Cheap lenses that wowed you...

02Pilot said:
But by far the best price/performance ratio has to be the uncoated 75/3.8 Zeiss Tessar on my $30 Rolleiflex Old Standard.
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I agree that many MF lens are great value/ratio. $30 for a tessar though can't beat that! i got my tessar automat for 150 and i thought thats cheap.
 
tuanvinh2000 said:
I agree that many MF lens are great value/ratio. $30 for a tessar though can't beat that! i got my tessar automat for 150 and i thought thats cheap.
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To be fair, that Rolleiflex had lived a very hard life - the cosmetics are atrocious. I found it in a dark corner of an antiques shop and made a lowball offer, which was surprisingly accepted. It required a lot of rehabilitation to get it usable, but the mechanicals and optics were in great shape under all the dirt.
 
In my case (all well below US$300)

Jupiter-12 35/2.8 (LTM)
Industar 50/3.5 (LTM)
Color-Skopar 35/2.5 PII (M-mount)
Leitz Elmar 35/3.5 (LTM) (That lens is uncoated but really excelled my expectations!)
Nikkor-H-C 50/2.0 in S-mount
Color-Skopar 21/4.0 in S-mount
 
if you dont mind large adapted medium format lenses, i recently reaquired my all time favorite portrait lens for under $100: the zeiss biometar 120/2.8 in Pentacon 6 mount. mechanically it focuses smooth as silk, and is obviously well made. it renders equally beautifully in color or b&w, very sharp with creamy bokeh. the only issue is the size. if you can deal with it there is imo no equal at 10x's the price. maybe 20x's...i havent seen a 135 that can touch it.
 
Paul Jenkin said:
Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f2.5 Macro. Great for anything from bugs and flowers to portraits and compressing perspective in landscapes. I used one to shoot weddings and portraits years ago- until I could afford the Zuiko 85mm f2. Even then, I kept it for macro and then traded it somewhere down the line.

The 24mm f2.8 Adaptall 2 is also a beautiful piece of glass.

The fact that you can keep the same lenses and just swap the Adaptall mounts to suit a new system was also a major benefit as I went, somewhat foolishly I feel, from OM to Canon FD - but managed to only have to get a 50mm f1.4 instead of having to trade all my glass as well.
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Mentioned lenses I do not own myself, but I can vouch for these:

Adaptall SP 3.5-3.8/24-48mm
Adaptall SP 3.5-4.2/28-80mm
Adaptall 3.8-4.0/70-210mm

and recently I acquired the Adaptall 3.5/75-150mm (model 20A) but I have yet to test it.

I have 4 mounts for Nikon, 1 for Pentax, 2 for Minolta MD and 1 for M42. And a Tamron BBAR 2x tele-extender.

My 28-80mm unfortunately broke, but I'm looking for another one, it was shockingly sharp! Also looking for the 2.5/90mm and its macro-extender, hoping to pick one up cheap soon... fingers crossed!
 
Most of my lenses are purchased $150 or under.

Here are the ones that impressed:
Minolta AF70-210mm f4 beercan.
Jupiter 12 35mm (on the GXR, full of character, Jupiter 8 is good too)
Canon FD 35mm f/2 Concave (Just got it, already very pleased).

At the $400 and under range:

Olympus 85mm f/2
Voigtlander Nokton 35mm 1.4MC (on the GXR)
 
Jeez, there are so many…

SMC Takumar 55mm F/1.8 ~$40
Nikkor 50mm F/2 ~$50
SMC Pentax-A 35mm F/2 ~$175
Olympus OM Zuiko MC 100mm F/2.8 ~$100

Ricoh 500G 40mm F/2.8 ~$40
Minolta Hi-Matic E 40mm F/1.7 ~$50
Konica Hexanon AR 28mm 3.5 ~$40

This is an incomplete list. I'm sure I forgot many other great ones...
 
Most of my lenses were purchased at bargain prices. Bought at the right time for some and got very lucky on others.

M-Rokkor 40mm $220
M-Rokkor 90mm $125
M-Rokkor 28mm $400
Canon 50mm f1.5 $300
Canon 35mm f2.8 $220
CV 25mm f4 $250

Some of my non rangefinder lenses get ridiculusly cheap.
 
Just remembered a couple of great ones. Don't want to forget autofocus lenses!

Nikkor AF-S 50mm 1.8G ~$225
Canon EF 40mm 2.8 STM ~$150
Samsung (!) 20-50mm 3.5-5.6 ~$100

But then, these aren't exactly "vintage"...
 
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