old lenses

[dean messenger]

recently due to budget and whatnot ive been on the hunt for a couple of lenses to fill in some gaps in my focal range.
I did have an 18-135 IS STM , nifty fifty 1.8 and a sigma 70-300.

sold the 18-135 as i wanted to shoot UWA so picked up the brand new 10-18 canon.
sold the nifty fifty as it really was just sitting idle in my bag ( and royal mail broke it which they have now paid for in compensation ( cheque arrived today )
and the 70-300 sigma apo dg is ok but im just not entirely happy with image quality.

so with that in mind i wanted a short range tele and couldnt afford the 24-105L or similar and a replacement for the sigma so started doing some research and hunting around the web.

so now in my kit i have a canon 28-105 USM ll EF lens ( dating from 1992 onwards )
metal mount, focal distance window, "macro ( not 1:1 ) across full focal range F/3.5-4.5 ( not the fastest lens i know ) , 7 bladed diaphragm ( the original has only 5 blades ) so nice bokeh effect can be achieved.
optically its clean as a whistle , focuses very fast, no rotating front element so cpl filters arent a problem and its pin sharp.
cost £50.
image quality is much much better than any standard kit lens ive owned and it feels alot more solid too. when you consider the 24-105 is close to 10x the cost i paid for this its a real gem of a find and a great bargain.

So this led me on a hunt for something to replace the 70-300.
again budget wouldnt allow me to get an L series lens ( having owned a 70-200 F/4 L previously i knew how pin sharp it was and how the sigma is a pretty poor lens in comparison, so againw anted to find somethign affordable yet would sit somewhere in the middle between consumer and high end.
again searching for information came across a canon 100-300 USM f/4.5-5.6
again not the fastest lens and focal length starting at 100mm meant i lost a little over the sigma but as it was primarily used at the longer end it didnt matter much.
so this lens was released in 1990 and again metal mount, solid construction, focal distance window. fast USM motor and again no rotating front element when focusing so fine for CPL filters and the like.

Seems this falls into mch like the 28-105 what canon called there midrange of lenses ( something they no longer seem to do ).
i paid for this £45.
in comparison to the sigma on a few test shots ive done.
the canon has much faster AF and is quieter, CA is minimal ( the sigma has awful CA at 300mm ).. Pin sharp upto around 200mm beyond that drop down to around F/8 and sharpness remains up to the 300, barrel distortion is also far far less and even colours produced on images look far better, the sigma always seemed to look a little washed out and mucky on objects in the distance.
8 blades means bokeh is pleasant. and both lenses ( the 100-300 and 28-105 ) have instant manual focus overide ( just turn the ring and go.
theres no "macro" on this lens so minimum close focus is around 2m. but then the sigma's "macro" mode is around 1.1m and isnt true macro in any sense of the word anyway.

again for an equivalent L series lens it would cost me 10x as much.

so for just under £100 in total i have two old lenses which are better built, have focal distance windows, fast USM motor, no rotating front , manual focus overide and both optically quite a lot better than kit lenses.
downsides. well age.. you could easily get a bad one with dust/fungus and of course no IS on these.

but it does make me wonder are canon ( i dont know about nikon or other brands ) missing an area of the market they once used to cater for?

a step up from consumer kit lenses but without the expensive cost of high end L glass.. mid range as they were so called.

does anyone else have any much older lenses they have picked up at a bargain price that are much better than bog standard kit lenses?

 

[Swanseajack]

As your talking about zooms, I have a Vivitar 28-105 f2.8 a Tokina ATX (pro range) Red Ring 100-300mm F4, these are Canon FD fittings. Two fastish lenses with good optical performance. I paid £75.00 for my two lenses, I have seen the Tokina (Nikon mount) advertised around the £279.00 mark, so in comparison I have had a steal. These are manual lenses so they take a little while to get used to. I have also got a x2 teleconverter to use with the Tokina and there isn't much loss of quality when in use.

Against Fuji kit lenses which are above standard, I would say that the Tokina is a match for the Fuji 55-200mm which I have owned recently. The Vivitar isn't quite as good as the Fuji 18-55 which i had a while back when I had the XE1.

I have also owned a Vivitar 70-210mm F2.8, Vivitar 200mm f3.5, Helios 58mm f2, Vivitar Macro 55mm f2.8, Hanimex 135mm f2.8 and I currently have a Pentacon 50mm f1.8 which I use with extension tubes for macro.

Also, I currently have a Tamron 80-210mm f3.8, Canon FD fitting on order which is supposed to be a good leagacy lens, I have bought this as it will be lighter to carry about against the Tokina and I can still use my TC. This cost £15.05 on ebay plus postage.

There are some good old manual lenses out there, if you have the patience to try them out. There's a fair amount of users on here, particularly the ones who mirorrless cameras.

 

[Swanseajack]

Forgot to add, when I had my Nikon D7000, as it had in-built drive motor I was able to use old lenses with have auto focus. The lenses I had were the 24-50, 28-85 & 75-300mm out of all those lenses the 75-300 was my favourite and super sharp, it's the only lens which I have regreted selling. For these three lenses I paid about £115.00, when I sold, I had £132.00 just for the 75-300mm so a little profit.

 

[dean messenger]

i do think in regard to Canon at least that they shot themselves in the foot a little. not every one can afford L glass but to upgrade from Kit lenses there are very few options now and so some of these old lenses are def worth consideration and looking into as the optics on some are up there and almost on a par with the L lenses.

 

[Swanseajack]

I think the possible problem now, is that the third party manufactures, Sigma, Tamron etc... are sowing up the market with their fast zooms 17-50mm f2.8 etc as an upgrade to kit lenses. I just wish they would start with some lenses for the Fuji mount.
Some of these old kit lenses are fantastic value,,I'm covered from 28 > 600mm with Teleconverter, plus 1.5 crop factor for an outlay of £90.00. After owning a few Fuji's I am comfortable with the Fuji 35mm f1.4 and the Tokina 100-300mm & other legacy glass until they bring out their supertele, it should have been this year but it's been put back until later next year.