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Confused about the Screw Mount
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 3:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
pdesopo: It appears that you are embarking on a journey much traveled by the rest of us here. I advised Ian recently, but still too late, of my own experience with M42 - or MF - lenses. It is all too tempting to buy the very cheap no-name lenses in hopes of discovering a jewel. However, you will more likely end up with several average lenses that cumulatively have cost you what a very good one would have cost, and worse, you won't use them much after initial honeymoon.


PostPosted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
woodrim wrote:
pdesopo: It appears that you are embarking on a journey much traveled by the rest of us here. I advised Ian recently, but still too late, of my own experience with M42 - or MF - lenses. It is all too tempting to buy the very cheap no-name lenses in hopes of discovering a jewel. However, you will more likely end up with several average lenses that cumulatively have cost you what a very good one would have cost, and worse, you won't use them much after initial honeymoon.


Very, very true. Please learn from the mistakes many of us have made over the years. Rolling Eyes


PostPosted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 4:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
woodrim wrote:
pdesopo: It appears that you are embarking on a journey much traveled by the rest of us here. I advised Ian recently, but still too late, of my own experience with M42 - or MF - lenses. It is all too tempting to buy the very cheap no-name lenses in hopes of discovering a jewel. However, you will more likely end up with several average lenses that cumulatively have cost you what a very good one would have cost, and worse, you won't use them much after initial honeymoon.


woodrim, I guess you're referring to lens addiction? Not sure if you're talking about that... Anyway, so far I bought a Nikon 24mm and an Helios 44m. I'm really happy with these two lenses and probably didn't actually needed a third one. Just wanted to give it a try, mostly for fun. But also, why not, to see if I could close the gap adding a decent 135.

But besides that, I'm not planning to buy any other lenses for a long time. I've a lot to study and explore so from now on I'll just be focused on that. But, again, I'm really satisfied with the vintage lenses I bought so I'm not quite sure to get the point about the problems with M42. And I've to admit that having switched to manual lenses really brought me in the photography world, as with the previous lens kit I was mostly following what the camera had to suggest.

Photography is for me a way to add more to my actual job. Right now I'm not planning to invest on it more than this.
I'm probably missing something, if you can point me to the proper thread I'll be thankful to read more about this topic.


PostPosted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
woodrim wrote:
pdesopo: It appears that you are embarking on a journey much traveled by the rest of us here. I advised Ian recently, but still too late, of my own experience with M42 - or MF - lenses. It is all too tempting to buy the very cheap no-name lenses in hopes of discovering a jewel. However, you will more likely end up with several average lenses that cumulatively have cost you what a very good one would have cost, and worse, you won't use them much after initial honeymoon.


I took woodrim's advice, but only after wasting money on some really poor lenses. I have a pile of lenses I will probably never use again.

I would be happy to send you 3 or 4 of my cheap lenses, say a 35mm, 135mm, 200mm, then you can see for yourself, don't know where you are, but if you paid the postage you can have them.

I am on a limited budget but I have found there are some brands of lens that are available cheap and have very good IQ, I am collecting these types:

1960's Petri bayonet mount CC Auto Series lenses
1960's & 70's Meyer/Pentacon M42/Exacta lenses
Hoya HMC lenses
Russian/Ukranian lenses
British Ross lenses (pre 1961)

None of those will cost that much if you shop around and I have found them all to be at least good, some very good.

It is much better to pick up lenses from manufacturers with known good quality than cheap third-party lenses. Pentax, Olympus, Konica, Nikon, Canon, hard to find a bad lens from them if we are talking mf primes.

What camera are you using (sorry if I missed this)?

Off the top of my head, all these lenses are commonly available cheap, less than 20 bucks often and shouldn't disappoint:

Meyer/Pentacon/Prakticar 1.8/50
Pentacon 2.8/28
Helios-44
Industar-50 (tiny pancake lens, only 3.5 max aperture but sharp)
Zeiss Jena 2.8/50 Tessar
Fujinon 2.2/55

Please heed woodrim's advice and avoid the no-name el cheapo stuff otherwise, like me, you'll accumulate a pile of lenses you will never use and have to either sell on ebay cheap or use as paperweights. Conversely, a good lens hold it's vaue and will often increase in value if looked after and kept clean so can be looked at as an investment. The money you will save on not buying several cheap lenses can be spent on a lens that is certain not to disappoint.

In the 135mm focal length there are all these goodies available for not too much money:

Jupiter-11A 4/135 M42 (Sonnar copy)
Tair-11A 3.5/135 M42 (Sonnar copy)
Pentacon 2.8/135 M42/Exakta/PB (great bokeh)
Zeiss Jena 3.5/135 (make sure the aprture works)
Olympus OM 3.5/135 - everyone speaks highly of this and often seen cheap

You could do what I did and buy 5 or 6 cheap Japanese 135s but in the end I still went and bought a Pentacon 135 because the cheap ones were all substandard in IQ so I could have saved myself a load of time and money not buying the cheap jap ones. I have a Jupiter-11A too and I also like it however I'm finding myself using my 5inch (127mm) Ross Xpress much more than any of my 135mm lenses, it's sharper than any of them although has to be mounted on some bellows.


PostPosted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 6:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
iangreenhalgh1 ,

thanks for your exhaustive reply.
I'm using a Canon 7D. Probably I won't buy other lenses for a long time, at least this 135mm is not gonna turn into a so bad deal to force me to find a better one later.
By the way, there's a thread right on this forum about the same Carenar I bought and the opinions are not that bad:
http://forum.mflenses.com/carenar-135-f2-8-examples-inside-huge-surprise-of-a-lens-t39601.html

a flickr set I stumbled upon:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikofi/sets/72157616768931808/detail/

My eyes surely are not as used to catch problems and issues as yours, so I can simply say that I kinda like what I'm seeing on that set.
Like I said, switching to manual lenses is giving me the chance to better understand photography. If this is gonna be a wrong deal, I'd have learned a lesson so the money will not be wasted either way Wink

Last edited by pdesopo on Sun Jun 19, 2011 7:47 am; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 7:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yes, I have posted in that thread on the Carenar, it is not bad, I have a copy of it in good condition, I had another copy branded Mirage but it was broken. If you look in that thread I posted how it has been seen in many different brands.

That's a decent lens you have, congrats. Threads like that one are good ways of getting tips on the better cheap lenses.
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