Vintage Lenses

AgentOrange76 said:
For those of you with the Nikon 180mm AI-S ED, whats this like at f2.8?

Looking for a 200ish/2.8 that is good at the 2.8 end so open to suggestions

What would you consider a good price for the Nikon 180m, seen options from £600 down.
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It’s a fantastic lens throughout the entire range. One of my all time favourite lenses! Expect to pay the top end for a good one.
 
JemRaid said:
Hello all,

I bought a very battered A7 FF Sony thingy for a song.
HhCaCZX.jpg


I used a 60+ year old 42 mil thread Pentax 50mm lens, I was astonished

Cheers - J
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Oh yes, the Super Takumar lenses are excellent. They were then and they are probably better now, with the benefit of digital to bring out the detail. Mind you, every time I've been out I have never yet managed to capture a scantily glad girl pirouetting about. That would put me right off, that would. :D
 
THIRTYFIVEMILL said:
It’s a fantastic lens throughout the entire range. One of my all time favourite lenses! Expect to pay the top end for a good one.
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Brilliant, I have seen one "Very Good" for £525 from a bricks and mortar and from £200 -£300 Good from Several web based sellers.

I want to experiment with some images that need to throw a messy close background completely out and so far nothing I have is long enough or open wide enough. Got one more option in the bag to try in the week. The nice thing with these good vintage lenses is that as long as they are looked after they only seem to increase in value although that does mean needing to dig deeper to get them.
 
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AgentOrange76 said:
Brilliant, I have seen one "Very Good" for £525 from a bricks and mortar and from £200 -£300 Good from Several web based sellers.

I want to experiment with some images that need to throw a messy close background completely out and so far nothing I have is long enough or open wide enough. Got one more option in the bag to try in the week. The nice thing with these good vintage lenses is that as long as they are looked after they only seem to increase in value although that does mean needing to dig deeper to get them.
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They're stunning lenses, even with the TC-14A attached. Some handheld shots with that combo here:

vintagephotography.co.uk

BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY WITH THE NIKON Z6 + 180MM F/2.8 ED AIS + TC-14A - Vintage Photography

Here’s a few test shots I did this morning with the 180mm f/2.8 ED AIS manual focus lens with the old TC-14A teleconverter. These were all handheld, between f/2.8 and f/5.6, around 1/200 and ISO 100. I have to say I’m impressed with how sharp these. This lens will be buried with me!
vintagephotography.co.uk vintagephotography.co.uk

On its own:

vintagephotography.co.uk

BI-PLANE - 180MM ED AIS - ALL MANUAL - Vintage Photography

vintagephotography.co.uk vintagephotography.co.uk

vintagephotography.co.uk

NIKON NIKKOR 180MM ED AIS - FIRST SHOTS - Vintage Photography

Again with the Nikon Z6, here I’m testing the classic Nikon 180mm ED AIS. It’s tack sharp so makes taking a flattering portrait challenging but fortunately my lovely wife was (not so) happy to model for me. Below one colour and one monochrome rendition. Notice how vintage lenses produce very...
vintagephotography.co.uk vintagephotography.co.uk

vintagephotography.co.uk

NIKON Z FC, 180MM F/2.8 ED AIS AND "PICKLES" THE RABBIT! - Vintage Photography

A few days ago I once again purchased a lovely sample of the Nikon Nikkor 180mm F/2.8 ED AIS lens. I stupidly let go of my last one and immediately regretted it but was fortunate to find a mint example shortly after. A friend of mine and eminent Norwegian photographer, Bjorn Rorslett, said of...
vintagephotography.co.uk vintagephotography.co.uk
 
I've been using film era primes on my A7 since I got it but these days I've been using them less and instead using modern manual primes. I can thoroughly recommend the A7 for use with either old or new manual lenses.

I have to disagree just a bit on the Takumars though. I had the 50mm f1.4 and 28 and 35mm f3.5's and I suppose it's the 50mm f1.4 that people would go to but I had very mixed feeling about it. I did think that it gave a lovely look straight our of the camera for portraits if the background was friendly, better than any of my other film era 50mm's with only the Olympus Zuiko coming close but other than that I thought it was, and sorry to say this, quite poor in every respect (apart from build quality) when compared to just about anything else. Certainly I'd say that the equivalent Rokkor or FD was sharper and better across the frame and less wild at wide apertures.
 
AgentOrange76 said:
Brilliant, I have seen one "Very Good" for £525 from a bricks and mortar and from £200 -£300 Good from Several web based sellers.

I want to experiment with some images that need to throw a messy close background completely out and so far nothing I have is long enough or open wide enough. Got one more option in the bag to try in the week. The nice thing with these good vintage lenses is that as long as they are looked after they only seem to increase in value although that does mean needing to dig deeper to get them.
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I suppose it depends on camera to subject distance but if you are at minimum focus distance or anything like it I'd recommend a close focus filter as this can allow you to back the focus ring off from MFD and as some lenses aren't at their best when focusing at close distance doing this can improve image quality and even improve the bokeh. If you're not focusing close this probably wont help.
 
Dave in Wales said:
The 500mm is shown here, I just could not get on with it so it went back.
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The Tamron SP 500mm has been a success for me.

I tried it on one of my M43 bodies but I find it much more useful on the Nikon D600...

Tradeteam lorry cab Tamron 500mm D600 4965.JPG
Street light on power pole Tamron 500mm D600 4974.JPG
Digger cab Tamron 500mm D600 4967.jpg
 
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Vintage'ish. I did pick up a mint Canon EF zoom 28 - 80 yesterday for £5.00.
 
This is my current collection of OM Systems macro lenses.

Consists of:
65-116 Telescopic Auto Tube
Zuiko Auto-Macro 38mm f/2.8
Zuiko Auto 1:1 Macro 80mm f/4
Close-Up Lens 80mm Macro f=170mm
Zuiko Auto-Macro 135mm f/4.5

The set up give me a magnification range of 1:10 to 5:1, with a small gap from 2:1 to 3:1 which can be filled by using bellows instead of the Telescopic Auto Tube however bellows do pose the problem of needing a double cable release for aperture, which isn't needed with the Telescopic Auto-Tube.

I'm looking for a Zuiko Auto-Macro 20mm f/2 to complete the set which should increase the magnification range to 1:10 to 10:1.

Macro-Lenses-2-1.jpg
 
This might interest some here. Z FC manual focus images in a low light circus with a Jupiter 50mm f/1.5:

www.talkphotography.co.uk

Nikon Z FC + Jupiter 50mm F/1.5 - Jay Millers Circus, Isle of Wight

This was a bit of a challenge as the available light was low and my only lens was an old MF Jupiter 50mm f/1.5 but as usual, both this lens and camera produced some pleasing results. All taken at f/1.5 - f/2.0.
www.talkphotography.co.uk www.talkphotography.co.uk

CIRCUS-15.jpg
 
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Indeed it does. A cracking image. Just goes to show what can be done. For my contribution for today I have picked up a 135 F3.5 Super Takumar lens for £5.00. And a lovely little Wirgin Edixa 11, which I took a shine too.
 
what a great picture !
I should dig out my 1.5 sonnars ( Zeiss and Russian ) and have another go with them - never had anything like that picture quality from them.
 
Morning folks! Long time no see! Hope you're all well! I've been building a new company for the last year so had very little time for photography but am hoping to make some time now. Had a short two day break with the wide last week and took along the Jupiter 3 attached to my Nikon ZFC. Absolutely love this little lens!

YARMOUTH-PIER-1-1024.jpg
 
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