The lens you owned for the shortest time

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1674

I've received a working Nikkormat and a non-working Miranda Sensomat RE, both equipped with lenses, for 6.5 euros + shiping. Maybe not a pure bargain, seen quite a mass produced equipment and its modest condition. But I was glad to test it.

I was especially curious to try the early 2/50 Nikkor which normally gets good reviews. So I put it on a custom adapter, as I've never used Nikon lenses and don't have a dedicated ring. Then I put myself to the window and started with several shots, at various aperture values. I confirm, by the way, the lens gives a sharp and clean image from the wide open. So I was progressively closing the apreture till I came to at f8. When suddenly... the lens fall off the adapter. A second later I heard quite a pessimistic bump below. Man, that was really short, my Nikon experience!

I doubt the lens might survive from gravitation. People who live on the ground floor are now absent from their place, so I'll try to get the flighter back later from their terrace. All in all, I have tried Nikkor for 1 minute and may say from this quickly interrupted experience, it's a nice performer.

The accident made me curious. What are the lenses you had for the shortest moment? Maybe not for 1 minute, as I had. But still meaningfully short, so that it did not pass unnoticed by you. How and why you separated yourself from the new lens?

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

I would not be at all surprised if that Nikkor still works fine, those old Nikkors are built like tanks.

The lens I probably had for the shortest time was a Cosina 3.8/19, I tried it once and immediately sold it, it was that bad, truly awful.

TeemÅ · Joined: 07 Apr 2016 Posts: 586 Location: Australia

Minolta MC 58/1.2. I had it for not more than a few days before returning it because the large cemented doublet had separated at the edges, really ruining the bokeh - the whole point of such a lens. Since then I didn't look for another one, preferring to buy many cheaper lenses that I also wanted. And I didn't feel remorse over the price paid for those... until I added up the total of every lens I own! Laugh 1

Lightshow · Joined: 04 Nov 2011 Posts: 3666 Location: Calgary

Mine is an X-Fujinon 19, it was soft, no way it would work for landscape.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Nikon 2.8/6mm fisheye lens, had it for a few days only before it went to its new owner.
Was hunting for it for months....

james · Expire: 2011-12-28

Zeiss 2/28 ZF. Closeout deal just before the ZF.2 were introduced. Wasn't nearly as sharp as billed, lots of curvature of field. Sold off within 72 hours of arrival.

Ray Parkhurst · Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2018 1:58 am Post subject:

A while back I bought a rare lens in order to trade for an expensive one. A buddy on the PM forum had an 85mm Macro Varon, but was looking for a fairly high price. The price was not out of line, but I was loathe to spend so much. I soon after saw a 105mm Apo-EL-Nikkor for sale on Craigslist for a decent price, and after some negotiating ended up with the lens. It was a superb copy, but I have never been comfortable with using the 105AELNs I've owned. They are rare, irreplaceable glass gems, but this makes them great trading fodder. I offered the lens in trade, and what I ended up with was the 85MV, plus a couple other interesting lenses. I had the 105AELN a total of 3 days. I did not even mount it for testing, as the seller I got it from tested it in his enlarging rig as proof of quality before the sale.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Hmm, another case was the Zeiss ZF Macro Planar 100mm, had it in parallel with the CV Apo Lanthar 125mm - after I experienced that really ugly CA that Zeiss lens had, I decided to sell it that very day after having done test shots...

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1674

Thank you, folks, for your strories! Sorry for my belated reaction, I had some charges to accomplish.

What is quite interesting, you were short-time owners of various lenses, except 35 to 55 mm. I confirm, we tend easier to keep them. Except my Nikkor 2/50...

My story was continued in a puzzling way. I talked to people on the ground floor, they have never seen the lens. Then I visited people who live in between, just in case of improbable trajectory deviation of the fall. Nothing. The lens just disappeared. I presume I will never know how the old Nikkor could be after such an adventure.

TrueLoveOne · Expire: 2013-12-24

Some years ago i received a mint Cosina 20mm f/3.8. Took it for a walk along the beach, mounted on a NEX-3.

At home i looked at the pics and there wasn't one single picture good enough to show anywhere! It went out again the next day. I knew there had to be a reason it still was in mint condition..... the best lenses often look beaten from all the heavy use! Wink

John Shriver · Joined: 24 Dec 2009 Posts: 199

Sell a lens? Do people do that?

Only lens I ever sold was a Leica 50/2 Summar with a cracked element, serious separation, and a messed-up mount. Pulled the separated pair and baked in toaster oven, got that separation gone. Actually took decent pictures.

Later got a nigh-perfect one (water clear after internal cleaning and replacing the edge blacking), and sold the clunker on one of the forums. I don't think I listed it, I replied to a "want" for a Summar.

There are certainly lenses I've never used. I suppose that's the moral equivalent of selling. Pentax-A 200/4. Pentax-A 70-210/4. Pentax-A 28/2.8 (the 28/2.0 always gets favored).

Took two years before I used the Samyang 135/2.0, but when I finally had the right use for it, I was happy with the lens and the results.

The most disappointing lens was Pentax-A 35-105, so-called "stack of primes." SOFT at 105mm. Certainly would not miss it if I sold it.

alex ph · Joined: 16 Mar 2013 Posts: 1674

To bake Leica in toaster: wow, that's radical!

DConvert · Joined: 12 Jun 2010 Posts: 921 Location: Essex UK

The lens I've owned for the least time must be the last one to arrive (on Tuesday). That makes it a Tamron 9A that came free with a set of mounts I was after.
Apart from lenses I've not yet built up any time with it must be part of a pair of glasses I lost quite a few of these as a young boy! Smile

I've only rarely sold a lens - IIRC only 3 ever, all of which were duplicates given to me by family, I'd had each for months before a friend mentioned his wife's new camera.
I've never thrown out a lens - though several have been marked for stripping down for parts.

AFAIK I've only had two lenses get significant bashes while I've had them, one when cycling & the camera strap broke leaving the camera & lens bouncing down the road. Apart from cosmetic scratches & the flash shoe neither seemed to suffer significantly. (Not likely to be so lucky today).

The other was with me in a motorway accident - it's had a distinct wobble since so hasn't been used again.

barryreid · Expire: 2015-11-04

A Yashica ML55mm f/1.2 which was bought for a silly low price. I needed some cash so never mounted it on a camera just in case I ended up keeping it.

Funnily enough I've owned 3 fast 50s but only ever bought them to sell on. These were the Yash, a Pentax SMC-M and a Canon FD L which is the only one I ever shot with.