Old lenses on eBay

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AdamcMWCK

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Hi.

I see a lot of old style lens on eBay that you have to use with an adaptor.

Are these worth a punt for £30? I like to play around with things and seen a small macro lens on there that needs an adaptor ring (Sirius 28mm macro).

Anyone ever had a go with this sort of thing?
 
Lots of people use old glass, especially old prime lenses, with great success on newer digital bodies. The Canon EOS digital system that you shoot helps a lot, as it offers a wide amount of compatibility with a lot of old lens mounts. You'd need the lens and the adapter, which would be OM to EOS if you wanted to mount an old Olympus lens, M42 to EOS if you wanted to mount an old M42 screw lens etc.

Also, other thing to bear in mind: old glass is glass which was manufactured decades ago. More likely to have fungus, scratches, wear and tear - if you plan on buying, it's exactly like buying any lens on eBay or through the classifieds, try and ensure as best as possible that the condition is good.

But having shot old Nikon primes extensively, I can tell you that it's worth the punt* - many newer prime lenses are very similar optical designs, with the only advantage often being newer coating processes. For a long time, most of the Nikon AF primes were the exactly same optical design as the older primes.

*depends on the individual lens, of course. lots of rubbish and lots of fab bits of glass out there.
 
I use old glass on my old manual focus film cameras. I can't imagine how it is possible to accurately focus one on a dslr without the split prism viewfinder.
 
Robclarke said:
I use old glass on my old manual focus film cameras. I can't imagine how it is possible to accurately focus one on a dslr without the split prism viewfinder.
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I have focus indicators on my Nikon, and I'm guessing there is probably a similar sort of thing on Canon (although a Canon person would have to help with this). And of course it comes down to your eyes as well, but things like live view are also helpful if you need.
 
Adapters with an AF confirm chip allow the camera to flash the AF indicators when it detects focus has been achieved.

You'll probably want to steer clear of any old zooms you see going cheap, a lot of those are truly horrific. But the primes are often very nice.
 
4737carlin said:
Yeah i know a few people who like to do this, i think you just need a m42 mount ring for your camera, only a few pounds. You might need to manually focus the lens thou once you buy one
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I think it's safe to assume there has never been, or will ever be, an Autofocus M42 lens! :naughty:
 
Robclarke said:
I use old glass on my old manual focus film cameras. I can't imagine how it is possible to accurately focus one on a dslr without the split prism viewfinder.
Click to expand...

It's surprisingly easy, and focus indicators help.

Failing that you can spend anywhere from £10 (deal extreme) to £100 on a split prism focus screen.

The deal-extreme ones are probably not as bright as the custom made american ones with 'enhanced brightness', but they may still be adequate.
 
Alan Clogwyn said:
I think it's safe to assume there has never been, or will ever be, an Autofocus M42 lens! :naughty:
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You might be surprised, there were all sorts of weird attempts at AF before the 'AF special mount with AF in the body' approach took off, for example:

http://www.mir.SPAM/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/olympusom1n2/shared/zuiko/htmls/3570AFmm.htm

And yes, that's all of the Af system inside the lens, plus batteries to power the thing.

While I don't know of any AF M42 lens offhand, it honestly wouldn't surprise me if there is some obscure soviet bloc lens out there that copied these early AF systems.
 
"It was widely accepted that the Pentax ME-F introduced by Asahi Pentax Optical Ltd. in 1981 which based largely on a hugely popular Pentax ME-super, was the world first SLR that offers an autofocus capability."

Ruling out Russians with more time on their hands than sense, and given that Pentax was the last serious manufacturer to hang on to M42 and had already gone through 2 generations of K mount camera before their first AF attempt, I still stand by no AF M42!

(That was a lot of writing for a very small point! :lol:)

EDIT: Zenit were last to use M42, not Pentax
 
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I have bought quite a few legacy lenses on ebay to use on a Sony Nex 5. Most expensive one was £30 and you can pick up a Minolta MD or Canon FD mount lens pretty cheap as these mounts are less popular than Nikon for example.
My 50mm f1.7 and 45mm f2.0 Minolta MD lenses were only £15 each for example, neither in mint condition externally but the optics are fine (no haze, fungus, scratches, cleaning marks etc).

Always worth a quick Google search on the lens name to see what people think of it and also check past (completed) ebay sales to get an idea of what price things go for.
 
Robclarke said:
I use old glass on my old manual focus film cameras. I can't imagine how it is possible to accurately focus one on a dslr without the split prism viewfinder.
Click to expand...

About half of my DSLR shots are manual focus, it really isn't that much of a problem and if you have a DSLR with live view you can use the back screen. Another way to do it is by distance and aperture, as in 't good 'ole daze :)
 
I have used a lot of old lenses some for less that a Tenner and have been well pleased with the results,regarding the adaptors some say don't go for the cheap ones but my M42 to EOS and Adaptall 2 adaptors were both less than £9.00 and have given excellent results
 
If you're going to spend £30.00 or so, make sure you buy something decent e.g. Nikon, Olympus OM :)

If you want something for macro, take a look at the Tamron Adaptall-2 and SP zooms. Most of them go very close indeed, and they're dead cheap. You'd just need the correct Adaptall mount.

Try http://www.adaptall-2.org for more info.
 
Alan Clogwyn said:
EDIT: Zenit were last to use M42, not Pentax
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If we're going to get picky, Voigtländer/Cosina were using M42 (on a body) last - back in 2007 on the Bessaflex TM. And of course, Zeiss/Cosina still sell new M42 mount lenses.
 
Just got a canon eos adapted Hoya hmc 28mm f2.8 lens described as MINT for sub £30. Will give it a shot. Only got that one as saw half decent reviews on it on google and it comes with the relevant adapter which has AF confirm chip in it apparently. Worst case scenario it will make a nice retro paper weight lol.
 
That's what I had figured out.

Guy had it up for £44.99 + £4.00 postage. I put a best offer of £29.00 and he accepted lol. Benefit of short time periods left on auctions
 
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