Distortion-free to support your vision on the range. The 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar was tweaked by Nikon to create the legendary 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor for Nikon rangefinder cameras, but I prefer the original Sonnar for its pictorial qualities. The 6-element, 5-group retrofocus design of this East German (DDR) classic dates back to 1950, but the f/2.4 version in easily adaptable M42 screw mount is the best of the bunch. If you skip this step, it’s no big deal, but it certainly makes finding images later on a little easier in Lightroom. In the 1960s, Pentax wanted to come up with a lens that would rival – or even outperform – Carl Zeiss glass. Leica Summilux 50mm f1.4. It’s quite possible that an old Pentax or Olympus film camera is lurking in their attic. The first mass-produced autofocus camera was the Konica C35 AF point-and-shoot in 1977, and the first 35mm autofocus SLR, the Pentax ME F, was released in 1981. Tips on Buying & Using Vintage Lenses Price range: $250-$550; 35mm f/2.8 Canon or Serenar in screw mount: $200-350. The lenses cover linescan sensors up to 43 mm (4k to 8k) or full frame area sensors with 24 x 36 mm (up to 42 Mpixel). Polishing these surfaces with "point" polishers, used in tandem with our free-form generators, results in surfacing quality lenses that are beyond compare. These Are the 10 Best Cameras You Can Buy in 2020, Check Out This Fantastic FREE Portrait Photography Tutorial for Beginners (No Lighting Gear Needed! Remarks: *available with fixing screws for focus and aperture. This causes complications for the adapter. Once you have your lens and adapter, you now need to set up your camera to shoot with it. The simple answer is that some older lenses can capture images that have that elusive quality known as character. Firstly, I love the different look that it gives my photos. ), These Are the Cameras Used By 10 of the World's Most Famous Photographers, This Is the BEST Budget Full Frame Camera You Can Buy Right Now (VIDEO), Here Are the Stunning Winning Images in the "Captivating Portraits" Photo Challenge. Sarah in a field. I’ve shot thousands of pictures with hundreds of great lenses over the past 40+ years, but the following seven favorites have a special place in my heart. Canon Classics. When shooting portraits, you rotate the lens until your subject’s hair and/or eyelashes highlight in red. Price range: $60-100 (Other versions: $80-200). SIGMA DP Timur Civan compares the two lens families. Tell us in the comments below. Shot wide open at f1.4 on the Pentax Super Takumar 50mm lens. You will see from the images below – especially the first – that it has quite a warm look to it because of this issue. Tiny scratches or minor blemishes in the coating seldom affect image quality, but should lower the price. 10. © 2020 Randolph Engineering, Inc. & RE Ranger. However, don’t forget that these classic lenses are the same ones that allowed photographers to capture images on now-legendary high-resolution black-and-white negative films such as Kodak High Contrast Copy Film (5069), Kodak Technical Pan, and Agfa 25. 12 Great Vintage Lenses for Capturing Classic Images. It’s one of my favorite classic lenses. Classic lenses are now in big demand. Ideally, you want a lens that has clear glass, with no fungus or haze. Sing-up to receive an email when each new episode goes live. Check it out! M42 is a screw mount. #132 Abstinence and Rodinal With A Twist Of Lemon, #130 Dan Tamarkin and the Leica Hysterical Society, #126 Cheddar Man, Lens Bugs, and Camera Repair, #125 The Kaleidoscopic World of Mike Epstein, #124 Xenotar or Planar? Still, it’s something you’re best to avoid. The original non-SMC 5-element, 4-group version is OK too, but the 6-element, 6-group version from the ‘70s that’s marked Super Multi Coated or SMC on the lens ring is the one to have. These Are the Most Common MISTAKES to AVOID When... 15 Lightroom Tricks to Dramatically Speed Up Your... Watch These Tourists Run in Fright as Crocodile... 5 Easy Photoshop Tips Every Photographer Should... Here’s How to Use Your Camera’s Spot Metering... What Is the Best Lighting for Portraits? Pictures taken with it have that classic look— sharp with excellent contrast, creamy bokeh, what they called luminance back in the day. The Super Takumar has a warm cast to it. In this article, I explain how you can shoot portraits with classic lenses on your digital camera, including how to find one, how to set your camera up, and what to expect from vintage glass. The video explains how a lens with fixing screws was tested regarding following norms: Noticeable quality and high value stability qualify ZEISS lenses for decades of intense use. ZEISS Classic lenses are equipped with small screws to fix focus and aperture to get stable and reliable measuring results even in rough industrial conditions. A feature of this lens is its beautiful color rendition and distinct vintage look. It’s not that sharp wide open but it delivers the much sought after “swirly bokeh” with backgrounds like trees and flowers, and it’s quite sharp stopped down. We'll let you know when this pair is back in stock. Lens adapters are available for almost all classic lens to digital camera combinations. ; The Cause, And The Cure. Fast lenses are best if you prefer to shoot in low light, … Watch the video then decide which better suits your needs. Related products. Good optical quality captured in low light always begin with a fast lens for a system or a camera. Firstly, you need to enable the “shoot without lens” option in the menu. Tweet This Product. Like many post-war Russian lenses, it’s a copy of an earlier German design, the Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f2. There is an adapter for almost every classic lens/digital mount combination. If you’ve already used classic lenses in your photography, which ones were your favorites? Price range: In F-mount, $100-250, In Nikon rangefinder S-mount, $200-$500. Is a 24-70mm F/2.8 the BEST or WORST Lens for... Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 vs Sony 24-70mm F/2.8 GM:... Olympus 60mm Macro vs Olympus 30mm Macro Lens... Are Your Prints Too Dark? The following are my personal 10 favorite vintage lenses to use on digital cameras. An odd-looking combination – a silver Helios 44 58mm f2 lens mounted on my Fujifilm X-T2. 3. However, they certainly have a unique charm and character that you just don’t get from today’s ultra-sharp digital lenses. version are better choices and have even better bokeh. Pictured above is the soap bubble bokeh due to the backlit foliage behind the subject. Perhaps this is why they soon switched to a cheaper seven-element version of the lens. If you’re adapting a lens from one system to another, you’ll have to focus manually. 4. Alyssa in Brisbane. Other options to assist manual focusing in the Fujifilm X-Series line include digital split image and digital microprism. But things soon turned around. Shot on the Fujifilm X-T2 with Super Takumar 50mm f1.4 Lens. Check eBay for the price range of the lenses you want to buy before you pull he trigger. Lens Review: Classic Canon EF 135mm f/2.8 with... Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO Lens Review. They’re not better or worse than images taken with modern autofocus lenses. It is sharp wide open, has good contrast, and beautiful bokeh. 58mm f/1.4 Auto-Topcor (aka R.E. I love to think about the images the lens has taken over the course of its lifetime, who has used it, and where it’s been. Reserved / Disclaimer, Your email is safe with us. Vintage lenses are known to generally have much more unique bokeh than modern lenses. 1. Canon FD 50mm f/1.2 L Identifiable by the L on its identification ring, and a red band in front of its … The ZEISS Classis lens family offers extraordinary image quality with high contrast for technical and industrial applications in addition to a precise fixture for focus and aperture. image by Zebrio. But if you want to capture images that have that distinctive look, they’re still a bargain and a great way to make your imagery stand out. Featherwates™: impact and scratch resistant, durable, also for active lifestyles. It’s sharp wide open and takes beautiful pictures. But if you want to capture images that have that distinctive look, they’re still a bargain and a great way to make your imagery stand out. It has similar imaging characteristics, but it’s hefty, not quite as sweet as the f/3.5—and it goes for $450-600.). These Are the Most Common MISTAKES to AVOID When... 15 Lightroom Tricks to Dramatically Speed Up Your... Watch These Tourists Run in Fright as Crocodile... 5 Easy Photoshop Tips Every Photographer Should... Here’s How to Use Your Camera’s Spot Metering... What Is the Best Lighting for Portraits? If the camera doesn’t recognize the lens, it may not allow you to take any images at all, so this is a must. Although prices have risen in recent years, you can still buy many amazing lenses for under $100 USD. If the thought of manually focussing on a portrait shoot alarms you, don’t worry. All of them deliver outstanding sharpness wide open, but bokeh improves noticeably by stopping down to f/2 and … My verdict: The version IV I used on a Leica M9 captured images with that luminous rounded look and had awesome bokeh, especially when stopped down to f/4-5.6: Price range: $2,000-3,500 (all types). From the 1930s onwards, manufacturers around the world produced 35mm film camera systems with a huge array of interchangeable lenses. Don’t just buy the cheapest one you can find; quality does matter here. Indeed, many savvy shooters now use classic lenses like these for shooting art stills and vintage-look videos, which is one reason prices have crept up in recent years. All of them have the same M42 mount, a system of attaching a lens to a camera body originally designed by the Carl Zeiss company in the late 1930s. the Super-Multi-Coated and SMC Super Takumars, in both M42 and K mount. Some good, some bad, some legendary. This is not only due to the current renaissance in film photography but also due to the fact that many photographers love to shoot with these lenses on digital cameras as well. Despite these minor defects it’s a very sharp lens overall, especially in the center of the field. The first “super-speed” f/2 normal lens for screw-mount Leicas, Leitz turned out 127,950 of these collapsible 6-element, 4-group beauties from 1933-40. Original Cine Lenses. Secondly, buying a vintage lens is a fantastic way of getting some quality glass in your kit on the cheap. Before you do this, do some research about which lenses you’d like to buy, and make sure that you can get an adapter to fit the lens to your digital camera. ; The Cause, And The Cure. With some luck, the lens (and camera) will be in a usable condition, and you will be able to shoot portraits with it. I have two K&F Concept adapters – one for M42 mount and one for the smaller M39 mount. This version of the lens uses a radioactive element – Thorium – in its rear element. 50mm f/2 Leitz Summar (uncoated) The first “super-speed” f/2 normal lens for screw-mount Leicas, … It captures images with a luminous vintage look, but it’s at least as sharp as the 35mm f/2 Summicron ASPH or 35mm f/1.4 Summilux at moderate apertures and has excellent color contrast. 1. [L-R] Pentax Super Takumar 50mm f1.4, Helios 44 58mm f2, Meyer Optic Goerlitz Oreston 50mm f1.8. (Note: Not to be confused with the current more expensive Sonnar C in M-mount. Some lenses retract into the camera body when focused to infinity. The F-stop remains 1.4/1.8 respectively. This is the best way to keep in touch with us and receive notes & links for each podcast episode. I got mine with my first Leica M3 and this 7-element chrome-finished beauty, produced from 1956 to 1968, delivers amazingly high resolution (over 100 lines/mm according to contemporary tests) along with excellent contrast and beautiful bokeh. Although we finally get a show ...View Details, UK camera and lens repair guy, Lyndon Booth of Londinium Cameras dropped in for a chat and to answer listener emails. In the right circumstances, the Helios 44 lenses can exhibit incredible looking bokeh. Pin This Product. 35mm f/1.8 W-Nikkor C. This W-Nikkor C was the first high-speed wide-angle lens for the Nikon S2 … Be careful not to fall into the bokeh trap though – remember that you’re shooting portraits, you’re not producing images just to show off the bokeh. Generally the most flattering portrait lenses have a focal length between 50mm and 135mm with an aperture of at least f/2.8. A 5-element 3-group design similar to Leica’s 90mm f/2.8 Elmarit provides excellent chromatic aberration correction and high resolution, but tends to flare in backlit situations—the last “blue dot” multicoated versions are less prone to flare and ghosting. 3. Considering their optical quality, Super Takumar lenses are still a bargain despite rising prices. Price range: $200-350 (Note: The more common 35mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon is an excellent economical alternative at $100-150.). Auto-Topcor) This amazing 7-element 5-group double-Gauss-formula lens, based on the Zeiss Planar, was produced in several versions, from about 1963 to 1980. The first coating techniques were employed by ZEISS as long ago as in the 1930s. 1. 80mm f/2.8 Mamiya-Sekor Helios 44 lenses were produced in several different factories in the former Soviet Union. A step above the rest, made with color molded technology with RE Ranger's CLAYSIGHT Lens Technology. Don’t just buy the cheapest one you can find; quality does matter here. (Scroll down to the bottom of this story to read my tips on choosing and using vintage lenses on digital cameras.). Select options Details. It has a softer, dreamier overall look than other lenses, but it’s still sharp. Introduced in 1963 by Tokyo Optical Co. for its Topcon SLRs, this 7-element, 5-group modified Planar design is considered to be one of the best high-speed normal lenses of its era. This is a key question – why shoot portraits on classic lenses? To identify the lens in the shooting scene using a wide variety of lenses, and to provide the texture and quality suitable for professional tools, and the durability to support the harsh environment of cinema lenses. The camera doesn’t know which lens you are using, so it will take the value in here for the metadata for images. CLASSIC 38 Polymacon, 38% water, 9Dk (IS0) OR CLASSIC 55 Methafilcon A, 55% water, 17Dk (IS0) 10.0mm to 16.0mm 13.0, 13.5, 14.0 suggested: 6.5mm to 9.7mm ... Alden Optical is a specialty and custom contact lens manufacturer located in Lancaster, New York. This exceptional 5-element, 4-group medium telephoto Leica/Canon screw mount lens was first offered under the Serenar name in silver finish in 1953 and later under the official company name Canon in black and silver in 1958. Unless you grind one up and eat it, but that would be a terrible waste of a good lens. Get this podcast on your phone! The outer design is characterized by a full-metal housing as well as a focus ring, which allows precise manual focusing. At the beach. Made in Russia from the mid ‘50s to the ‘90s this ponderous 6-element Double Gauss lens is said to be based on Zeiss Biotar design and it’s usually found in M42 (Pentax/Practica) mount in black finish and manual (pre-set) aperture configuration. The video shows how ZEISS researchers systematically submit lenses to extreme stresses in order to arrive at findings that can help in future lens design and development. It’s been said that in the early days of its release, Pentax lost money each time they sold one. I’ve used the Meyer Optik Gorlitz Oreston 50mm f1.8, the Pentax Super Takumar 50mm f1.4, and the Helios 44 58mm f2 lens. FREE SHIPPING & RETURNS TO USA ORDERS OVER $100*. It may surprise you to know that in terms of the history of photography, autofocus lenses are relatively new. It’s an easy way to give your images a very unique and characteristic look, including bokeh, which you just don’t get on modern lenses. 100mm f/2 Olympus OM Zuiko Auto-T An important word on adapters: opt for well-made, high quality lens adapters even if they cost more; steer clear of adapters that include optical elements to allow your vintage lens focus to infinity, and do an online search of the dozens chat rooms on this subject to find the adapters and combinations that work best. When you use the lens for portraits, though, beware of the bokeh trap. The 7 Best Affordable Vintage Lenses to Use with... Laowa 4mm f/2.8 Circular Fisheye Lens Review, Meike MK 6.5mm f/2 Circular Fisheye Lens Review, Tamron 35-150mm f/2.8-4 Di VC OSD Lens Review. If you look at the images of the lenses posted in this article, there are plenty of spots of dust and marks on the lenses I’ve used, but with no noticeable effect. This image shows the dreamy bokeh of the Meyer Optik Goerlitz Oreston 50mm f1.8 lens. Color rendition is likewise gorgeous, and its compact size makes it great for travel. To illustrate the types of portrait images you can take with vintage glass, I’ve used three different lenses for this article. Indeed, many savvy shooters now use classic lenses like these for shooting art stills and vintage-look videos, which is one reason prices have crept up in recent years. Don’t worry too much about small amounts of dust – all lenses (especially vintage ones) will have dust in the lens, which doesn’t usually affect image quality too much. The one to look for is the older Type 4 introduced in 1979, a 7-element design known as the “Bokeh King” because of its exquisite bokeh that’s partly attributable to residual coma and astigmatism in the outer zones.