Lenses that make you WOW! for $50 or less

venchka

venchka

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froyd's poll of lenses for $500 with high WOW factor made me think about my own motley assortment of lenses accumulated over the ages with little or no thought. A quick mental inventory brings up a rather large number of lenses that I paid little or nothing for.

Lenses I got for free or no more than $50:

Rangefinder lenses:
Konica I with 50/3.5 Hexar lens. Dad bought this in Japan in 1950. I'm still using it. Fabulous lens.
Canon 35mm/2.8 LTM. Tiny. Robust. Unique character. A keeper.
Nikkor-S.C 50/1.4 LTM. A legend. This lens needs no further praise from me.

Speed Graphic lenses. All for free so far.
Kodak Ektar 127mm/4.7. Classic lens on the Speed Graphic press camera. Enough coverage on a press camera. Roughly equal to 35mm-40mm on a 35mm camera. Small. Sharp.
Voigtlander & Sohn Collinear II 7 7/8"/5.4 brass barrell. 100 year old beauty. Big. Heavy. A bokeh machine wide open. Plenty sharp stopped down.
Bausch & Lomb Rapid Rectilinear about 150mm/6.3 lens cells. Another oldie but goodie from around 1913. I am currently sharing the 127mm Ektar shutter with these cells. I'm looking for a shutter and lens board.
Tominon 105mm/4.5 macro lens. From an old Polaroid MP-4 copy camera. Decently wide on 4x5. Sharp up close and personal. Sharp enough at infinity too.

35mm SLR
Canon FD-BL 50/1.4 S.S.C. Another classic. Sharp. Sharp. Nice bokeh.
Canon FD 24/2.8 Lovely, small wide angle. One of my favorite focal lengths.

Bring on your nifty thrifty lenses.
 
Pentax SMC Takumar 50/1.4 - probably no introduction needed.

Tamron Adaptall 90/2.5 old version - imho very underrated, lovely bokeh

Canon LTM 50/1.8 black and silver - a great all rounder with excellent build quality
 
The infamous Olympus lens cap ... the 50mm F1.8 Zuiko.

Buy one for $25.00 to $35.00 any time it seems and very under rated.

I have a Summaron 35mm f3.5 that came in a box of bits and pieces and owed me nothing ... it cost me $50.00 to get it CLA'd and it's a real gem for classic black and white on a screwmount!
 
Rokkor-PF MC 135 f2.8; Rokkor-PF MC 100mm f2.5; Minolta MD 35mm f2.8. Minolta Celtic 28mm f2.8. Only $8, $8, $16, and about $50, but I'd put them against any 35mm format lens out there. Never thought I'd be quite this po', but I still got high-grade optics.
 
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zuikologist said:
Pentax SMC Takumar 50/1.4 - probably no introduction needed.
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Ditto that... Best value, love mine. Shame it's on an SLR.

Also, the lens on virtually any classic fixed lens rangefinder. I also hear consistent raves about the Helios 103 and Jupiter 8. From personal experience the Sigma 24mm Pentax K is great, cheap, sharp (Photodo 4.4) wide.

Lots of 50's - including Chinons and "Sears" brands, and Ricohs.

Konica - in general, highly underrated lens maker. Pentax too. Also - lots of great portrait lenses in the 100mm range that go for pennies.
 
For SLRs, the Auto Vivitar Wide-Angle 35mm f2.8 is nice. Sharp, nice bokeh, and available cheap in lots of mounts (mine is M42.) The Super Takumar 35/2 is also very nice, and a bit faster. Of course almost any Takumar lens is a pretty good bet.

I'll second the FD24/2.8. I found one at a good prince in ebay a couple months ago and it's spent a lot of time on my AL-1 since then.
 
I-61 L/D, without a doubt. I also got, for around $50, a somewhat battered but clean J-12. An example of its work is attached.
 

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feenej said:
Rokkor-PF MC 135 f2.8; Rokkor-PF MC 100mm f2.5; Minolta MD 35mm f2.8. Minolta Celtic 28mm f2.8. Only $8, $8, $16, and about $50, but I'd put them against any 35mm format lens out there. Never thought I'd be quite this po', but I still got high-grade optics.
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$50 or less, yes, that for me would be a bunch of MC and MD Rokkors, all very very good period, regardless of how little they cost now-a-days.

Real wow though, the J8 to me is a super little lens.
 
In fixed lens rangefinders, any of the small Olympus 35 series lenses are outstanding. The G-Zuiko in the 35SP gets my vote.

In rangefinder lenses, I like the Helios-103 (good reason to get a Kiev) and the Jupiters-8, 12 and 11. The I-61 L/D is also outstanding.

In SLR lenses, I believe that the best deals now are in old Canon glass. Pentax are excellent as well, but compatibility with their digital SLRs is pushing prices up.
 
I would agree with the recommendations for the Pentax SMC Takumar 50/1.4 and the Jupiter 12. While I paid a little more that $50 for each, I was selective and not shopping for bargains. Both lenses do a fine job.

Jim N.
 
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