Recommend Me a Wide Manual-Focus Lens

JoeV

Thin Air, Bright Sun
Local time
8:29 PM
Joined
Sep 17, 2006
Messages
2,034
Hi Folks;

I shoot mostly normal-to-wide lenses in micro-4/3, and have several AF Lumix lenses in my kit that I'm happy with. But I also have a 24mm Vivitar Series 5 lens in Minolta MD mount, that lately has seen much use, mainly because I like manual focus lenses so much for video work, and also because it's so nice to have a real aperture ring. Of course, direct manual focus is so much nicer than focus-by-wire, along with an infinity stop and real DOF scales.

But I'd like a wider angle, manual focus-only lens. I'm not sure anything wider than 24mm is easily found in film camera lenses.

I think I'd like to try a modern manual focus lens built for mirrorless cameras. Recommend me a good, fast, wide, manual focus lens, somewhere in the range from 12-20mm. I suspect the selection of brands and lenses might be sparse, but give me some recommendations.

Thanks.

~Joe
 
I'm not sure if adapting RF lenses to your M4/3 body is an option, but the Cosina Voigtlander 21mm F4 lens is good bang-for-the-buck. It's really compact, and for the price, the IQ is very good (I currently own this lens and use it whenever I need a wide-angle 'fix').

I used to own the Carl Zeiss 21mm F2.8 in M-mount, and that was an excellent lens -- but it's considerably more money than the CV 21/4.
 
With my Oly 12mm f/2, I can use the Snap Focus ring to move between autofocus and manual focus. Several benefits, the lens is made for M43 and with the ring pulled back for manual, a depth of field scale is shown. I love the lens.

I know of very few adapted lenses that can provide the quality (in the very wide range area) that a native M43 lens would provide.
 
Back
Top Bottom