Set of lenses on a budget for APS-C format?

RAART · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2014 8:34 am Post subject:

Some suggestions that it might give you what you are looking for...

Konica 28mm 3.5 or Olympus
Canon FDn 50mm 1.4 or FD
Konica 135mm 3.2 or Mamiya Sekor Auto 2.8 (M42)

That's what comes to my mind right away... I never compared those to newer lenses but they will give you quality at low price. I really like Konica Hexanon lenses line and will not part with them even I can not use them on my Pentax bodies. At some point I will replace my old PL1 for Sony but until then no use for some great manual glass but I still enjoy all M42 lenses currently.

Have fun!

dnas · Joined: 14 Nov 2008 Posts: 488 Location: Japan

There are quite a few options without stabilizer.

For APS-C my suggestion is NEX & Canon M. Canon M is underrated, and works well with MF lenses. You also have the option of mounting Canon EF lenses via a Canon electronic adapter (or 3rd party equivalent) which is quite cheap.

For NEX or A7, again you can use a Sony electronic adapter. The LEA4 adapter has full phase detection AF, and while not cheap, it allows you to use all of the Sony AF lenses, and MOST of the Minolta AF lenses.

So far as MF lenses go, I suggest for good, cheap lenses:

- Canon nFD 50mm F1.4 or the Canon FD 50mm F1.4 ssc
- Minolta MD 50mm F3.5 Macro
- Canon FD 100mm F4 Macro
- Minolta MD 135mm F2.8
- Minolta MC 200mm F3.5

And not so cheap:
- Nikon AI-s 105mm F2.5
- Canon FD 400mm F4.5 ssc
- Canon nFD 200mm F2.8 or Canon FD 200mm F2.8 ssc
- Nikon AI-s 35mm F2
- Minolta MD 100mm F4 Macro
- Minolta MD 85mm F2
- Canon nFD 20mm F2.8

For NEX or A7 AF with LEA4 adapter:
- Minolta AF 24mm F2.8
- Minolta AF 50mm F1.4

Cheap zooms:
- Minolta AF 24-85mm
- Minolta AF 28-105mm

secludedsea · Joined: 01 Oct 2014 Posts: 82 Location: Adelaide, Australia

Modern kit zooms benefit from modern optical designs. They are, in general, far better than just about any cheapo MF lens. There are plenty of top quality old MF lenses, but be prepared to pay for them. They are not dirt cheap anymore. As for a focal recucer: Putting glass of any sort, be it a reducer, a filter or teleconverter, in front of or behind your nice glass will degrade your image quality. You can go out and buy a great quaslity Flektogon, for example, and appreciate the character of the lens. But stick a piece of glass behind it witht a focal reducer and you've just lost a lot of that character in compromised glass!
You don't need Full Frame to get the best out of glass by the way. In fact, on a crop sensor you'll be using the very best part of most old lenses anyway! On my Olympus Pen, I can use a Helios and always use the best part of the glass due to the sensor size. I don't see the fuzzy corners. Similar on APS-C.
So, you want image quality from MF glass? Stick with a crop sensor camera. Sure, the wide end is compromised, but photography is about compromises too. You can't have everything.
I like MF lenses for characater, ergonomics and just for something different and fun. If you want great image quality without blowing the bank, stick to modern AF glass. Modern glass benefits from decades of optical design and science; even the kit zooms. I don't know about Canon, but Nikon modern cheap glass is preatty fantastic in terms of quality. Just how much pixel peeping do you want to do and how big do you want to print?
These are all important questions to know the answers to if you want a strategy.

SonicScot · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 1:00 pm Post subject:

Newfie · Joined: 04 Mar 2014 Posts: 242 Location: Austin, Texas