Sharp lens for general use

[Hadia]

Hello there. I am a newbie if it comes to vintage manual lenses, but I am learning slowly. I wanted to ask what do You think about Tokina at-x 28-85mm? I am looking for a lens which will take great landscape pictures and a lens which is quite wide and for macro.
I own Vivitar 70-150 which I snapped for £5 and I love this lens although it can't focus to infinity and I dont know if this is because its with adapter and it affects that?I use Canon 700d with PK to Eos adapter.
But anyway, that lens is amazing but it covers small area and I want to take wider photos, sharp.
Thank you.

[peterqd]

Hello and welcome Hadia.

Almost any lens can be used on your Canon with the right adapter, but as you already have a PK adapter I think it would be best for now if you concentrate on PK mount lenses.

I'm not sure whether you're looking for a landscape lens AND a macro lens, or one lens that does both. Assuming you mean the latter, I would suggest a good place to start is a Vivitar f2.8 28mm close focus, which won't cost too much. It's not too sharp at 2.8, but it really shines at 5.6-11. Click on the picture to see.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VIVITAR-28MM-F2-8-MC-CLOSE-FOCUS-MANUAL-WIDE-ANGLE-LENS/203163283267?hash=item2f4d79af43:g:lh0AAOSwtCBfnwKn

[papasito]

Options.
28/2,8 MDIII, nFD, OM, M, Ais

50/1,4 MDIII, nFD, OM, M, Ais

In one lens, MDIII 35/70 MACRO.

[Hadia]

Hello, thank you for information. I want two separate lenses.
I think I have 28Mm in my basket as well and that what I mentioned 28-85 Tokina with PK mount. I also have Pentacon 28mm and Ricoh XR 50mm f2.

I just need to pick one for now, that's why I am not really sure which one.
But.. On the other hand I have 50mm 1.8 already (canon one).

[caspert79]

Minolta MD 35mm f/2.8.

[blotafton]

Generally you won't get great photos with vintage zooms from a technical standpoint. I don't know about the Tokina But of course there are several good zooms out there. I like the ones from Minolta, 35-70mm 3.5 macro and 70-210mm f4 but they are out of the question for Canon. Vivitar 28-90mm is quite ok.

If your lens does not reach infinity either the adapter is good and the lens is the issue. Or the adapter is a bit too thick. Could also be both. To test you need another adapter or other lenses to try on the adapter.

[D1N0]

The Tamron Adaptall-2 35-70mm F/3.5 Model 17A is a nice lens. Not super wide but a good performer and can be found cheap. You can get Adaptall to Canon EF adapters for cheap. Wide angle is always going to be a problem on aps-c because you need a 18mm for 28mm equivalent. On canon more like 17mm. So I would advise you to either get a dedicated Canon Aps-c lens for wide angle (or switch to full frame if you want to use a lot of legacy glass)

[DigiChromeEd]

http://forum.mflenses.com/tokina-at-x-f-3-5-4-5-28-85mm-close-focus-zoom-t59239,highlight,%2Btokina+%2Batx.html

http://forum.mflenses.com/vivitar-28mm-close-focus-t29272,highlight,%2Bvivitar+%2B28mm+%2Bclose+%2Bfocus.html

[marcusBMG]

This is my standard answer to the "what vintage lens" question:

1. "Nifty fifty". The 50mm "kit" lenses sold with 35mm fim cameras give eye-similar field of view on full frame, more portrait-like moderate telephoto on apsc. Their immediate advantages over typical 18-55mm/similar digital kit lens are speed (F1.7/1.8 is typical vs f5.6 - more than 3 stops advantage) and IQ (the competitive market meant that manufacturers didn't want to be considered inferior, and even by the 1970's the design of lenses of this focal length was well understood and well refined). And final advantage - price. These can be picked up for the price of a coffee and cake. My smc-a 50mm f1.7 is my most used lens.

2. Quality macro. Close focus photography is an obvious photographic avenue to go down and while you can certainly do surprisingly well for many things (ebay pics with my G1 + 14-42mm kit lens + CF filter) with eg a close focus filter on your digital kit lens, there's not much to beat the genuine article - typically 90mm/100mm/105mm lens with focus to 1:2 or 1:1 reproduction. AF is much less useful in macro, the camera doesn't really know exactly where you want your plane of focus so the MF vs AF arguement is much less pertinent. Vivitar (a number of different ones by different manufacturers) and tamron are the most common, tamron tend to be the best value, not difficult get one of the adaptall 90mm for around a hundred bucks or even less.
Also 90mm is ideal portrait focal length on apsc, and the tack sharp iq makes them great landscape lenses.

3. (Other) Quality primes. eg 135mm - this was also a very popular focal length and a well refined optical design meaning you rarely go wrong with one - high iq. OEM (inc takumars, pentax smc's ) and Soviet era lenses like Jupiter, Tair, Carl Zeiss Jena are immediate suggestions.
One caveat: wide angle in the digital era has definitely improved beyond the norm of the film era (as a simple generalisation), and there can be issues with vintage 24mm/28mm like field curvature on digital. Still worth judiciously seeking out the plums mind you, and 28mm is approx like a standard lens on apsc.

4. Telephotos. While modern big lenses really are radically good - superior to their predecessors - if you'd rather spend $50 instead of $5000 there is lots of choice. Tokina was the most prolific manufacturer of old tp's under both their own labels and as vivitars and many other brands. OEM tp's tend to be superior eg Canon cfd mount lenses, pentax smc lenses, but prices are higher. You can also seek out interesting uncommon ones like the tamron "nestar" 400mm f6.9, or the Itoh made 400mm f6.3

5. Lenses of particular interest/character. Mirror lenses are one of the first to come to mind in this category, tamrons are the ones to go for, Soviet ones like Rubinar or MTO can also be very good and interesting (avoid cheap new ones off amazon). Then there are lenses known for eg bubble or swirly bokeh (helios for the latter).

6. Iconic/historic zooms. As per comment re wide angles, modern zooms as a rule are simply better. But it's still worth seeking out the plums, indeed that's the game! Vivitar series 1, tamron adaptalls, contax/zeiss, OEM lenses that can be adapted* to your system etc.

A Top 10 lenses loosely based on my own usage.
1. Pentax smc-a 50mm f1.7
2. Tamron SP 90mm macro
3. Tamron SP 350/500mm f5.6/f8
4. Tokina/vivitar 17mm f3.5
5. Tamron SP 24-48mm
6. Jupiter 135mm
7. Tamron SP 300mm f2.8
8. Kiron "zoomlock" 70-210mm f4
9. Helios 58mm f2
10. Sigma superwide ii 24mm

*Note that you can easily adapt M42, PK, Nik F, OM and Contax/Yashica mounts to canon dslr with simple and cheap adapters. MD, Konica, Practica are more problematic: an adapter with a correction lens is required to keep infinity focus. And old canon CFD lenses are the most difficult - yeah thats what canon did to their customer base when they switched mounts in the mid 1980's!

[cooltouch]

As always, Marcus has provided you with some good, detailed advice.

Maybe I missed it as I was scanning through the messages, but what's your budget? Be aware that, with the resurgence in interest in manual focus lenses, many that used to be dirt cheap no longer are so. But there are still a few bargains to be had. But I don't think you'll find a one-size-fits all lens that is reasonably good in any of fhe areas you're interested in. Too many compromises have to be made.

As for macro, Marcus's recommendation for the Tamron SP 90mm f/2.5 is a good one. This is an exceptionally sharp lens and can still be found on the used market for reasonable sums.

Another great macro lens that can be had for a steal these days is the Nikon 55mm f/3.5 Micro. Current eBay listings are in the $35-50 range. This is one of the sharpest lenses I've ever used, only very slightly less sharp than the Tamron 90mm. But as sharp as it is, the 55mm f/2.8 Micro is even better. So if you can find a 55/2.8 for reasonable, I recommend you strongly consider it.

As for wide to short tele zooms, my favorite since the early 1980s has been the Vivitar Series 1 28-90mm f/2.8-3.5. The later Series 1 28-105 is made be a different maker and isn't as good.

I agree with Marcus about the Tamron SP 24-80. It is a very compact lens, about the same size as your typical 70s vintage 50mm f/1.4. -The Vivitar Series 1 24-48 is also an excellent choice. It is very sharp, but the technology is older than the Tamron's and it is bigger and heavier.

For a short tele to long tele zoom, the best I've ever used that reaches 300mm is the Tokina AT-X 100-300mm f/4. This is an impressively sharp lens, even wide open at 300mm.

The best shorter focal range, in the 80-200mm range, that I've ever used is the Tamron SP 80-200mm f/2.8 LD. At 200mm its sharpness rivals that of Nikon's wonderful 180mm f/2.8 ED AIs. NO small feat.

Good luck in your quests.

[visualopsins]

MD lenses have too short register distance to mount on Canon 700D....

[jamaeolus]

Olympus OM 28mm 2.8, is good and inexpensive. Adapters under 10.00. Pentacon 29mm is m42 and is good. Pentax SMC 28mm 3.5 is excellent IMHO. I don't own the PK versions but they are supposed to be very good. Good older wide lenses tend to be expensive, and the crop sensor on the 700d exacerbates that problem as with a crop sensor you are only using the center of the image circle. If you truly like to take good wide images your best options are either save up for a FF camera, save up for a more modern lens designed for a crop sensor or learn to stitch images. Stitching will be by far the least expensive.

[Lightshow]

Yes, the Minolta lenses won't adapt to your Canon.

The crop factor of the APS-C sensor in your camera makes wide lenses not so wide anymore, so for a wide lens, you'll probably want something in the 21mm or wider range, Tokina 17mm would be a good option (17mmx1.6=27.2mm equivalent), if you want wider, you'll be better off with a FF camera or native wide lens like the EF-S 10-18.

I would recommend sticking to one mount at the start to get your feet wet

I'm not sure what's going on with your lens not reaching infinity, it could easily be the lens or the adapter, I'd recommend buying a different brand adapter to see if it will cure the issue, if it doesn't, it doesn't hurt to have multiple thin adapters because they can live on the lens and don't add much to the lenses size.

If the new adapter doesn't change anything, then it's likely the lens is the issue, you could try a 3rd adapter from a different manufacturer (not a waste as I usually have 3 lenses with me, wide/normal/tele) adapters are not that expensive, I'd even order them at the same time and some EF rear caps(get good ones, I bought cheap ones that were too loose).

If your new lenses work fine( to infinity) then since you didn't pay that much for your lens, I'd consider finding a replacement, posting some pics of the lens and from the lens so we can help diagnose what's causing the loss of infinity(the focus ring does stop at the infinity mark, correct?

I would hop onto eBay and search for some PK mount lenses keeping in mind that Pentax focuses the opposite direction of most other brands, mixing focus directions can cause some confusion when swapping lenses, so I'd stick to the same direction at this time which means 3rd party lenses like Tokina, Tamron, Sigma, Vivitar, etc...
A Vivitar Series 1 28-90/:2.8-3.5 is one of the few zooms I have and like, the other is my Leica R 35-70/3.4(no close focus).

You can also double check the adapter with a 2nd and 3rd lens, the odds they will all be off is much less.

You'll want to avoid Konica AR, Minolta SR (MC/MD), Canon FD/FL, they have a shorter registration distance than EF mount and won't be easy to adapt and maintain infinity, its best to stick to Pentax K, M42, Olympus OM, C/Y(Contax/Yashica, Nikon F, Leica R, and a few other less common mounts, http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~westin/misc/mounts-by-register.html