What to look for at Yard Sales/Flea Markets, etc

jkim05 · Joined: 21 May 2010 Posts: 4

I'm pretty new to MF lenses, but I figure there must be some people here who have experience finding lenses at places like these. What should I be on the look out for when buying lenses from people who don't know much about them. Beyond checking for mold/fungus, oil, haze, scratches, smoothness of the focus ring, etc., are there any other specific concerns I should have? Any specific brands or mounts I should avoid?

I shoot Canon, if that matters. Thanks for your help guys.

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Hi & welcome!

Aside from condition, about the most important thing to check is whether the lens will mount properly on your camera. You've chosen well because virtually all lenses can be mounted on a Canon. However there are some mounts which can't be used, the most common being the Minolta MD mount and Canon's own older FD mount. You can use them with special adapters with an extra lens, but without that they cannot focus on infinity. Best to avoid them. You should familiarise yourself with the various mounts so you can recognise them, this site will help:
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-99.html
Be especially careful when you're looking at 3rd party lenses by Vivitar, Soligor and hundreds of "unknown" brands - they almost never mark the mount type on the lens.

Also remember that for every different mount you buy, you're going to need at least one adapter to mount it on the Canon. I would say it's best to stcik to one mount to start with and then branch out when you have more knowledge. M42 screw mount (aka Pentax, Praktica or Universal screw mount) are probably the best lenses to start with as they're mostly cheap and easy to find.

jkim05 · Joined: 21 May 2010 Posts: 4

Cool, thanks for the link and the tips.