Best cheap lenses?

Dajbog · Joined: 01 Jul 2015 Posts: 6

Sorry if this was asked before, but i wonder what lenses you guys consider to be both very cheap and good, i want to get a new lens, but my budget is too tight... Also, what's the best place to buy lenses from? I went to search on eBay, found some, but from US and some of them didn't want/couldn't send to my country, while others charged a bit too much for the shipping (around 40$, and also 12$ some sort of import tax).

I'm mostly interested in something with some nice zoom, or something wide.

Olivier · Expire: 2015-08-06

Hello Dajbog.

To answer you, could you tell us what camera you own, for what kind of photography do you want this lens and at what price is a lens cheap ?

I understand in your question that you would be interested in a zoom. Is this what you're looking for ?
What do you call wide ? Wide is not cheap, and if you have an apsc dslr, full frame wide lenses will not be wide on your camera.

Dajbog · Joined: 01 Jul 2015 Posts: 6

I own a 30D from Canon, but i didn't mention because, well, many of the old lenses also come in M42 mount, i don't shoot only one kind of photography, i do portaits, landscapes, pretty much anything, as photography is a hobby for me.
By wide, i mean something perhaps around 35mm (More like wide-ish), hoped for perhaps some decent 35-80mm.

So, basically, some "all around lens", also, well, within 75$ (I know, i know... but maybe i can find some bargain).

glaebhoerl · Joined: 03 May 2014 Posts: 100 Location: Hungary

The Minolta MD 35-70/3.5 Macro is reported to be very good and is quite affordable, but I don't think it will adapt to EF mount and keep infinity focus without some modification.

On an APS-C sensor (which the 30D has, according to the internet), a 35mm lens will be equivalent to 50mm on full frame (so, not actually wide).

As for cheap: most Russian lenses are, especially in Europe. Worth going to flea markets and the like. Perhaps there might be shops that sell old lenses in the area? There's at least two in Budapest. Get a 58/2 Helios-44 if you don't already have one, for example.

Pontus · Expire: 2016-08-25

Maybe a Olympus OM Zuiko 35-70/f3.6 or if it is too expensive a 35-70/f3.5-4.5
I haven't followed the prices lately though. Check them out on eBay.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

Honestly, if you want something wide for your 30D, I recommend you just get a lens designed for aps-c. My Canon DSLR came with the 18-55mm II zoom, which actually is a good lens, plus it can usually be found for cheap. The II one, not the first version, which isn't nearly as good. It also focuses down extremely close.I've taken some surprising good macro shots with that lens. For more reach, there are literally dozens of good and cheap MF 80-200s or 70-210s out there that can be adapted to Canon EF. Nikon, Pentax K, M42, Contax/ Yashica, even Leica R, but not Leica M, Canon FD, or. Minolta MC/MD.

Lloydy · Expire: 2022-01-01

I have got a Vivitar 35-70 f3.5 in Pentax PK mount, with some fungus but perfectly usable, and in very good condition otherwise that would be very cheap. It's a lens I used a lot and liked, but I now have better ones. Also a Minolta 35-70 f3.5 Macro in excellent condition, clean glass and the correct lens hood, obviously in Minolta MD mount. It's a superb lens, but I have two of them. I think I could sell it inside your budget.
But, I'm not a Canon man so I'm not sure how well PK or MD mount lenses work on a EOS.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

PK work fine with EOS. No infinity loss with an adapter. Minolta MC/MD you lose infinity with a glassless adapter, and you have degraded images with one with the corrective glass element.

I've never used Minolta MC/MD lenses on my EOS, but I have used Canon FD lenses on it with one of the FD-EOS adapters. With the corrective element removed, it's really useful only for close-focus stuff. Like maybe 6 feet (say 2 meters) or closer, unless you're using a long telephoto that focuses past infinity. With my Canon nFD 400mm f/4.5, I was able to focus out to about 30 meters with the corrective element removed from the adapter. With corrective element in place, my Fotodiox FD-EOS adapter actually handles the flare that occurs when a lens is opened up much past f/3.5 much better than others (I have a Bower brand that doesn't handle it well at all), and once the lens is stopped down past f/3.5, image degradation is negligible. Still I don't recommend going this route. Not when you can pick up an EF-S 18-55 II IS for less than $100US. One nice thing about this lens is 18mm ~ 28mm on a 35mm camera. Here's a 100% crop of a macro shot I took with my EOS XS and EF-S 18-55 II IS @ ISO 100 (flower petals, in case you were wondering):

Olivier · Expire: 2015-08-06

I agree with Michael about the EF 18-55 II IS, which means it is stabilised.

I owned a 40D. Pentax Pk is ok for mounting on Canon 30D. MD, no.
The sensor size of canon apsc gives a coefficient of x1,6 for full frame equivalence.
So, a 35-80mm makes a 56-128mm on the 30D.
That's not wide but the range is interesting for all purpose walk-around.
I advice the excellent Tamron adaptall 35-80mm.

For wide, you have to get a 20mm, for instance the Zeiss Flektogon 20mm f4, or a 24mm. But they're not cheap...

marcusBMG · Joined: 07 Dec 2012 Posts: 1304 Location: Conwy N Wales

1. where to buy?
Europe. You are in the EU, no duty or complications. And ebay, like it or not, is the main marketplace.
2. What to buy?
A few general thoughts:
- prime lenses rather than zoom lenses tend to offer the selling points price, bang for buck, optical quality, distinctive character, fast f stops.
- some vintage zoom lenses have a good reputation and cachet like vivitar series 1, tamron adaptall, but generally speaking modern zooms are better, the technology has advanced. However there are many older zooms that are good enough and can be got for peanuts.
- OEM lenses generally higher quality but higher price. Then the big independent manufacturers tokina, Tamron, Sigma. Independent reseller marques (like sirius, prinz-galaxy, optomax, photax etc etc etc there are hundreds of them they just badged lenses made by others) generally not rated highly.
- Those of us "in the know" have learnt that, for example, lenses from the former soviet bloc can be very good.
- Canon is the best dslr for adapting old lenses with obsolete mounts. You can put Nikon F, Contax-Yashica, Pentax K, Olympus OM on canon with cheap adapters. Problem mounts are old canon CFD and Minolta MD due to the registration distances.

A reliable bet to get you started: tamron adaptall. Easy to pick up and try. Easy to sell again without losing out particularly as long as you've been reasonably smart in your buying. In fact I have a very nice 28-80mm SP 27A for sale... yours for just 50 euro Smile

Olivier · Expire: 2015-08-06

Tamron SP 28-80mm is a good lens for sure. Smile

Tamron SP 24-48mm is very good either, but more difficult to find.
You also have the Tamron SP 28-135mm which is interesting.

You use the search button to find some samples.
28-135mm on 5DMkII
http://forum.mflenses.com/tamron-ad2-28a-sp-4-4-5-28-135-t36118,highlight,%2Btamron+%2Bsp+%2B35.html
http://forum.mflenses.com/tamron-28-135mm-f4-4-5-t43571,highlight,%2Btamron+%2Bsp+%2B35.html
28-135mm on Apsc (400D)
http://forum.mflenses.com/tamron-sp-28-135mm-f4-4-5-t43603,highlight,%2Btamron+%2Bsp+%2B35.html

35-80mm on 40D
http://forum.mflenses.com/tamron-ad2-01a-sp-35-80mm-f2-8-3-8-macro-t28247,highlight,%2Btamron+%2Bsp+%2B35.html
35-80mm on 5DMkII with doubler
http://forum.mflenses.com/tamron-sp-01a-35-80mm-f2-8-3-8-and-doubler-01f-t37612,highlight,%2Btamron+%2Bsp+%2B35.html
without doubler
http://forum.mflenses.com/roses-survivors-tamron-35-80mm-f2-8-3-8-t34786,highlight,%2Btamron+%2Bsp+%2B35.html

24-48mm on 5DMkII
http://forum.mflenses.com/tamron-sp-24-48mm-f3-5-3-8-5d-mark-ii-t67475,highlight,%2Btamron+%2Bsp+%2B35.html

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

And so is the SP 35-80 you mentioned earlier. According to the old Modern Photography tests that can be found at adaptall-2.org, it has outstanding resolution and contrast. Some of the highest numbers I've ever seen for any sort of lens, whether zoom or prime.

Dajbog · Joined: 01 Jul 2015 Posts: 6

Woah, you guys were very helpful! Thanks alot! I will start digging a bit later and try to make a final decision.

Again, thanks for the help!

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7554 Location: Hong Kong

Get a barely used Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM. It may be a bit slow and not durable as the old zooms, but it has good sharpness, auto-focus and useful IS.

Pancolart · Expire: 2013-11-18

Try Tokina RMC zooms. It is important you find healthy ones without major haze.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Some Tokina zooms are good (the 4/80-200, AT-X 28-85, AT-X 28-135 for instance) but not all, in fact, most old zooms from that era are not very good.

If you want very good quality then a set of primes such as 28mm, 50mm and 135mm will serve you far better than an old zoom.

If you don't have a 50mm prime, that should always be the first purchase imho.

As to which 50mm prime, that's hard to suggest as almost all are very good. Better to stick to the major makers rather than the smaller third party makers like Cosina and Chinon as they had poor QC and therefore the quality of their lenses is all over the place, from very good to uselessly bad.

lucca1x · Joined: 09 Feb 2014 Posts: 93 Location: Romania

I know that so many suggestions can be confusing. Even so, if you are new to MF and want to experiment, my opinion is that you should first try a cheap, clean Helios 58mm. You can find a lot of them in Bucuresti and you�ll be able to buy a CLEAN one for 70-120 RON (15-35 USD). You will also need a m42-eos adapter with focus confirmation; that is arround 40-50RON (10-13 USD) and you have a nice to play with, manual lens. On you camera the 58 will act as a 90 mm on ff. If you will like to work with MF and get used to focus through the 30d�s viewfinder, you can get back here and ask for more advices on future lenses. The guys here are always very helpful.
I also agree with Ian that you should stick with prime lenses, if you decide to use MF.

tb_a · Expire: 2019-08-28

JJB · Joined: 02 Oct 2014 Posts: 424 Location: USA

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

BTW, that Konica Zoom-Hexanon 28-135 is the same lens as the Tokina AT-X 28-135 I mentioned earlier.

I agree, it's one of the best zooms from that period, very sharp indeed.

marcusBMG · Joined: 07 Dec 2012 Posts: 1304 Location: Conwy N Wales

DigiChromeEd · Joined: 29 Dec 2009 Posts: 3462 Location: Northern Ireland

marcusBMG · Joined: 07 Dec 2012 Posts: 1304 Location: Conwy N Wales

My standard advice to the regular "what vintage lens..." qq.

1. A "nifty fifty". I know you suggested zooms but as already mentioned modern zooms are generally better, and your kit lens does more than just about all vintage mf zooms (specifically wide angle). However a lens like the pentax smc-m 50mm f1.7, easily acquirable for less than 50$/€ is superior in IQ to any kit lens and more than three stops faster. So thats two big plusses over the kit lens. The distinctive helios has already been mentioned - good iq and distinctive bokeh.

2. A macro lens. The tamron adaptall SP 90mm is the most easily obtainable and best value - not too difficult to find one for less than 100$/€. Close focus, high IQ, versatile: portrait, landscape as well as macro.

3. Cheap telephotos. Want to try a bit of birding etc without spending any money? Classic 400mm like the tokyo koki and the vivitar/soligor's can be acquired and with care and practice can deliver very acceptable results.

3a. Follow on from above: mirror lenses are interesting but quirky. Tamron or tokina I suggest - and avoid the new made in China ones off amazon etc.

4. With more experience and insight, particular lenses that offer something distinctive, particular quality, exeptional value, just something different...

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

As marcus says.

Almost all 50-55mm f/2 - 1.4 lenses of the film era are excellent at f/2
And since they were "kit lenses" of the time, they are extremely common and cheap.

Almost any 135mm - 200mm primes of the same era are good, or good enough. Also very cheap.

Long zooms can be great. Look for Tamrons, especially the 80-210 103a or 70-210 46a. But there are many decent 80-200 or 75-150 (more or less) from popular brands like Vivitar and Soligor. These are usually very cheap.

Wide angles are a problem. There are some very good and cheap 28mm and 35mm primes, but modern AF kit lenses tend to be better.

aidaho · Joined: 29 Apr 2018 Posts: 456 Location: Ukraine

The best price/performance ratio I've seen so far was from Helios 44-M6 58/2 (Valday), 1993.

Very good wide open sharpness, formidable flare resistance, unique OOF rendering. All for $20-$30.
Even if it was $50 with all shipping and handling costs, it wouldn't be easy to beat that.