On a budget: fast Vintage Wide-Angle lenses for your M43?

Mike Loanzon wrote:

gary0319 wrote:

OK...you got me confused. You want wide angle, but talk about using a 24-28mm lens. I don't consider those focal lengths to be "wide" for M43. For indoor gatherings I would look to something in the 12-14mm range.

Not sure of any vintage 12-14mm lenses, but I had a Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 that worked great and cost about $100 on the used market. Maybe look at an inexpensive 14-42 zoom kit lens. These can be had for under $100, used or refurbished.

Thanks for the reply! my bad I was a little sleepy when I'd written it. My train of thought followed the idea that since they're vintage lenses, most of them were made "wide" for full-frame use. Sorry for the confusion. The lens itself is wide although i understand that on my m43 system it'll look the way a 50-56mm would look on a full-frame. i've been using the 14mm so far but i was looking for more bokeh (although i understand bokeh isn't everything it's still something i enjoy playing around with). the 14-42 kit lens I also have, but the aperture (and bokeh) aren't exactly things i enjoy working with. I was half hoping someone would say it was easy to find the 28mm F2.

From what you're saying, I think you're probably out of luck. As others have noted, anything wider than 28mm in the film days was uncommon, adding wide aperture makes  it even rarer on sites like eBay. Under $100 is pretty unlikely.

There's one possibility I can suggest. A few companies sell 'native' M4/3 manual lenses for under $100 on eBay; the two brands I'm familiar with are 'Wesley' and 'Kaxinda', but there appear to be others. They almost always come from Chinese sellers, and best guess is that they're repackaged CCTV optics in a metal body with a M4/3 mount. That said, they're easier than using a C-mount lens with an adapter, and the quality can be surprisingly good; I had a Wesley 34mm/1.7 that took some good shots.

Wesley 34/1.7

Not too bad, compared to the 20/1.7:

LUMIX 20/1.7

A couple of other shots:

Wesley 34/1.7

Wesley 34/1.7