Which is your favorite 28mm lens for street photography with an slr ?

[DownUnder]

(Oop. I did my (far too usual) old trick and posted a comment in the wrong thread! I'll move it to where it belongs now, and post something else here about the sensational (to me anyway) Nikon 28/2.8.

Of all the Nikon 28's available on the used market, I've found the one to be wary of is the old Nikon 28/2.8 Series E. I've owned two of these in my time and neither was even a close match to the Nikkor 28 F-mount, AI or AIS. Others I know who have also used the Series E lens agree with this.

So the old Series E lenses should be avoided or at the very least thoroughly tested before you buy. The exception to this is the 50/1.8 which I've been told, seems to be a good user lens even on modern digital cameras.

 

[DownUnder]

A truly masterful image, this. It has a timeless quality to it.

Young-uns' grow up so quickly. You blink a few times, and fire off a few frames, and before you know it they are adults and out of home and off to live their own lives.

This is a family treasure, to be sure.

 

[wlewisiii]

A Nikon 28/2.8 D. One of these lovelies lives permanently on each of my two D800s. They are my best walkabout lenses.

I also have an old Nikon F mount 28/3.5 Nikkor and a 28/2.8 Zeiss (made in Japan) Biogon G on my Nikkormat FT and my Contax G1.

A Nikon 35/2.0 spends time on my D700 but I rarely use either now. It's a beaut lens for street work or when I was a 'tighter' image.

So yes, I'm a 28 addict... A 2- or 3-lens kit with 28 and maybe an 85 or if I want to go whole telephoto hog a 180, would most likely satisfy me for life.

I do wish I had realised this last point in the '70s, the $$ I could have saved. (Sighs, resists the urge to puke.)

28/50/90(ish 85 ~ 105) is my usual prime kit whatever the camera so I feel for you 🙂

 

[gzisis69]

Thank you all for your suggestions and beautiful photos. I am thinking of getting back to Pentax since its the brand i started my journey and always feels like home. Here are some of my photos with a 28mm 2.8 smc lens. Great lens to handle but not so sharp. Between Pentax Takumar 28mm/3.5 , 28mm m 3.5smc, 28mm f2 smc m which one would you choose ?

 

[p.giannakis]

Thank you all for your suggestions and beautiful photos. I am thinking of getting back to Pentax since its the brand i started my journey and always feels like home. Here are some of my photos with a 28mm 2.8 smc lens. Great lens to handle but not so sharp. Between Pentax Takumar 28mm/3.5 , 28mm m 3.5smc, 28mm f2 smc m which one would you choose ?

I used to have the first version of the 28f/3.5 with the bigger front element (58mm) and I liked it better than the later (second version) 28f/3.5 (49mm) which I also had for a short while. It was more prone to flare but pictures looked more ... vintage (?).

The later 28f3.5 smc is the same design as the 28f3.5 (49mm).

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I am looking for a new film slr to use with 28mm for street photography. The body is not very important since every brand has very good cameras and i will mostly use a small one. Id like a small 28mm lens that has very good optical quality is small and is easy to zone focus between close( 0.6-0.7m) medium ca 1,5m and 00+. What do you use most for street ?

"Very good cameras" ... at my end of the film photography I liked Nikon EM. Small and very efficient film SLR for the street. Results oriented camera, got most of in-explore per exposures with it.

I had Nikkor 35 3.5 and Vivitar 28 f2 in this mount. Both were just awesome, but I hold to Vivitar bit longer.
Not a big lens at all. But not softie.

My absolutely the best on non-AF slr was Vivitar 2.8 2.8 for FTb version. I whish I remember exact version. It wasn't common version. High definition lens, close focus.

Most awful is one I have now, Vivitar 28 2.8 for Pentax.

Zone focusing on the street is done by the focus tab. Use cable tie to turn any lens into zone focusing lens for the street.

 

[x-ray]

I’d suggest a Nikon FE or FE2 with the 28 f2.8 AIs as well. I have an FE and the AIs 28 and it’s a great combination.

Each version of the 28 had a different formula with the AIs reputed as the best. It’s an excellent lens but I haven’t used the other versions so I can’t compare.

I’m a huge fan of the Nikkor 24 f2.8 AIS and as much as I love it the 28 AIs is a bit better. The 24 is another lens that has gone through 4 or so reformulations. I’ve owned 3 versions and still use the AIs version but the 28 beats it.

 

[p.giannakis]

Each version of the 28 had a different formula with the AIs reputed as the best. It’s an excellent lens but I haven’t used the other versions so I can’t compare.

Mine is beaten to death with many deep scratches yet it can still pull out great pics

 

[santino]

Probably the Minolta 28mm 3,5 because of its small size. When it comes to quality I prefer the CY 25mm Distagon (but it is not a 28mm).

 

[Mark C]

Thank you all for your suggestions and beautiful photos. I am thinking of getting back to Pentax since its the brand i started my journey and always feels like home. Here are some of my photos with a 28mm 2.8 smc lens. Great lens to handle but not so sharp. Between Pentax Takumar 28mm/3.5 , 28mm m 3.5smc, 28mm f2 smc m which one would you choose ?

I had the little 28 f2.8 k mount Pentax lens that sells at low prices, and quickly realized why. There is no reason you couldn't make great pictures with that lens, but edge performance is really lousy. Reports are pretty consistent.

The old 28 f3.5 Takumar in screw mount is the opposite, inexpensive and astonishingly good. Mine is marked Super Multicoated Takumar. When I went to check just now it was on an adapter for Leica M. It is a tiny slr lens, but seems huge on the Leica mount. Still, I haven't found any of the usual suspect inexpensive Leica thread or M mount lenses that are even in the same league as this lens, so keep using it.

I've also thought about using it on a Pentax body with a rangefinder type bright line finder for the type of pictures you are talking about. My version comes coded with a snapshot/hyperfocal setting; you just line up the orange f8 and 10 feet marks with the orange distance indicator mark. Ko.Fe.'s idea for a wire tie tab might make it even better. There is also a commonly available rectangular lens hood that I always thought was cool, though I don't use it when on the Leica. The lens coatings do a good job on their own.

 

[Rayt]

Presumably you will stop down the lens in order to zone up close around 1.5 meters? Then it really doesn’t matter which brand. I personally prefer cheap undervalued lenses and can recommend Konica AR 28mm any version. However Konica SLR bodies suck because they are shutter priority. I’ll recommend Konica if you plan to adapt them to digital and they cover medium format. My second choice would be Zeiss CY and then OLYMPUS OM for the size but really it doesn’t matter.

 

[Deleted member 65559]

The later Pentax 28mm f/3.5 Super Takumar as well as the S-M-C and SMC versions with the 49mm front ring are fairly compact and excellent lenses. The wide angle Takumars have the best depth of field scales of any lenses I have ever used, with clear markings for hyperfocal distance at f/8. (Below photo is a 35mm f/3.5 Super Tak, not a 28mm, but the 28mm is similar.)

View attachment 4837297

The Pentax M42 bodies are reasonably priced, well made, and reliable.

The 35mm 3.5 is incredibly sharp. I use one on an S1a. At the same time, if you value a built-in meter and small size, the Mx/Me are a joy to use. I don't think for street shooting that soft edges wide open is a big deal.... the 28mm 2.8 M is tiny and more than sharp enough when stopped down.

 

[agentlossing]

My favorite 28mm for an SLR is 31mm...

The Pentax HD FA 31mm f1.8 Limited, that is!

 

[x-ray]

Mine is beaten to death with many deep scratches yet it can still pull out great pics

View attachment 4837367

View attachment 4837368

View attachment 4837369

I think you’ve got to have some pretty major gouges and scratches before you’ll see and degradation. I had a 100 year old view camera lens, a B&L triple convertible Protar VIIa 12” for my 8x10, that had a gouge out of the center of the front element that looked like someone had put a screw driver on it an whacked it with a hammer. I was major but it didn’t seem to hurt my images. I shot many nice images over a couple of decades.

 

[DownUnder]

28/50/90(ish 85 ~ 105) is my usual prime kit whatever the camera so I feel for you 🙂

Obviously, different strokes for different folks... At least we agree on the cameras and the lenses, which is a good thing, all '28' things considered.

 

[Doug]

My favorite 28mm for an SLR is 31mm...

The Pentax HD FA 31mm f1.8 Limited, that is!

Dittos! A real winner. IIRC it was the only lens I used on a cruise through the Caribbean and Panama Canal.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Just posted an apples-to-crabapples comparison of the Pentax 28/3.5 Takumar M42 (1960's) with a just received yesterday C/V 28/2.8 Ultron in AiS mount.

Nikon Z8 w/Adapted Lenses (Leica M+R, Pentax, Konica etc.)

 

[tcmx3]

Both the Olympus 28mm f2.0 and Nikon 28mm f2.0 AI-S have close focus correction systems that significantly improve their performance. The latter is sharper, even on film you can see that it was one of the very, very best lenses from the manual focus era. The 28/2.0 OM lens is obviously a stop faster and tiny for what it is. These days I prefer the AIS lens because I prefer Nikon bodies.

But neither is small. The OM 28/3.5 is likely the best combination of small, cheap and good you will find. It has quite low global contrast and less than ideal flare resistance unfortunately.