Legacy fast prime - or alternative ?

Highwave's recent thread on the Mitakon 25mm f0.95 had me reaching for my wallet - until I saw on the manufacturer's website that that particular lens will not work with EPL-6 (which is the m4/3 camera I have). I do quite a lot of low-light work - and frequently find myself reaching for the widest aperture available to me (f3.5 in the case of the 14-42mm II R kit lens) and highest ISO setting I dare go without having to do too much noise reduction in PP. I can just about work with ISO 12800 - but 6400 would be better and 3200 would be perfect. All hand held with IS on and shutter speeds not slower that 1/30s.  (Can't use flash).

Alas, my wallet won't stretch to any of Oly's/Panny's premium price range - which is why I am wondering if any of Oly's legacy lenses - for example the 50mm f1.4 could come in handy. I already use the 35-70mm Zuiko legacy lens (off my old OM-10) on my EPL6 via the adaptor - and I can just about handle the dexterity needed. Anyone have any experience with legacy fast primes on micro 4/3 ?? Is there a more modern, but more budget-friendly alternative that might be worth considering ?

Thanks

photophile wrote:

Highwave's recent thread on the Mitakon 25mm f0.95 had me reaching for my wallet - until I saw on the manufacturer's website that that particular lens will not work with EPL-6 (which is the m4/3 camera I have). I do quite a lot of low-light work - and frequently find myself reaching for the widest aperture available to me (f3.5 in the case of the 14-42mm II R kit lens) and highest ISO setting I dare go without having to do too much noise reduction in PP. I can just about work with ISO 12800 - but 6400 would be better and 3200 would be perfect. All hand held with IS on and shutter speeds not slower that 1/30s. (Can't use flash).

Alas, my wallet won't stretch to any of Oly's/Panny's premium price range - which is why I am wondering if any of Oly's legacy lenses - for example the 50mm f1.4 could come in handy. I already use the 35-70mm Zuiko legacy lens (off my old OM-10) on my EPL6 via the adaptor - and I can just about handle the dexterity needed. Anyone have any experience with legacy fast primes on micro 4/3 ?? Is there a more modern, but more budget-friendly alternative that might be worth considering ?

Thanks

Not a bad idea to reuse the good old fast primes especially most of them might mean no addition cost to us (my Nikon MF ai lenses were long forgotten after invention of AF), or if bought were still very cheap nowadays, adapter cost small and the excellent MF assist tools of M43 (focus point magnification, focus peaking), it just make MF focus fast and easy to use.

I like my old Nikkor ai 50 f/1.4 and 28 f/2 on my <US$10 adapter. The total cost is only <US$10!

You can take a look at my flickr account as i shoot almost only legacy lenses nowadays and the voigtlander 25mm.
Im not sure what focal lengths you need (the new panasonic 25 1.7 seems like nice lens at a great price) but be aware that almost all fast legacy lenses (faster than f2.4) are 50-ish or 85-ish milimeters so you end up with teles.
I was not particularly fond of my om 50 1.4 and think that the 50 1.8 was generally better. Almost any fast legacy lens you find will need a click or two stop down for really acceptable technical (not art) performance.
There's a myriad of fast legacy lenses in the 50 to 85 range. Most are good enough, few are special and some are useless. Some are very very expensive some are dirt cheap, some are collectibles are some have flooded the world. There also many mounts available to choose from.
As a start id point you towards the lens database over at pentaxforums. Its probably the largest and most comprehensive database in one place available.
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** I usually post from my phone so please excuse any typos, inappropriate punctuation and capitalization, missing words and general lack of cohesion and sense in my posts...
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Just so you know how good/bad I am at this.

I would suggest the Olympus 45 f1.8 or the Panasonic 25 f1.8 depending on your focal length preferences. Compact and reasonably priced.

Confirm that the 25 1.7 Panasonic is a good lens.  Very sharp and very affordable.  Good choice for low light and daylight.

The popularity of legacy fast primes on mirrorless cameras has led to price inflation, so it's difficult to get a good fast prime manual lens for a reasonable price these days.

The Oly 45mm f1.8 is a fairly economical alternative and is also a native M4/3 lens with all its advantages.

My 'legacy fast prime' is a Rokkor 58mm f1.4, and though it's a pretty good lens, it's heavy and doesn't balance well even on my chunky GF1. It was in the cupboard already so I didn't pay out for it, but these are going for £80-120 on eBay these days and basically are not very good value compared to the new Oly 45.

Mark Thornton wrote:

I would suggest the Olympus 45 f1.8 or the Panasonic 25 f1.8 depending on your focal length preferences. Compact and reasonably priced.

these are modern lenses and I recommend them too. The Olympus 45 is quite a bargain.

I use both a Zeiss Planar 50 1.7 and my Oly 45 1.8. Both are quite the same focal lenght. The Oly is more compact, colder in colours and has AF. The Zeiss has richer colours, and is born with manual focus (no drive by wire). It is one of my "speacial purpose lens" and with adapter as bulky as the Olympus 75 1.8

The OM 50mm f1.4 is a bit "overtuned", for edge and corner sharpness you have to step down to 1,8 - so if you have to buy on a small budget: get the 1.8 - there are plenty of those kit lenses on the marked. It is difficult to se the difference between the OM 50 1.4 stepped down to 1.8 and the OM 50 1.8 at 1.8.

But start with a cheap m4/3 to OM adapter for the lenses you already own.

I'd say for anything wider than 50mm you need to look in native lenses (check the f2.8 Sigma's). The 50s and 135s are cheap and many, and there are plenty of reviews online. I'm currently using the Zuiko 50/1.8 "made in Japan" version. I use it mainly wide-open or stopped down to f2.8 for greater DoF for portraits and it provides great results in terms of sharpening, micro-contrast, and overall rendering/color reproduction. The bokeh is a bit harsh to my eyes, but I can live with that.

As others have wisely advised, the Olympus 45mm, 25mm and 17mm are not that expensive, being $300-400 USD, and the Panasonic 15mm and new 25mm are also good choices.

You won't find much in legacy glass at 35mm and wider that will be any good at all, and the ones that are decent will cost more than any of the above M43 lenses, and still won't be as good. You're paying to display fabled names from the past.

At 50mm or higher, you can get nice results for not much money. You should still be able to find an inexpensive 50mm f1.8, the standard kit lens on millions of SLR's from 1970-1990. That means $25-40 in my budget.  Then you can find a 135mm for a similar price. Good optics formulas for both of these focal lengths were well known and easily manufactured.

My favored fast legacy primes are any of my 50mm f1.8's, and an FD85mm f1.8. I will mix them with a .71x focal reducer to get more speed.

Thank you all for your input. Both the Olympus 45mm f1.8 and the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 fall well within my budget. I think the focal length of the Panasonic would be more suited to my needs. I checked an online compatibility table - and according to the information, there are no compatibility issues with using the Panasonic lens on the EPL-6. Just to be sure - I take it that I will have full use of Aperture priority still ?

There's no shortage of legacy lens options on all the usual online retail sites - and yes, there is a marked difference in price between the Zuiko 50mm f1.4 and the f1.8.

If it helps - I already have a 4/3 to m4/3 adapter as well as an OM to 4/3 adapter. So if there are still any 4/3 fast primes out there (any manufacturer), I'd be interested.

Size, weight & speed of auto-focus are not big concerns - just access to a wider apertures for low light work - something that would give me a couple of stops of advantage so that I don't have to crank the ISO setting to "desperate."

baxters wrote:

At 50mm or higher, you can get nice results for not much money. You should still be able to find an inexpensive 50mm f1.8, the standard kit lens on millions of SLR's from 1970-1990.

I wonder how many of those will be as sharp as the 45mm f1.8 when used wide open? Certainly my old Pentax 50mm is not.

Mark

I have the Canon FD 50mmF1.4, which I use with an FD to M43 adapter, and with the Metabones Original FD to M43 speedbooster (.71x) to make a 35mm F1.0 lens. I suspect it is effectively F1.1, but it is still very fast and image quality as good as any M43 lens.

The results with the Speedbooster and the Canon FD 85mm F1.8 (effectively 60mm F1.3) are very good, better than the 50mm above.

I didn't like the results of the Speedbooster with the FD28mm F2.8, seemed very soft. But the FD28mm isn't a great lens to start with.

The Speedbooster and the FD 24mmF2.0 (effectively 15mm F1.4) look good but I haven't measured them yet. I also use the FD24mm with the Fotodiox FD to M43 shift adapter.

The Konica Hexanon AR 40mmF1.8 with just an adapter works well, as does the Hexanon AR 55mm F3.5 Macro. Very nice cheap lenses. Unfortunately no Speedbooster/focal reducer is available for this series.

The Speedbooster and the FD 200mmF2.8 (effectively 140mm F2.0) look good but I haven't measured them yet.

The Speedbooster and the FD 135mmF2.5 (effectively 96mm F1.8) look good but I haven't measured them yet. The combination is rather heavy, and so I would rather just use the Oly 75mmF1.8 or the FD 85mm F1.8 or the FD200mm F2.8 with speedbooster.

I suspect the Minolta Rokkor Lenses with the Speedbooster would also work well.

Oly primes will work just fine on M43 bodies with an adapter.  I have the Oly OM 50 f1.4, 50 f1.8, 50 macro f3.5, 100 f2.8, 135 f2.8 and the 200 f4.  I also have the modern oly 25 f1.8 and the 45 f1.8.  I started with the legacy lenses to save money, and if you don't mind using a manual lens, they still give good results.  The newer lenses are smaller and excellent, but if you are on a tight budget, check out the legacy lenses.  I chose Olympus legacy lenses because they are good, fairly cheap to buy, and more petite than some of the other brands.

Peace.  ...and Best Wishes

John

By the way, the Panagor 90 mm f2.8 macro lens is great on M43, as is the Vivitar close focus 135 mm f2.8 (make sure it says "close focus") - very sharp, and good working distance.

Peace.

John

krylovsk wrote:

The 50s and 135s are cheap and many, and there are plenty of reviews online.

I got mine for $5 each.  This is one of the reasons I picked micro four thirds in the first place.