Your underrated lenses

[splitimageview]

I would not call the 43mm 1.9 under rated by any measure. 😀

 

[Pioneer]

Argus 50mm Coated Cintar f/3.5

Renders quite nicely.

I love this neat little lens. Our hobby does not always have to be complicated. I am always reminded that even simple triplets can be wonderfully capable lenses. Thank you for reminding me.

 

[Godfrey]

I've always tended to buy lenses (or cameras with fixed lenses) that had good reputations so few of my lenses have ever been "underrated". About the closest I come to a lens with that description was my old favorite Nikkor 35mm f/2 AIS, which many people at that time (what, early '80s?) seemed to regard as an underperformer ... Never seemed that way to me, I made thousands of photos with it, sold many of them, and no one has ever said anything about the lens performance in my photos being sub-par.

G

 

[jesse1dog]

Mounted on my Lumix GM1 with a helicoid for focus I have to agree that the Argus 50mm f3.5 coated Cintar is a lot of fun and has produced more than just interesting photographs for me. Not too sure that its worthwhile going out buying one but then who can rubbish a lens if it gives you that 'fun' element.
( I wound masking tape round the barrel to fit it into the helicoid.)

 

[38Deardorff]

The 3.5cm f3.5 Elmar is a very underrated lens. I paid $75 on Ebay for this one. I no longer have it since i trimmed down my collection of 35mm lenses. But i got very good results from it.

 

[Erik van Straten]

gelatin silver print (nikkor h auto 50mm f2) nikkormat ftn

Amsterdam 2016

 

[Larry H-L]

The Nikon Series E 50mm and 100mm, both very good. And lightweight.

The m4/3 Olympus pancake 17mm f2.8 kit lens, usually panned on websites but my copy is excellent with great color rendition.

The Leica M Tele-Elmar 135mm f4, difficult to use with only a rangefinder patch but on a mirrorless camera, OMG is that lens sharp. Cheap for a Leitz lens.

 

[Zuiko-logist]

The Nikon Series E 50mm and 100mm, both very good. And lightweight.

The m4/3 Olympus pancake 17mm f2.8 kit lens, usually panned on websites but my copy is excellent with great color rendition.

The Leica M Tele-Elmar 135mm f4, difficult to use with only a rangefinder patch but on a mirrorless camera, OMG is that lens sharp. Cheap for a Leitz lens.

Yes, the E 35 is also good, and compact.

 

[rfaspen]

I seem to have good success with the tele- elmar on an old fashioned visoflex. I use a v III viso....also works well on the bellows II but that setup can give me stray light reflection in certain cases....a deficiency of the bellows, not lens.

 

[Godfrey]

The 3.5cm f3.5 Elmar is a very underrated lens. I paid $75 on Ebay for this one. I no longer have it since i trimmed down my collection of 35mm lenses. But i got very good results from it.
...

You remind me of my other so-called underperformer: the Leica Hektor 135mm f/4.5. The first one of these I used was my father's: he had it set up with Visoflex mount on his IIIf and used it to record the dental reconstruction work he did. I bought one again, thirty or so years later, because I saw it in a listing for under $185 (finding the correct lens hood and cap was almost as much!), this time in M-mount, and have used it on various Ms over the past ten years.

Yellow Jacket Trap & Fence - Santa Clara 2023
Leica M10 Monochrom + Hektor 135mm f/4.5, Green filter


Leica M10-M + Hektor 135mm f/4.5​

Can't say as I see much wrong with it. The biggest challenge is learning how to accurately focus a 135mm lens with a rangefinder ... It's much easier to critically focus using the EVF, although I didn't for this photo. 😉

G