What lenses are you using? Anything Legacy?

Hey boys and girls,

So I just switched systems, traded down from my Em1 to an NX300 in favor of more money for film.

I was curious what lenses NX users like most, and if anyone is shooting legacy. I have a lot of Nikon F AI gear I'd like to toy around with on digital.

Thanks!

They call me Hans wrote:

Hey boys and girls,

So I just switched systems, traded down from my Em1 to an NX300 in favor of more money for film.

I was curious what lenses NX users like most, and if anyone is shooting legacy. I have a lot of Nikon F AI gear I'd like to toy around with on digital.

Thanks!

Hi Hans,

I have the pancake trio of 16/20 and 30mm, 45mm F1.8, 60mm F2.8 Macro and 50-200mm zoom. All good lenses. I'd love to add the 12-24mm zoom and 85mm F1.4 but they are a bit out of my budget.

I can't say which are my favorites, the last 3 are recent purchases. The 45mm F1.8 is lovely and sharp from wide open so makes a good portrait lens. It also has very fast AF. The 30mm F2 is razor sharp and a good all round lens though AF can be sluggish at times.  The 16mm F2.4 I find excellent for street shooting.

As for legacy glass. I only have 2 adapters so far - one M42 and one Konica. Oddly the M42 adapter did not work! So I'm limited to Konica Hexanon legacy glass at the moment but to be honest the Samsung glass is so good I'm happy with just that.

I've used several on NX100, NX20, and NX500.  It is fun, Samsung is great for this!  The adapter matters, you may have try a few to get a winner.

Leica R with 100mm Bellows Macro:  Stunning.

Rollei QBM 50mm 1.8:  MEH.  Soft.  Rebuilt lens to get infinity focus, still soft.

Canon FD 50mm F1.4:  Great.  28mm.  Prefer the 30mm Samsung.

Canon FD 135mm F4.  Pretty good.

I'm going to try a longer lens at some point, but NX1 would be better for that with the viewfinder--I have no issues without them on the NX500 except for trying BIF etc.

Enjoy!

A few notes for legacy lens use:  the lenses Samsung has that are their best:  30mm, 85mm etc. generally will outperform the legacy lenses in those ranges.  And now Rokinon/Samyang/Bower have some great manual focus lenses that are in some cases superb, my 12mm Rokinon is almost glued to the NX500 (previously was the 30mm Samsung).  For the legacy lens use, minor considerations:

1. EXIF generally is limited, so don't forget to take notes--you'll never remember after the fact!

2. Use the center button to zoom in and focus.  It works well.

3. If I'm on a tripod, with the tilt screens it is almost like having an old TLR camera.  Easy to use, and if you're taking your time anyways, great results are possible!

I'd like to try more Leica R but they are still expensive. Haven't tried Nikon or recent Canon.

Samsung cover most needs up to 200 mm, so the only legacy lens that I use is an old Pentax M42 Super Takumar f.4 300 mm.  Closed down a couple of stops it's good and didn't cost much, but it is big and cumbersome.  I tried a 500 mm mirror lens, which is really too difficult without a proper viewfinder, and never sharper than just acceptable.

David

i am using a few legacy lenses on my NX1... i especially like a Helios 44M6 58 mm F2... and a Revuenon 50 mm F1.2 ... for one they are really fast ..i mean F2 ! or F1.2 ! and they have wonderfull bokeh...both are great portrait lenses and can be used for other things too, especially for shooting in the dark, cultural events, Bands playing, Taverns and such.....

then i use a cheap Sigma 70-300.---f4-5,6..... its a really light plastic lens, but it sells for slightly over 100 € and is actually quite ok, better then the Samsung 18-200 definitively IQ wise..about on par with the Samsung 50-200.... well...and i get much more reach...its equivalent in FF is a 105-450 mm lens...
recently i also got a 70-200 Tokina AT-X F2,8 lens...its a constant F2.8 lens and i got it for around 130 €... its quite sharp too....only shortcoming is that its quite large and heavy...but thats inevitably so...

I played around with a few other legacy lenses, but they couldnt offer me so much of an advantage that it compensated the lack of AF ...so i either sold them or shelf them for the rare occasion..

all these lenses have Pentax K mounts or M42...i use a Novoflex Pentax to NX Adapter which is superbly built and without any play or wiggling.. its sturdy and can hold heavy lenses quite good.

And when the NX1 will become obsolete one day i can probably still use these lenses on the  likes of a Sony A7....
If i did not yet have a macro i would also buy a legacy macro lens... a friend bought a used Nikon one... great glass.. he paid 40 € for it....
Actually i think its a good idea if you want to save money and not invest too much into a basically dead system to get the best standard zoom with AF you can afford and cover all the other aspects with legacy lenses or cheap but sharp manual lenses like the Rokinon, Samyang... buy them in Nikon version and use them with an adapter..so they will have resell value or you can use them on a D500 later...

Well, I do think that it is quite... "difficult" to buy NX Lenses now. Actually it is still relevant but to me it need good offers, like "cheap" second hand prices. I would not hesitate to pick up a <90€ NX30mm as it truely is a beast in its range !

By now, I just bought the very basic yes useful and efficient kit lenses : NX16-50mm and NX50-200mm, to cover the whole classic range, with the benefits of particularly good kit lenses, compared to other brands. Not a shame to only use them, for instance, you'll manage most of your shots.

Regarding Primes, as I said, it might sounds "risky" to buy NX. Especially when there are some very nices M42 alternatives, after browsing for the good references. Mine are :

- Helios 44-2, so much character, you may already know it

- Pentacon 135mm f2,8 : not the 15 blades version, still looking for a good price here in France

- Tair-3S : a 300mm beast mounted on a "riffle", known to be really sharp !

Now I just need to find a proper 0.5:1 or 1:1 cheap macro lens... But I'll just play with my toys for now !

They call me Hans wrote:

Hey boys and girls,

So I just switched systems, traded down from my Em1 to an NX300 in favor of more money for film.

I was curious what lenses NX users like most, and if anyone is shooting legacy. I have a lot of Nikon F AI gear I'd like to toy around with on digital.

Thanks!

I use a lot of older Nikon AI lenses on my NX cameras. I especially like them for Macro use since AF isn't important:

Nikon 105 f/4 Micro

Nikon 50 1.2

Nikon 35 1.4

Nikon 105and 135 f/2 DC lenses

Nikon 28 f/2

amd more.

I also use an old Mamiya 120 Macro. Really love this one.

freedo wrote:

Hey Hans,

ive been using the NX system wif legacy lenses since the NX10 years ago... i love the combo, NX is great for them! 1.5x crop is really useful too... a ton of them are 45-55mm and will end up almost perfect 75-80mm portrait / street lens

till date ive got carl zeiss jena 35/2.4 which is amazing for macro somehow, a number of russian lenses including industar 50/3.5 collapsible, jupiter-8 50/2, helios 44-2, the classic asahi pentax 50/1.4 & 55/1.8, some great fujinons, minolta MD rokkor in 50/1.4, 45/2 which i love so much, couple canons too 35/2 and the legendary 50/1.4

heres my album of some of the nx cams with the lenses attached

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/alfekim/sets/72157638309000535/

How are you doing this? I can't really get my NX1000 out of Smart Auto! I can but once I have a legacy lens such as an M42 or a Lieca screw mount ,the camera won't work. It only seems to like the mediocre plasticity 20-50 lens that it came with in autofocus. Thinking of developer mode as a last resort, or just putting the camera aside and forgetting it. I've come close to smashing it in a fit of rage. Uncomfortable selling a camera that doesn't work