektogon gets here I want to see if I still want the Nikon as the Flektogon goes down to 2:1 also.

What I have discovered is how much pleasure and how much fun MF is on the GH2 no matter what lens you use. It's amazing what you can get for such little money. What has surprised me is that with the Zeiss glass I hardly ever use my Pany 20/1.7 these days, and the kit lens pretty much stays in the bag. (No I'm not going to get rid of the 20).

Yes I'm a convert.

Michael

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Michael

A hypothetical question, would you swap the 20mm plus the 14-140mm for a Zeiss Biogon?

Here are my legacy lenses plus what I paid for them.

Canon FD 50mm f1.8 $25, nice lens, great feel, shot some wonderful portraits with this.
Canon FD 50mm MACRO f3.5 $60 A lot of fun

Minolta Rokkor 58mm f1.4 $40, incredible portrait, though 116mm gets you pretty close. I think $40 was a steal for this one....
Sigma Minolta mount, 28mm f2.8 $30, nice focal length (56mm) fairly fast.

Tokina Nikon DX 11-16mm, f2.8 $700 (borrowed from father). Nice wide lens!!! fairly fast....

As most have mentioned the feel of the older lenses is unmatched by the m4/3 Panasonic and Olympus lenses, the solid focus rings and snappy aperture rings are magical.

And yes there are a lot of throw away shots, but the ones that you catch are priceless, and seem more like you earned them. With digital the throw away shots don't cost you $$$. I love the manual focus assist zoom feature on my GH1, yet another benefit of EVF.

BTW the Canon FD50mm f1.8 has allowed me to shoot some very incredible indoor low light video with my unhacked GH1 (720p), shot in Shutter mode. It takes a little getting used to manual focus with video, but the look of the footage is awesome.....

I love using my Olympus OM lenses. I never have the kit lens on anymore..

Although I have the 55mm f/1.2, I enjoy using the 50mm f/1.8 more. I also have a 28mm f/2.8 but hardly use it.

Here are some shots with the 50/1.8 all shot wide open

Dying for my contax yashica adapter to get in so I can use my dad's converted 50 T2.5 Kinoptik