Cheap bargain lens that has suprised you?

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Soda Farl

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I bought this little Cosina 19-35mm f/3.5-4.5 MC the other day from eBay. I have been kind of missing something wide for a little while but was planning on waiting till after the new year and picking something up then. I spotted this on an auction on eBay and got it for £43 inc £10 delivery and thought why not.

I took it out for a bit of a run through yesterday and was really surprised, it's actually not half bad lol. Distorts like nobody's business but was kind of expecting that, actually found it to be quite fun to use. It also has a rather bizarre hood that seems to have no real purpose. :lol:


DSC_7028 by Soda Farl, on Flickr

I thought it might be interesting to see what the rest of the forums best cheapo lens has been....
 
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The first Dslr I owned was a Sony A200, it came with a kit lens, and an old minolta 50mm f/1.7. Beautiful little lens, it was my first 50mm and blew me away with it's sharpness towards the Sony kit lens. The seller had pretty much threw it in as an extra. I think I used the kit lens maybe 5 times, for the extra width, every other time it was the 50mm stuck on there until I sold up and moved to Nikon.
 
Cagey75 said:
The first Dslr I owned was a Sony A200, it came with a kit lens, and an old minolta 50mm f/1.7. Beautiful little lens, it was my first 50mm and blew me away with it's sharpness towards the Sony kit lens. The seller had pretty much threw it in as an extra. I think I used the kit lens maybe 5 times, for the extra width, every other time it was the 50mm stuck on there until I sold up and moved to Nikon.
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A freebie, you don't get a much better bargain than that. :thumbs:
 
Aye, I had to buy the crappy kit lens to get it though, so it could be I bought the 50 and the kit lens was free :D It was never really made clear [advertised at the time as Sony dslr + lens] . Pity more sellers didn't throw an extra lens in for the craic :D Hasn't happened since.
 
I bought the niffty for my 500d not long after getting it. I hadn't read much about it, I just wanted another lens and that was the cheapest, I was amazed by it and it was after that I seen all the reviews it had, was well chuffed.

I wouldn't have said no to getting a freebie 28 1.8 thrown in myself ;)
 
Soda Farl said:
I bought this little Cosina 19-35mm f/3.5-4.5...
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I looked for one of these some time ago but couldn't find one at the time and instead got the Canon 20-35mm. The Cosina (I beleive it's also badged as a couple of other makes) has its fans and IMVHO should be taken more seriously but unforetunately people are put off by the name on it (WHY???) and its cost.

Recently I've bought the following old manual lenses and all seem to be very nice and very sharp and each has cost under £50, a couple under £20...

Minolta Rokkor 55mm f1.7, 28mm f2.8, 135mm f3.5.
Olympus Zuiko 50mm f1.8, 28mm f2.8, 135mm f3.5.
 
woof woof said:
I looked for one of these some time ago but couldn't find one at the time and instead got the Canon 20-35mm. The Cosina (I beleive it's also badged as a couple of other makes) has its fans and IMVHO should be taken more seriously but unforetunately people are put off by the name on it (WHY???) and its cost.

Recently I've bought the following old manual lenses and all seem to be very nice and very sharp and each has cost under £50, a couple under £20...

Minolta Rokkor 55mm f1.7, 28mm f2.8, 135mm f3.5.
Olympus Zuiko 50mm f1.8, 28mm f2.8, 135mm f3.5.
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Buying the Cosina was a bit of an impulse decision , but I had a little read around afterwords and they seem to have a little bit of a cult following. They made them under various brands Tamron, Vivatar, Phoenix, Quantaray and Promaster.
 
The 19-35mm is often known as the *plastic fantastic* I had the Tokina version for my first DSLR which was a Pentax K100D

My favourite bargain was a Canon 55-250mm I bought s/hand for use until I decided on what lens in that range to buy

So good kept it for ages and found I had to spend a fair bit of cash to improve on the performance. My daughter has the lems now and has also took some great photos with it
 
Post some results for us to see Tommy :)

i got a Nikon 70-210mm 4-5.6 in the classifieds on here, i think i paid £50 all in. I really do think its a cracker, not particularly fast focusing but a nice lens to use. Its given me some nice shots in its time, i would only change it for something alittle longer, or perhaps something abit faster :)

a couple of examples shooting afew monkeys!


Abit of Roughage by andyroberts1868, on Flickr


MarkPosing by andyroberts1868, on Flickr
 
If you are talking old manual focus lenses there are lots that are excellent and can be picked up fairly cheaply (Olympus OM, Canon FD, Minolta MD etc). Some of the old Minolta AF lenses are very good too if you have a Sony Alpha body.

My favourite bargain lens though is the manual focus Minolta MD 35-70 f3.5 (constant aperture version) 'macro'. A similar design was used by Leica apparently.

It's not a true macro lens and it's manual focus only of course, but you can pick them up for £20 to £40 in good condition and with a cheapy £8 adapter off ebay it makes a great lens on my Nex 5.

http://www.fourseasonshd.com/cgi-bin/csvsearch.pl?db=db1&tp=tp17&search=mohican
 
I picked up a cheap Helios 58mm and adapter when I had an Oly DSLR, did I love it to bits never left the camera, when I look back at the kit ive had one of my fave 'about town' set ups was the Oly 410 and that cheap Helios prime.
 
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A Nikon AF 55mm 2.8 Micro I got on here for £80, stunningly good lens - as sharp at 2.8 as it is at f8, really amazing especially for the price I paid.

Also I was impressed enough by the Tamron 17-35 f2.8-4 after trying a couple of Nikon 17-35s that the Tamron has stayed and the Nikons have gone - really impressive wide open performance throughout the range, and just a bit over £200 compared with £700+ for the Nikon version.

I also got a Nikon 28mm 2.8 AIS which was amazing close up, not as good at distance but the close up performance was something else. Boxed & mint, only cost me £56 on Ebay.
 
andy1868 said:
Post some results for us to see Tommy :)

i got a Nikon 70-210mm 4-5.6 in the classifieds on here, i think i paid £50 all in. I really do think its a cracker, not particularly fast focusing but a nice lens to use. Its given me some nice shots in its time, i would only change it for something alittle longer, or perhaps something abit faster :)
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Nice sharp lens that 70-210mm

These are with the Cosina. I have only had a chance to process a few it's been a very busy weekend.


DSC_6980 by Soda Farl, on Flickr


DSC_6966 by Soda Farl, on Flickr


DSC_6956 by Soda Farl, on Flickr


DSC_6923 by Soda Farl, on Flickr
 
For me it's got to be the Nikkor 80-200 ƒ/2.8 AF first edition (push-pull zoom). Paid 80 Swiss Francs for it (around £50) a couple of years ago. Still sharp as a tack, even wide open.

It was bought from a Canon user who obviously had no use for the lens at all. I didn't lo-ball him on it either. He knew it was worth way more than that, but just wanted rid of it as it was taking up space.
 
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Slaphead said:
For me it's got to be the Nikkor 80-200 ƒ/2.8 AF first edition (push-pull zoom). Paid 80 Swiss Francs for it (around £50) a couple of years ago. Still sharp as a tack, even wide open.

It was bought from a Canon user who obviously had no use for the lens at all. I didn't lo-ball him on it either. He knew it was worth way more than that, but just wanted rid of it as it was taking up space.
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Proper bargain :thumbs:
 
jpw said:
A Nikon AF 55mm 2.8 Micro I got on here for £80, stunningly good lens - as sharp at 2.8 as it is at f8, really amazing especially for the price I paid.

Also I was impressed enough by the Tamron 17-35 f2.8-4 after trying a couple of Nikon 17-35s that the Tamron has stayed and the Nikons have gone - really impressive wide open performance throughout the range, and just a bit over £200 compared with £700+ for the Nikon version.

I also got a Nikon 28mm 2.8 AIS which was amazing close up, not as good at distance but the close up performance was something else. Boxed & mint, only cost me £56 on Ebay.
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This all sounds familiar. I went for a Nikon 105mm f/4 micro, grabbed one on ebay for about £70. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't expecting it to be good as I had read reviews beforehand but I am certainly very pleased with the results.


GAD_9395 by G.A.D, on Flickr

Currently messing around with a couple of AIS wide angle primes as well, a 20mm f/4 and a 24mm 2.8 AIS. Both are excellent though I'll likely shift the 24mm on as it's a bit stuck in the middle between the 20mm and my 28mm. Superb lens though.
 
some nice results there tommy, i'd be over the moon with results like that, especially coming from a £33 lens :thumbs:

:goes to ebay to try and find some bargains :lol: :
 
My ancient EF 70-210mm f4 it is as old as the EOS mount and cost me £75 complete with a bottom of the range EOS film body and kit lens. The kit lens got flogged wor about £20 and I kept the camera to run the occasional roll of B&W through.

I'd read reviews of the 70-210mm so was expecting it to have dire AF performance and acceptable sharpness so I was nicely surprised to find that it was very sharp and the AF provided you didn't ask to much of it like going from macro to inifinity in the blink of an eye was good enough for me. Still have it three years later and it's worth more than I paid for it so can't be bad!

Couple of examples!


The Louvre by a1ex2001, on Flickr


Salvador Sunset by a1ex2001, on Flickr

It might get replaced soon but only because I want USM focussing and something that is sharper in the corners wide open, not that the 70-210mm is really soft in the corners just not quite pin sharp.
 
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I bought a Cosina 19-35 many years ago to pair with an F65. As has been said, it distorts almost as much as a fisheye but on 35mm (and FF), it's quite wide. Not as wide as my current UWA on FF (12-24) but still plenty wide for most tastes! I still have it but it's currently on long term loan to a good friend who may want to buy the whole kit off me eventually. She can't have the 90mm Tamron Macro though - that's promised to a friend in Crete who would have had it off me this summer, if I hadn't left it on the dining table when I packed the bag!

Best budget lens was probably the kit lens that came with my first DSLR, the 18-70 Dx. Only disposed of it when I sold my D200 - the buyer had to have something to stick on it and since I already had 12-300 covered on both Dx and Fx, I decided to get shot of my only Dx lens.

Best bargain was probably the Sigma 24-70 f/2.8, bought when Jessop's were knocking them out for just £234.68. I gave a few people a heads up about the deal and at least one took them up on the offer and still uses it in her relatively recent venture as a wedding photographer.
 
Soda Farl said:
I thought it might be interesting to see what the rest of the forums best cheapo lens has been....
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While saving up for current D300s, I came across a Nikon D70s with 1700 clicks and an 18-70mm lens for £185.
Thought that would be an ideal setup for finding out, if this dslr thing even was anything for me...

Alas it was and since then it's been a downhill ride with only more expensive lenses!
nono.gif


Got the 16-85 for the D300s, added the 12-24 and have just acquired the 24-120mm.


So... best cheapo lens nominee here is the 18-70mm. Loved it - and the little darling D70s!
biggrin3.gif
 
Following this thread with interest as I wouldn't mind trying to find some cheap glass for my D3100.
Will any of the old Nikon glass fit on my camera? I know that I will have to manually focus but that shouldn't be too much of a problem as I have had manual cameras in the distant past.
 
Have a good read of your camera's manual (my copy's on a different machine) and it should tell you which lenses your body can use. You'll need to meter manually as well as focus - not even sure the entry level Nikons allow the use of legacy lenses. Pretty sure most F mount lenses will fit but unsure if they'll work at all.

If you don't have a manual (or only have a foreign language one), the English version can be found here (CLICK ME).
 
a1ex2001 said:
My ancient EF 70-210mm f4 it is as old as the EOS mount and cost me £75 complete with a bottom of the range EOS film body and kit lens. The kit lens got flogged wor about £20 and I kept the camera to run the occasional roll of B&W through.

I'd read reviews of the 70-210mm so was expecting it to have dire AF performance and acceptable sharpness so I was nicely surprised to find that it was very sharp and the AF provided you didn't ask to much of it like going from macro to inifinity in the blink of an eye was good enough for me. Still have it three years later and it's worth more than I paid for it so can't be bad!

Couple of examples!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29781511@N05/7508272702/
The Louvre by a1ex2001, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29781511@N05/8079450704/
Salvador Sunset by a1ex2001, on Flickr

It might get replaced soon but only because I want USM focussing and something that is sharper in the corners wide open, not that the 70-210mm is really soft in the corners just not quite pin sharp.
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£60 for my Canon 70-210 and I still have it although don't use it a lot now but you are right the sharpness is amazing
 
I really like the Fujian 35mm f/1.7 CCTV lens on my NEX 5N. Cost me about £20 on EBay. It's not technically perfect, but for a lens that's not meant for the NEX 5N, and £20, it has bags of charm :D
 
I just bagged one of the cosina 19-35mm from a Polish auction site for £40 (multi national workplaces have their advantages!). I've been wanting something wider for a while now, so this should work nicely.

It's a silver one, but I'm assuming the glass is the same. Lol for £40 I can't go wrong.

Also soda farl, every time I see your username I get hungry!
 
Soda Farl said:
I bought this little Cosina 19-35mm f/3.5-4.5 MC the other day from eBay. I have been kind of missing something wide for a little while but was planning on waiting till after the new year and picking something up then. I spotted this on an auction on eBay and got it for £43 inc £10 delivery and thought why not.

I took it out for a bit of a run through yesterday and was really surprised, it's actually not half bad lol. Distorts like nobody's business but was kind of expecting that, actually found it to be quite fun to use. It also has a rather bizarre hood that seems to have no real purpose. :lol:


DSC_7028 by Soda Farl, on Flickr

I thought it might be interesting to see what the rest of the forums best cheapo lens has been....
Click to expand...

Same lens, it's surprisingly good for something with blue peter build quality!

Regret selling mine, especially since the 19mm prime from the same manufacturer is nowhere near as hot!
 
My missus spotted someone selling a bunch of old film cameras on facebook the other day with five lenses, She picked up an EF 28-70, 28-80, 35-80, 70-210 and a 100-300 plus a large aluminium hard case that will hold a couple of cameras, leads batteries and 10 lenses for a hundred quid. Then she managed to sell the two Canon film cameras on ebay for 65 a day later.

Admittedly, they'd have to be used wide open but at 35 quid, can't moan.
 
EspressoJunkie said:
I just bagged one of the cosina 19-35mm from a Polish auction site for £40 (multi national workplaces have their advantages!). I've been wanting something wider for a while now, so this should work nicely.

It's a silver one, but I'm assuming the glass is the same. Lol for £40 I can't go wrong.

Also soda farl, every time I see your username I get hungry!
Click to expand...

:razz: I feel I have been robbed as mine costs £43 including delivery.
 
Samyang 35mm f/1.4 AS UMC

Every bit as good as the Nikkor 35mm f1.4.. just lacks AF.
 
samyang 85mm 1.4f the image quality on this lens is amazing! i cant help but think if it had AF it would be a very expensive lens tho! i wish they would make an AF version i would buy it in a flash!
 
I picked up one of those holga lenses a short while back. Less than £20 new, and it is absolutely bloody awful. All plastic, 1 thin piece of glass, the focus ring feels like its lubed with marmite....

But it is also one of the fun lenses I've ever played with, it can produce some interesting results. Then there's also the fun of trying to get a half way decent photo out of it, constant aperture at f8, meaning the viewfinder is next to useless, all plastic so no contacts for metering to work, as for focusing it. Well, the focus ring has a few pictures on it that hardly relate to distance, such as 1 person is meant to be the closest focus. That person could be 1m away or 30m away! You just get used to taking a rough guess with it, and at f8 things sort of come out in focus, well about as sharp as they're going to get with that lens. I genuinely cannot express how much fun it is, just because it is so awful.

Oh and mines a bright vulgar red, who wouldn't want that on their camera :lol:
 
Holy thread revival Batman! Just thought I'd get that in before anyone else!

Well I finally got my Cosina 19-35mm, although I ended up getting one from UK eBay(for £10 more) rather than the Polish site because the fella on the Polish one wanted to to deal outside the site....:nono: !

Now it's not the sharpest lens ever, but the AF is surprisingly fast, and for £50 I really cant complain. Took it out for a little scoot today, and I'm really happy with it.



Finished3 by dubbleyu, on Flickr
 
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