The Vintage + Classic Adapted Glass Thread

I've never heard of some of the lenses in this thread.

When I bought my old lenses I just bought cheap mass market ones and I now have lenses from Minolta, Olympus, Canon and Nikon and a few third party ones in those mounts but apart from a couple I did read up on before I bought which I did read were pretty much at the top of the heap I've no idea if the lenses I have are the best I could have bought for the money.

So, if anyone has the time how about a little game? How about making a little list of the best lenses that can be bought for reasonable money at each focal length and for the purpose of this and the peace of my bank balance :D maybe a reasonable price for each would be under £100.

24mm f2.8 or f2.
28mm f2.8 or f2.
35mm f1.8, f2 or f2.8.
50mm f1.8 or f1.4.
85mm f1.8 or f2.
135mm f2 or f2.8.

For some focal length I double up and have two lenses, for example I like having a 50mm f1.4 but also a f1.8 too as they're usually smaller and lighter and sometimes I want a small lens :D I also sometimes double up and have a characterful lens and a more neutral one too :D

If anyone is interested in doing a little list I'd be interested in the choices and the reasons why you'd choose them :D

I've managed reasonable examples of all those focal lengths for well under £50, though admittedly my 35 & 85 examples aren't quite as fast, and several have other restrictions.
My 24/2.8 was £50 with a camera, flash & another lens, is good quality, but can only be used wide open & only covers MFT. The mount is Pentax auto110.
I have several Pentax M50/1.7s (effectively the same as f/1.8) great lenses (my f1.4 was possibly over your limit) but if you want faster my 50/1.2 (again fixed aperture) was under £20 - A projector lens.
My only 85mm is another projector lens only f/2.8 but again under £20 & fixed aperture - I do have a couple of 75mm enlarger lenses too.
I don't remember the brands of my 28, 35, & 135 examples - generally they're acceptable quality but nothing exceptional.
It's not fair to include My CZJ flectagon as I got such a bargain. It's usually over £200 - I only paid £10 and got a bag of other goodies included, 2 of which would be suitable for you list!
 
24mm f2.8 or f2.
28mm f2.8 or f2.
35mm f1.8, f2 or f2.8.
50mm f1.8 or f1.4.
85mm f1.8 or f2.
135mm f2 or f2.8.

I started with my Yashica primes on my 5D2. Mainly because I already had them & still do along with the FX-3 Super 2000!!! The ML primes are pretty good & can be picked up for pennies really as far as I know. The FD range is reasonably cheap too although the 85mm will take you up into 3 figures.

In all honesty, I've not really had a really bad manual lens. The Pentacon 50/1.8 was probably the worst but that was mainly down to fringing! The Sigma Super Wide II 24mm I had was terrible with flaring too.

I keep thinking of a wide prime but with the price them I may as well go for something more modern for FE.
 
I started with my Yashica primes on my 5D2. Mainly because I already had them & still do along with the FX-3 Super 2000!!! The ML primes are pretty good & can be picked up for pennies really as far as I know. The FD range is reasonably cheap too although the 85mm will take you up into 3 figures.

In all honesty, I've not really had a really bad manual lens. The Pentacon 50/1.8 was probably the worst but that was mainly down to fringing! The Sigma Super Wide II 24mm I had was terrible with flaring too.

I keep thinking of a wide prime but with the price them I may as well go for something more modern for FE.



Have you used the Canon FD 200mm F4? That's another I have in my watch lists
 
No. Longer lenses just don't seem to be my thing for some reason.....

In general, I'm more mid-range myself. I bet if I checked my stats over time I would be mostly in the 25-100 range, but during the winter I love a longer FL for shooting the birds :) And I find a certain charm about the older 200mm offerings. It's definitely one FL that doesn't get enough love on the more budget side these days. Any modern 200 - 300mm F4 prime costs a small fortune, I think there's an added attraction there for me because of this.
 
I started with my Yashica primes on my 5D2...

I initially fancied Olympus Zuiko's as they're small and I like the way they look but I found a cheap Minolta Rokkor 55mm f1.7 MC so I bought it and added a 28mm f2.8 MD and a 135mm f3.5.

I then did a bit of reading up and read that the Rokkor 24mm f2.8 was a classic design and thought by some to be one of the best 24mm designs ever, so I bought one. I also read that the Rokkor 50mm f1.4 MD was about the best of the type from that time so I bought one of those too. Later buys included the Rokkor 50mm f1.2 MD and 85mm f2 which I again read were about the best. So, my Rokkor 24mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4 and 1.2 and 85mm f2 were informed decisions but other that those I just bought without really knowing if I was buying well or not. My Sigma 50mm f2.8 macro was a lucky buy in that it's a 1:1 macro whereas many of that time aren't 1:1 and need to be used with a tube to go 1:1. One thing I'm disappointed with about that lens though is that although there's a lot of focus ring movement at close distances there's very little at longer distances.

Of the lenses I have I'd say the following are sort of stand out-ish…

Minolta Rokkors.
24mm f2.8 MD, 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f2 all seem good.
50mm f1.2 is characterful at wider apertures and ok stopped down but never as good as the f1.4.
55mm f1.7 and 35mm f2.8 MC's are characterful at wider apertures but can be susceptible to flare and can give a colour cast. I love the build of these all metal and glass lenses though.
35mm f1.8 MD is a bit wild at its widest apertures but good to very good stopped down and could IMO rival a modern lens at f8-11.
Minolta 45mm f2 is very small and light with nice bokeh and it's sharp with nice contrast. It could IMO be a modern lens.

The Olympus Zuiko 24, 28 and 35mm f2.8 and 50mm f1.8 are tiny and just look lovely but I find the aperture rings clunky.

The Canon FD's are all ok but IMO never as good as the good Rokkors and never as characterful as the characterful Rokkors. They just seem to be solidly B+ old manual lenses, nothing outstanding, just ok and get the job done.

Of my three Pre AI Nikon lenses, 35mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4 and 50mm f2 the nicest seems to be the 50mm f2 which is characterful enough and sharp enough. They're a similar build to the old Rokkor MC's but much bigger.

I keep wondering about Carl Zeiss and Pentax lenses but I haven't tried any yet.
 
In general, I'm more mid-range myself. I bet if I checked my stats over time I would be mostly in the 25-100 range, but during the winter I love a longer FL for shooting the birds :) And I find a certain charm about the older 200mm offerings. It's definitely one FL that doesn't get enough love on the more budget side these days. Any modern 200 - 300mm F4 prime costs a small fortune, I think there's an added attraction there for me because of this.

I sometimes use the Kit28-70mm for landscapes for convenience. Aside from that I'm at 40mm or 85mm for the look & IQ. I did buy a Tokina RMC 80-200mm (I think) in Y/C mount just to see if I'd use the focal range before spending circa £900 on the FE70-200mm........ I've used it once ;)

I initially fancied Olympus Zuiko's as they're small and I like the way they look but I found a cheap Minolta Rokkor 55mm f1.7 MC so I bought it and added a 28mm f2.8 MD and a 135mm f3.5.

I then did a bit of reading up and read that the Rokkor 24mm f2.8 was a classic design and thought by some to be one of the best 24mm designs ever, so I bought one. I also read that the Rokkor 50mm f1.4 MD was about the best of the type from that time so I bought one of those too. Later buys included the Rokkor 50mm f1.2 MD and 85mm f2 which I again read were about the best. So, my Rokkor 24mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4 and 1.2 and 85mm f2 were informed decisions but other that those I just bought without really knowing if I was buying well or not. My Sigma 50mm f2.8 macro was a lucky buy in that it's a 1:1 macro whereas many of that time aren't 1:1 and need to be used with a tube to go 1:1. One thing I'm disappointed with about that lens though is that although there's a lot of focus ring movement at close distances there's very little at longer distances.

Of the lenses I have I'd say the following are sort of stand out-ish…

Minolta Rokkors.
24mm f2.8 MD, 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f2 all seem good.
50mm f1.2 is characterful at wider apertures and ok stopped down but never as good as the f1.4.
55mm f1.7 and 35mm f2.8 MC's are characterful at wider apertures but can be susceptible to flare and can give a colour cast. I love the build of these all metal and glass lenses though.
35mm f1.8 MD is a bit wild at its widest apertures but good to very good stopped down and could IMO rival a modern lens at f8-11.
Minolta 45mm f2 is very small and light with nice bokeh and it's sharp with nice contrast. It could IMO be a modern lens.

The Olympus Zuiko 24, 28 and 35mm f2.8 and 50mm f1.8 are tiny and just look lovely but I find the aperture rings clunky.

The Canon FD's are all ok but IMO never as good as the good Rokkors and never as characterful as the characterful Rokkors. They just seem to be solidly B+ old manual lenses, nothing outstanding, just ok and get the job done.

Of my three Pre AI Nikon lenses, 35mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4 and 50mm f2 the nicest seems to be the 50mm f2 which is characterful enough and sharp enough. They're a similar build to the old Rokkor MC's but much bigger.

I keep wondering about Carl Zeiss and Pentax lenses but I haven't tried any yet.

See, I don't think I could handle having that many lenses anymore..... I don't use my Yashica's that much. And I can't remember the last time I even used the Helios44-2!
 
I have a lens for every occasion and every mood :D
Despite having over 200 lenses available I've not yet found a lens for 'I can't be bothered.'
I've occasionally come up with situations that required a lens outside of my range - while I can get beyond 1000mm focal length the effective aperture does get rather small so planetary imaging is not going to be much good with my gear.
I suspect that on the whole it's my skill that's the biggest restriction on my gear - followed by an inability to predict the ideal lenses to take with me.
 
A couple taken with a Minolta Rokkor shoved through Nik filters for a different look.

wpaImAA.jpg


JdA8S5E.jpg
 
Voightlander 1.4 on Canon M5


Mudeford Quay
by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


Mudeford Quay
by Mike.Pursey, on Flickr


I love what we call 'little sea-side towns' - bags of character in them, quite a few of those dotted around the Irish coast too.

When you look at the stall in the 2nd image, how simplistic, a basic set up to get your ticket [I presume] to head out on a trawler and experience some saltwater fishing. In more tourist infested areas this would be a complex modern building set up with electronic barriers and checkouts
 
Anyone got any 'new' old glass for Christmas? I filled up my watch lists with so many I ended up buying none :D but plan to grab a few old classics come January
 
Anyone got any 'new' old glass for Christmas? I filled up my watch lists with so many I ended up buying none :D but plan to grab a few old classics come January

Zero.... I've maxed out on the CV40/1.2E I've been waiting for & then decided on a CV21/3.5E too....... :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
Zero.... I've maxed out on the CV40/1.2E I've been waiting for & then decided on a CV21/3.5E too....... :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Very nice lenses indeed.

I gave up my quest to find a reasonably priced but sharp wide open tele lens for the time being. I'm now looking at the old Four thirds 50-200 [non SWD] as a manual focus option. It's f/3.5 at the long end and from what I've read, tack sharp at that with no CA issues, that alone might be worth the £300 or so expected price. It won't AF well at all on my G80, but with a 43 to m43 adapter I would get cpu data, and it seems like the MF is really nice on this version
 
Just bought a Tokina 400mm f5.6 for my Nikon D300S but as it’s a Nikon mount I can also use it via adaptor on my MFT cameras to . Built in flexibility
 
Anyone got any 'new' old glass for Christmas? I filled up my watch lists with so many I ended up buying none :D but plan to grab a few old classics come January
It's not Christmas for about a week yet, so it's still pending, but I believe I have another projector lens coming - the first zoom projector in my collection that will actually have enough coverage for my sensor :)
 
one from this morning a bit of blue sky gave me the opportunity to try out my vivitar 200mm f3.5 M/F on B.I.F quite pleased indeed with the hit rate . I also needed to adjust a few settings in the recently acquired Nikon D300S
.both shots hand held and a very high percentage were spot on for focus , quiet pleased with the results from a sub £30 quid lens .. excuse the sky colour in the second shot as I said I had to play with some settings

tally ho by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

winter skies by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
It's not Christmas for about a week yet, so it's still pending, but I believe I have another projector lens coming - the first zoom projector in my collection that will actually have enough coverage for my sensor :)

When you have kids it starts being 'Christmas' from the end of November :D Projector lens? any hacks involved for adaption?

one from this morning a bit of blue sky gave me the opportunity to try out my vivitar 200mm f3.5 M/F on B.I.F quite pleased indeed with the hit rate . I also needed to adjust a few settings in the recently acquired Nikon D300S
.both shots hand held and a very high percentage were spot on for focus , quiet pleased with the results from a sub £30 quid lens .. excuse the sky colour in the second shot as I said I had to play with some settings

tally ho by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

winter skies by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

Nice Jeff, you certainly get the best from this lens. Still got mine, need to give it another work out
 
When you have kids it starts being 'Christmas' from the end of November :D Projector lens? any hacks involved for adaption?
I have kids, all in their teens now. They've joined me in commenting about how ridiculous it is that some households light up in November - especially as they take everything down on boxing day. Christmas is 8 days starting 25th Dec. Decorating for it a fortnight before is quite adequate & helps make it special!

The projector lenses are fitted via a wide helicoid so much of the lens can sit inside the helicoid. I use a M42 to M52 model that's 35-90mm long.
A stepping ring can then just be stuck to the outside of the lens tube.
With my 50/1.2 I did have to trim a little from the rear of the lens body (too much tube behind the rear element) & the longer focal lengths often require extension tubes to be added.

None of them have any form of aperture, but paper discs in front of the lens can be used - my main ones have shaped holes for changing the bokeh :)
Jaguar chasing snowflakes by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr

As this dolphin one shows vignetting can sometimes be noticable
rabbit & dolphins by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr
 
I have kids, all in their teens now. They've joined me in commenting about how ridiculous it is that some households light up in November - especially as they take everything down on boxing day. Christmas is 8 days starting 25th Dec. Decorating for it a fortnight before is quite adequate & helps make it special!

The projector lenses are fitted via a wide helicoid so much of the lens can sit inside the helicoid. I use a M42 to M52 model that's 35-90mm long.
A stepping ring can then just be stuck to the outside of the lens tube.
With my 50/1.2 I did have to trim a little from the rear of the lens body (too much tube behind the rear element) & the longer focal lengths often require extension tubes to be added.

None of them have any form of aperture, but paper discs in front of the lens can be used - my main ones have shaped holes for changing the bokeh :)
Jaguar chasing snowflakes by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr

As this dolphin one shows vignetting can sometimes be noticable
rabbit & dolphins by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr

Oh trust me, I hear you on that! I refuse to put up the tree or any decorations until at least the 5th December, and even then I'm hesitant. Doesn't mean they aren't already making lists and getting over excited though, and it is all about them, possibly last year of ours being this way as they are approaching the teens.

Interesting effects there, but they seem pretty soft?
 
I took this with a M mount Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 at f1.4.

I3P6oti.jpg


This is a 20 odd to 30% or so crop which she sent to her mam :D

YIVgpZa.jpg


It's soft at f1.4 (but IMO it's sharpens up enough in post capture processing) and the bokeh is funky at wider apertures but stopped down the performance is respectable and the sun stars are very nice. I don't think it's a lens I'll use a lot or even often but it's different enough to keep.
 
Last edited:
Used to use a broad range of lenses from a variety of manufacturers whilst I was shooting canon. When I moved over to nikon 4 years ago, I only had my nikon AI lenses and tamron adaptall kit left that I could use. My olympus OM kit, contax zeiss kit and M42 kit couldn't be adapted due to the increase in register distance on nikon. Of that kit, the stand outs were the olympus 24mm f2.8, 28mm f2.8 and zeiss 35mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.4.

I already owned a load of mamiya kit as I have a full 645 and 6x7 set that I used for film. Made sense to buy the adaptor ring for 645 as it's a straight forward fit. I've had superb results, specifically, the 35mm f3.5, 80mm f2.8/f1.9 and in particular, the 150mm f2.8. Due to the larger image circle, they exhibit better corner sharpness and a lot less falloff, the only disadvantage is the obvious size increase. They also work extremely well on extension tubes too.


The 80mm I use to replace the contax 85mm planar f1.4 that I used to use with canon that I can't easily adapt to nikon. It's been a worthy replacement, though the f1.9 version can have funky bokeh on occasion. The f2.8 version is smoother, just as sharp and can be bought for peanuts.

80mm f2.8C with extension tube


80mm f1.9 wide open - sharp with a little glow


Stopped down a bit it's insanely sharp.



150mm wide open - Very sharp with a tiny hint of purple fringing on very high contrast edges. Bokeh is exceptionally smooth.

 
Last edited:
just bought a Tokina 400mm f5.6 M/F lens to go on the recently acquired nikon d/300s or on either of my MFT bodies via adaptor , lens arrived late fri so first test shots on sat morning ,quiet pleased with results so far anyway

up and away by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

heres looking at you by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

Nothing wrong with those, if I was a picky t*** i'd say pity you clipped the wing on first, but loving the 2nd. How are you finding going back to a dslr after using mirrorless for a while?
 
Nothing wrong with those, if I was a picky t*** i'd say pity you clipped the wing on first, but loving the 2nd. How are you finding going back to a dslr after using mirrorless for a while?
. Easy really Keith , at the moment all my Nikon fit lenses are manual focus , luckily the D300S allows for open aperture focussing an£ auto shutdown , as with any form of photography if your shutter speed is fast enough and your iso not to high you just have to worry about getting it in focus , not that hard at all if you concentrate . I have yet to try this new 400 on one of the mft bodies but be interesting to find out if the Panasonic 100-400 suffers from focus breathing or distance dissfraction
 
Thought I'd revive this thread having found it thanks to @Canon Bob.

At one time, all I had on my cameras was adapted old 35mm glass, especially when I was using Fuji, financial restrictions meant they were all I could afford, now reading through this thread I quite fancy giving retro glass another go.

These images was taken with a Fuji XT-1 and a Minolta MD 50mm f2

HazyHills by Steve Vickers, on Flickr

Tracks by Steve Vickers, on Flickr

To the sea by Steve Vickers, on Flickr

I loved that Minolta and am really sorry I sold it. Gonna have to keep my eye out for another.
 
Thought I'd revive this thread having found it thanks to @Canon Bob.

At one time, all I had on my cameras was adapted old 35mm glass, especially when I was using Fuji, financial restrictions meant they were all I could afford, now reading through this thread I quite fancy giving retro glass another go.

These images was taken with a Fuji XT-1 and a Minolta MD 50mm f2

HazyHills by Steve Vickers, on Flickr

Tracks by Steve Vickers, on Flickr

To the sea by Steve Vickers, on Flickr

I loved that Minolta and am really sorry I sold it. Gonna have to keep my eye out for another.


Nice! :)

I had forgotten about this thread tbh, it just got abandoned over Christmas and slipped away

I'm back shooting Fuji now too so my interest in vintage lenses has been re-ignited. I was adapting old lenses to my G80, and they work very nicely on there too, but I do prefer an APSC sensor using old lenses, you get closer to the original look they would have produced - obviously full frame is better in some cases, not all as many old lenses were soft or cruddy around the outskirts.

One of my favorite old lenses was the Helios 44-2, an odd focal length at 58mm, but it has that dreamy effect and swirly bokeh that many of us love for certain images. This was taken using that on an XT1:
Summer's end by K G, on Flickr
 
D&N 12 Bleeds aperture, My adaptation from M39 to M42, Nikon F mount.
still working on it, since the M42 to F mount needs adaptor with correction element for infinity focus which in turn will
reduce the quality, so what I did was that to use thinest element less adaptor and open the lens to rewinding back,
in other world I bring inner case inward and closer to sensor.
It has crazy Bokeh.



View media item 106687
View media item 106688
View media item 106689
View media item 106685
View media item 106686
 
Last edited:
Back
Top