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Your top 3 favorite Legacy Lenses


alleyehave
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Fairly new to legacy lenses, I have a few from different years.

Two legacy or vintage lenses that stay in my camera bag are

 

Helios 44-2 and MIR-1b

 

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(photos aren't high resolution, only screens captures)

But I enjoy the Helios, it may not be the sharpest performer, but I enjoy shooting with it and personal find it quite sharp.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Pentax k 28 f3.5 as mentioned in one of the former posts.

Pentax m 50 f1.7. I am preferring it to the k50 f1.2 or k55 f1.8 because of size and cost.

 

I am also throwing in the pentax m 20 f4. Even though it is slightly soft at the extreme corners, it is such a small lens producing lovely vibrant colours and a joy to use. A great pocketable companion to the 28.

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Just got my first Legacy lens to work (after 2 adapter and 30 mins of shaving to make it to the right side), Canon FD 50mm 1.2

First photo taken by it and already love the bokeh, cant wait to do a shoot with it.

Cao untitled soot178 by David Cao, on Flickr

I just got that lens!

 

My three:

1) Canon FD 35mm f2.8 TS - probably the best tilt shift lens I've used. Way nicer to use than the EF 24mm f3.5L, IMO. The longer length gives more dramatic tilt effects. I used this lens in the 80s - I've just scored another, so will post some images soon. This lens is fantastically versatile, and has great optics.

2) Tamron SP type 52BB 90mm f2.5 macro. Does everything a short tele should do. Also great for portraits, product, macro.

3) Canon FD 50mm f1.2 - huge fan of this lens. If I were a bit wealthier, I'd be bidding right now for the aspheric (redline) 50mm f1.2. Or maybe the 58mm asph. But, like Leica and Zeiss, these are dreamsville for me at the moment!

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Zeiss ZF 25mm f/2,8

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105mm afd mikro nikor

 

55mm f/3,5 mikro nikor

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

I am not through with my lens collection, but so far I am vey impressed by

 

- the Flektogons 20mm (F/2.8 and F/4, little bit less distortion, but worse coating), both M42-Mount

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/83635770@N02/24420116925/in/datetaken-public/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/83635770@N02/24266793060/in/datetaken-public/

 

- Distagon 2/28 CY-Mount

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/83635770@N02/24513269396/in/datetaken-public/

 

- Oreston 50mm F/1.8 Exakta Mount

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/83635770@N02/24113437079/in/datetaken-public/

 

- Biotar 75mm F/1.5 - squirling bokeh at it's best, M42-Mount

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/83635770@N02/24147459400/in/datetaken-public/

 

 

(ok, I can not count, this is now five lenses...)

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  • 1 month later...

My 3 favourites in no special order. Theese tend to end up on my camera most often along with my 55 F1.8 and 28 F2.0 FE lenses.

 

Canon LTM 50mm F1.5. 60 years old... Renders things so differently from most of my other lenses and certainly from my 55F1.8. Strange-beutiful but very cool out of focus areas, sharp in the center. Sharpness contrast balance makes it a very nice (whole scene) portrait lens. Tiny size, but quite heavy, Colors very cold, works best in b/w.

 

Canon FDn 100mm F2.0. Really really nice portrait lens. Super sharp, small enough depth of field. Very very usable at F2.0. Not a large lens either and mechanically well built too. I have the Contax 85 1.4 too, which admittedly is an even more extreme portrait lens (and for really shallow depth of field it cant be beat). However, id say that balancing in weight, size and quality from F2 (where i put them on the same level) i tend to use the 100 more often than the 85.

 

Canon FD 200 F2.8. Not a special fantastic lens like the others above, BUT its a very economical, very fast tele. For people like me who havent shot that much longer tele before it offers a good way in to testing out high quality tele lenses. Sure there are better version (L etc but for those the price is too step for me. The "normal 200mm F2.8 hits the sweet spot to me) but then it defeats the purpose for me of a good entry to longer lenses. For L price money i may just go for a used SEL 70-200F4 instead.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Faves? Thaz a moving target. I don't shop for 

legacy lenses, having very many on hand and 

having had them on hand since before they'd  

become "legacy". Therefor different ones rise 

over time to the top of the heap. So, lately:  

   

24/2.8 Maxxum 

24-50/4.0 Maxxum 

24/2.8 AI Nikkor 

   

Looks like my vision is 24/24 lately !  Also on 

hand and seeing more use lately is my 24/2.0 

Vivitar N/AI. Very compact [52 filter] and has a 

cool veiling at wide open only. This veiling fills 

shadows beautifully in contrasty low light shots 

[stage, club, etc] but is totally cured by f/2.8. It 

has a field curvature which increases apparent

DOF at the wider apertures, for claustrophobiic 

interiors etc etc .... Horses for courses ! DXO 

would prolly condemn this lens !   

  

Hey now ... while we're all so excited [lol] about 

curvature of field and 24mm legacy lenses, is

anyone using the infamous Minolta 24 VFC ?  

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@Golem:

 

What's so infamous about the Minolta VFC? I have it and I like it for landscape. It is very well built, rumor has it that Minolta had a separate department with very skilled workers for such specialty lenses. On FF (the effect is hardly noticeable on crop) it can be used creatively to have a very helpful DOF control, either keeping foreground and infinity in focus or increasing the separation if you go the other way. At neutral position it's just a very capable 24mm, albeit a tad weaker than the Olympus Zuiko.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Only have 2 yet which I'm starting to use on my A7R2:

 

1) Pentax / Asahi SMC Takumar 1:1.4/50. I love the low contrast rendering. Soft at f/1.4 (though still ok for me), better at f/2, sharp at f/2.8 and upwards. OOC RAWs import into LR, only lens correction applied:

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This one has improved black and white points.

 

At f/2.8 and below the images tend to get warmer, seems to influence the metering inside the camera.

 

2) Pentax / Asahi Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 135mm F2.5. Reasonably sharp at f/2.5 already but I just shot some walls once. Need to do more with it.

 

Looking for 2 legacy primes in the next months, a 35mm and at about 20mm.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

In order of most liked:

 

Zenitar ME1 50mm/1.7

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Helios 40-2 85mm/1.5

 

Porst 50/1.7 Macro

 

The only one I could find sample shots for on my phone were from the Zenitar as I had shot it most recently.

 

With regard to the second part of the question, I shoot these on an A7R2.

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