Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 5:06 am Post subject: |
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luisalegria wrote:
Welcome !
Points you raise -
The Meyer 180/5.5 is a preset lens and as such it doesn't matter if there is oil on the blades.
These old lenses are simpler and easier to fix than old SLR's. They are much less complicated.
There are plenty of cheap Japanese lenses in Exakta mount. The German ones go for far too much these days as collectors will pay silly prices even for the most pedestrian German lens. An Exakta T-mount will get you a world of T-mount Japanese lenses, the longer ones (100mm+) are often excellent and competitive with Germany's best. And of course, there is no such thing as a bad 135 !
The T-mount wide angles are usually pretty poor compared to the best German wide angles of the time, but then the prices one would have to pay for any of these German ones are scary. Everybody wants a German wide angle.
Some Japanese lenses, including decent wide angles, are also available in automatic Exakta mount in the Tokina made T4 interchangable mount. The Exakta T4 mount will get you a range of 21mm - 400mm, including three zooms; you will find all of these and their mounts in the Soligor and Vivitar brands. Of this line the 24mm, 28mm are decent, the 35mm is rather fine, the 135's are good (of course), and there are mixed opinions about the longer lenses and the zooms.
For "normals" - 50mm or so - you unfortunately are most likely stuck paying a premium price for a German lens. The cheapest seem to be the Meyers and the Zeiss Pancolars, under whatever names. There is a Mamiya (Prismat) model with an Exakta mount that was sold by Sears that came with a decent 55mm I believe, and if you are lucky you may get one for a song. _________________ I like Pentax DSLR's, Exaktas, M42 bodies of all kinds, strange and cheap Japanese lenses, and am dabbling in medium format/Speed Graphic work. |