Need help deciding 50mm and 135mm lens

[Maverick82]

Hi Everyone,

I am a hobbyist photographer and use the Sony A200. Yesterday, I accidentally chanced upon this thread about lens bokeh:

http://forum.mflenses.com/bokeh-of-modern-day-lenses-t776,highlight,bokeh.html

I loved the quality of the images here. Had no clue that some of these lenses were this good. Looked around the forum some more and I was even more amazed.

Now I have decided to get a couple of MF lenses. Currently I am looking for a large aperture normal lens and a telephoto in the range of 135mm. I looked around and found that some of them are really expensive. I don't want to spend a fortune on them. Therefore the question..

Which MF lenses would you suggest for the A200 that would give consistently good quality without breaking the bank?

Thanks a lot everyone.

[Attila]

[Attila]

Nice to see you here!

Almost any MF lenses are good and not expensive.

I think you able to use M42 lenses on your camera. I suggest to take an AF chipped M42 adapter + a few cheap M42 lenses at the beginning.

Helios-44 58mm f2
Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135mm
or Jupiter-11A 135mm or Jupiter-37A etc, etc

You can see many, many samples here in forum gallery and Main Site Gallery http://www.mflenses.com/gallery
Also you can find a lens price guide
http://www.mflenses.com/rokreporter/run.html

[patrickh]

Welcome

Attila is only the first to give you advice- you will probably get a lot more. But he is right - take a look at the galleries on this forum.


patrickh

[ChrisLilley]

The Sony A200 uses Minolta mount, right?

[Attila]

[estudleon]

HI!

In my taste: 50mm : Pancolar 1,8 (If you like 1,4 perhaps SMC TAK)

135mm: CZJ 3,5 .

Good luck.

Rino

[no-X]

Maybe MC Pentacon 50/1.8 wouldn't be bad - it's very cheap (at least in CR), only slightly more expensive than good Helios lenses. But Attila's advice is definetely good.

[Attila]

One thought more , I never seen any bad 135mm and 50mm lenses. These lenses are made in highest volumes and almost every copy is good and cheap.

[Maverick82]

[Maverick82]

Hi Everybody.. Thanks for the warm welcome..

I will be inspecting a Takumar 50mm 1.4 and a Helios 44 today. These were listed in one of the local photography magazines. Will tell you guys, if it works out.

As for the 135mm, it seems difficult to find in these parts (Sydney). So I have been looking at a Pentacon, a Sonnar and a Jupiter on ebay. All of these seem to be held in very high regard and the pictures I have seen with these lens can only be described as exquisite when in the right hands.

Can't wait to get my hands on these old beauties.

Thanks a lot of all the replies.

[Attila]

Good selection , enjoy them!

[spiralcity]

A good 135 M42 lens that wouldnt set you back too much is a 135 EBC Fujinon. This is great glass and actually rivals some of the best glass of it's day. You can get one on ebay anywhere form 120.00 to 150.00 US.

I own an old Opticam M42 2.8. I paid a whopping 8.00 US for it on ebay. It's adequate and dirt cheap.Vivitar makes adequate glass also that you can find very cheap on ebay.

[Maverick82]

Hi Everybody..

Thanks for all the help you guys have provided. Wanted to tell you that I got a Jupiter 135/f4 and a SMC Takumar 50/f1.4

The Jupiter is a really fine lens and I am loving it already.. Here is a pic I took yesterday..



But the Tak seems like a troublesome one. I bought it on ebay. It has fungus on the inside of the rear element. Although, otherwise it is in good shape. I am wondering whether it is worth it to clean it or just return to the seller. The problem is the return shipping cost makes the return un-viable.

What do you guys say? Is the Tak a difficult lens to open? I looked at a couple of sites and the problem seems to be the decorative ring on top. I would have to get the friction rubber tool.

Thanks for you help again.

[themoleman342]

How much did you pay for your sample and which version is it? Great picture too!

[Maverick82]

Hi,

It is the waffle grip version with 8 blades. I paid about $70 for it. It came with a Spotmatic SP and the original leather case. Here is a link to ebay..

Click here to see on Ebay

The picture with the aperture closed makes it look good as the fungus is behind the aperture.

[themoleman342]

http://www.mypentax.com/tak50_1_4.html
It's not to neatest procedure but he seems to get the job done. I've never had to disassemble the rear grouping of elements. It never seemed possible in the many tomioka f1.4s I've taken apart. No pictures or descriptions I've ever seen has told me otherwise. Maybe someone else knows.

On the other hand this guy flat out lied. The lens was/is clearly not "clean". A person saying as-is should not exempt them from this. Confront him. It can't hurt. He should really have to pay for the return shipping. I would usually say skip-it but $70 is $70.

[orly_andico]

It may be possible to remove the rear element without all that pain of going in from the front....

Going in from the front and removing the focusing helical is a sure way to madness. I've ruined a number of lenses that way... usually after you put it back together, the focusing is off, and in your attempts to fix it, the tiny grub screws get destroyed (they are made of brass and are quite soft).

Depending on how bad the fungi is, maybe you can just ignore it?

If the lens has yellowing, you will need to zap it with UV light anyway (see this http://orlygoingthirty.blogspot.com/2008/07/radioactive-thorium-glass.html for details). This will kill the fungus if it's still alive.

Also, the SMC-Tak 50/1.4 is not really that sharp wide-open, so you wouldn't use it wide-open except in special circumstances, like when you need the speed. Other times, you'd be stopped down anyway and the fungus would not affect the image quality.

But I know seeing those little tendrils can drive one crazy -- I cleaned out a 200mm SMC-Tak for that reason even though I didn't have to. And $70 was a lot for just the lens, unless you want to play with the Spotmatic as well.

[Attila]

[orly_andico]

Second that.

I've been playing with some of my lenses and it seems that of the lenses I have, the Jupiter-37AM has the nicest highlight bokeh (even better than my CZ Jena 135/3.5 from which it was supposedly copied). Very slight bright edge.

[Maverick82]

Hi Everyone,

Some good news. I had a chat with the seller. He seems to have known about it all along. He didn't deny it at all. But he agreed to refund $50.

Hmm.. at $20 the lens does not look like a bad deal at all.. Or is it..

I am going to India this weekend. Will take the Tak with me and hopefully clean it there and get some nice pictures with it.

Thanks everyone for the help.