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Your top 3 favorite Legacy Lenses


alleyehave
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I use these on the A7r and the Nex 7.

 

1) Minolta M-Rokkor (Leica M mount) 28mm f/2.8 (probably my favorite lens ever):

 

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2) Minolta 50/1.2 MD (reasonably sharp even at f/1.2, but just breathing can make you miss the focus):

 

 

3) Minolta 200/4 MC (or MD version, optically they should be the same):

 

 

And an "outsider / bonus lens", given that is not for everyone because it can be a bit of a "special effect lens" if you don't use it in a certain way: Zenitar 16/2.8 fish-eye m42 (with a Minolta MD adapter).

 

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The one I use all the time is my 28/2.8 Nikkor [pre-AI].

Acoarst, it's not simply that lens as-it-stands. The real

reason is that it's very sympatico with my Lens Turbo.

No significant curvature of field and relatively immune

to the dreaded blue dot syndrome. 

   

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Canon FD 20/2.8

Canon FD 24/2.8

Olympus OM 28/3.5

 

The Olympus sits on my camera when it's parked so it's ready to go at all times.

 

All of them are used on an A7mII.  I rarely use legacy glass on my aps-c bodies as I never liked the results.  Conversely, I only use legacy glass on the full frame.  That's where the old lenses shine.

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Nikkor pre AI 35 1.4

Vivitar 28 2.0 close focus

Canon Fd 55 1.2 silver nose

 

Best character on full frame, not apsc.....

Pen f 38 1.8. Super sharp center but falls off fast. Also vignettes quite a bit but I love the rendering it gives.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Nikkor pre AI 35 1.4

Vivitar 28 2.0 close focus

Canon Fd 55 1.2 silver nose

 

Best character on full frame, not apsc.....

Pen f 38 1.8. Super sharp center but falls off fast. Also vignettes quite a bit but I love the rendering it gives.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The Nikon pre Ai 35 1.4 is a fantastic lens. I had one of the very first batch, the one with the 9 blades aperture, that even if it was yellow as a lemon (the glass, not the body!) it was a real pleasure to use.

 

Foolishly I sold it when I switched to Canon...lesson learned: never ever sell one of your favorite lenses.

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My list of favorite legacy lensens changes over time - these are the current top 3:

 

1) Vivitar Series 1 90mm f/2.5 Macro ("Bokitar")

2) Canon nFD 300mm f/4 L

3) Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 80-200mm f/4 T*

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  • 2 weeks later...

My top 3 legacy lenses:

 

1. Contax Zeiss Planar C/Y 1.4/85

2. Contax Zeiss Planar C/Y1.4/50

3. Contax Zeiss Distagon C/Y 2/28

 

 

 

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My No 1 legacy lense:


 


Contax Zeiss Planar C/Y 1.4/85

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Here are a few of my favorite non-native lenses that I use most often:

 

Contax G Zeiss 90mm f2.8

BW Portrait
16182074221_1925ec181e_b.jpg

Fall in the Ozarks
15777278195_765b94724d_b.jpg

 

PC-Nikkor 35mm f2.8 (nonAI-early 1970s)

Navy Pier
13893340644_461df0ba7e_b.jpg

Chicago
13892992363_f21712ce02_b.jpg

 

Nikkor 24mm f2.8 (nonAI)

Oak Cemetery
14755489858_1554524699_b.jpg

 

And one in the A mount family - The Minolta AF 100mm f2

Lake Michigan off Navy Pier
13893344994_3b39cf51a9_b.jpg

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Probably the 58mm F1.9 Biotar from Carl Zeiss Jena (not as expensive as the 75 F1.5), very compact and light:

15877739062_59ec0fa3d4.jpg

Mush In The Bokeh Room by Henrik Fessler, auf Flickr

Trioplan 100mm F2.8 and its (in)famous Bubble Bokeh

17609418675_bb2b2415d6.jpg

Bokeh Onion Ring Bubbles by Henrik Fessler, auf Flickr

And finally, the Biotar 75mm F1.5

14690450209_37a8a0afc3.jpg

Poppy Field Delight by Henrik Fessler, auf Flickr

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had previously mentioned the 28/2.8 Nikkor for

its tendency to work well with the Lens Turbo, a

cheap SpeedBooster knock-off. Acoarst that tells

you it's for APSC [various Sonys].

 

You did ask for 3 faves, and now that I've got a

FF Sony, the Lens Turbo no longer dictates which

lenses work best.

 

Haven't had the FF very long, but old habits die

hard: an old 35/2.0 Nikkor AI has nearly welded

itself to my A7M2 :-)

 

When I can pry myself away from the 35/2.0, the

other 2 lenses that leap in to replace it are a

20/4.0 Nikkor AI and pancake 50/1.8 Nikkor AI.

 

The 50 is a pancake on a Nikon SLR body, but on

the FE-to-NF adapter it's not so cute and cuddly

anymore. Still, the whole shebang is more compact

than if I adapt a typical big old 50/2.0 instead.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Those 3 are faves ... real "go-to" gear. OTOH,

3 lenses that see far less use but are a blast

to use for their special applications:

 

35/2.8 PC Nikkor, a shift-but-no-tilt lens.

 

105/1.8 AI Nikkor. 1000000X more useful now cuz,

hey, IBIS !!! It's a low light lens with a FL thaz at

the questionable far end of typical handheld use

in pre-IBIS times. Add IBIS and it's a new world !

 

85/1.5 Soligor. This is a cult lens, whose IQ at

wide open nudges into "Barry Lyndon" Zeiss f:0.75

territory. When you've got that many aberrations

all cooking at once, you don't need any unwelcome

image softening camera shake. And you don't wanna

crank the ISO to extremes, cuz such gauzey imagery

looks really schidty with a heavy does of noise.

So, again, IBIS to the rescue.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

So OK, point is, legacy lens-wise, the Lens Turbo is

a very major influence on choosing legacy glass for

APSC bodies, and the IBIS opens up a whole new

rationale for deploying certain FF lenses.

 

`

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In my post above I wrote:

 

" Haven't had the FF very long, but old habits

die hard: an old 35/2.0 Nikkor AI has nearly

welded itself to my A7M2 "

 

I'm normally a nocturnal creature, which means

my pix will seldom show anybody else what they

might get if they were using any of my gear. So

since we were entertaining some highly diurnal

relatives, I grabbed some midday stuff. Voila !

 

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Nikkor AI-S 35/2.0, prolly around f/8, on A7M2

 

Now don't go pixie peeping on a mid quality jpeg

as required for forum upload. But the RENDERING

against the light is just perfick. Acoarst you

can't judge the corners in this scene, not just

due to the lack of detailed subject matter near

the margins, but also cuz the margins are mostly

deleted. Thaz what the 35mm is all about ... you

frame an intuitive shot on the fly, and trim it

up just a bit when you're no longer in a hurry.

 

 

`

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The post above will not allow further

image content [file size limit], and so

here's a scrap of detail thaz hopefully

small enuf to suffer only very minimal

abuse by the limitations of the forum

software/bandwidth:

 

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And I'll add one more post, cuz I can't

fit a second scrap of detail into this

post, due to those same limitations ...

 

 

`

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OK, so here's another scrap,

with prolly too much detail ...

even after being ground down

by the forum software:

 

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Kinda scary, yes ?

 

If you bag an old MF Nikkor

35/2.0 for your A7M2, then

you can be scary too ! ! !

 

 

`

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Continuing my daylight adventures

with the MF AI-S Nikkor 35/2.0 and

continuing in the realm of the very

slightly cropped grab shot, I needed

a location shot, and this scene just

begged for the job, and was hired.

 

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IIRC about f/9.5.

 

IMNSHO, when it comes to grab shots,

a 35 has the perfect amount of grab.

 

 

`

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THE 35, VERTICAL FORMAT

 

It leaves just enuf disposable

foreground for cropping shots

like this one, with a very slight

perspective fix in post ....

 

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About f/11

 

 

`

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