Recommend a wide-angle lens.

[Joosep]

Greetings from Estonia.

Im hunting for a wide-angle lens. Its missing from my bag, I got 50, 85, 200. Need something wide, something 20ish...
It has to be M42 and if possible, a Russian.
(It seems living in a country which is next to the motherland seems profitable if you want to buy ol'russkiis).

Mir20 ? Mir-37 ?
Is there a big dif. between Mir-20 and the MC version ?

Or maybe the Tak 28 ? (I know its no russian, but its cheap)

Remember. M42 and in that price range.
Recommend.

[aoleg]

What camera are you going to use the lens on? Mir-1 (37/2.8 ) will hit the mirror on Canon 5D. However, even if it wouldn't, it's not quite as wide as you want.

MC Mir-20M is a good choice, although it flares big time in the corners. However, it's a very sharp one. Beware of non-MC versions; they focus a bit closer, but have a larger front lens element than the newer MC version and are more prone to flare.

Your chances of getting an M42-mount Mir-47 for a reasonable price are close to nil. Most of these lenses were made in Pentax K mount, and are rather expensive. Between these two, I went for Mir-20M.

S-M-C Takumar 28/3.5 is great; see my review here: http://www.prime35.com/s-m-c-takumar-28mm-f3-5 - although it may hit 5D's mirror when focused to infinity (or may not, there's variation between camera-lens-adapter combos).

Haven't seen any reasonably good third-party alternatives in M42 mount except Adaptall-2 Tamron. Uber-cheap JML 28/2.8 is a multicoated lens, but its contrast and corner sharpness are inferior to the S-M-C Takumar. EL and RMC Tokina 28/2.8 are very similar in looks and performance (they might be the same lens as that JML, rebranded). I've heard good things about Tamron wides with BBAR coating and Adaptall-2 mount (meaning M42 is available).

[vulko]

Mir 20 is better for crop, mir 47 for FF. Still its quite hard to get those in a good condition.

I'm also very interested in wide angle lens and willing to buy a lens in the range 10 - 24mm, cause on crop that would be 16 to 38 mm.

[Joosep]

[woodrim]

Vivitar 28mm Close Focus model. Not quite as easy to find in M42 though.

http://www.pbase.com/mdlempert/vivitar28mmcf