Legacy "standard" zoom lenses with character?

[Damp Cat]

I'm looking for standard range (i.e. going from 24-40mm on the wide end, to 80-100m on the tele end) zoom lenses that have any of the following:

1) interesting flares (think Helios, MIR, or really any of the old single-coated Russian lenses)
2) softness/glow (but not an overwhelming amount of it)

Low contrast would be a plus, as I will primarily be using these for video.

Not a stickler for sharpness or accurate color rendering, but I do dislike 'busier' bokeh characteristics.
Also, the lower the distortion, the better (although I guess distortion is something I have to live with when it comes to legacy lenses, so whatever).

Constant aperture would be lovely too, but if 1) & 2) are convincing enough I can live with variable aperture zooms.

Any recommendations?

[cooltouch]

I recently conducted a comparison of wide angle to short tele zooms. The second post of mine in that thread may be of greatest interest to you (the first post is very long with many photos.). It shows close ups of each zoom at its widest and longest setting at its widest aperture, then f/8, then f/16.

You can find the thread here:

http://forum.mflenses.com/comparison-wa-to-short-tele-zooms-lotsa-pics-t77113.html

Of all the lenses I tested, I tested only two constant aperture zooms: the Canon FD 35-105/3.5 and the Vivitar S1 35-85/2.8. Following are the images of these two lenses, lifted from my second post in the above thread. Unfortunately, for the Vivitar's last set of photos, it was later in the day, so the light had changed but it still gives a good indication of sharpness.

Based on the flare and sharpness (or lack thereof), these two lenses may be what you're looking for, but I'd encourage you to scan through all the lenses in my second post just to be sure.

Canon nFD 35-105/3.5



Vivitar S1 35-85/2.8: