Guten tag!

[Caldrive]

Hi there!

Scared you? ;-)
I admit I'm addicted to buying vintage manual lenses... what is the max lenses you can have? N+1 where N is the current number of lenses you own. It's just one simple rule I follow.

[LePetomane]

I have not purchased a lens in quite a while. I get the bug for one but it goes away quickly. A friend ours who is a professional photographer working for an advertising agency claims that the more lenses one has the fewer they use. When I use a zoom I usually find myself gravitating between 35mm and 50mm for focal lengths.

I once had a well known bamboo fly rod maker say that the proper number of bamboo rods to own is one shy of your spouse initiating divorce proceedings.

I own N (and holding) of lenses. I apologize for the long answer.

[Caldrive]

:-)

No matter how many/how expensive lenses I have - I always stay with Minolta MD III 50mm 1.4.
It's not the sharpest (Super Takumar 50mm 1.4 8-element is a clear winner), not the most character (Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm 2.0), not the nicest looking (Mayer Gorlitz Optik Primoplan 58mm 1.9) nor the smallest (Minolta 45mm 2.0). Oh and it vignettes a lot.
I just love using this lens for 95% of time. It's sharp but what is more important I get over 90% of focus right even on very short distance. Plus it's quite cheap.

4% of the time is Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm 2.4 because of the colors (!!!!!) (and sharpness).

[rpcrowe]

I thought that I was through with lens purchases until I bought a Sony A6500 with the expectation (hope) that I could use my Canon lenses, since the used package included a Sigma MC-11 adapter.

Well, the Canon lenses do work but, not as well (IMO) as native Sony glass. I really like the 50mm f/1.8 OSS and the Sony 85mm f/1.8 for portraits. I have also picked up some very-very inexpensive vintage and specialty lenses that adapt quite well on the A6500. When I say inexpensive, I am talking about the $20-$50 USD range. They are lots of fun to play with because of the special renderings that they can produce. It's unique to work with a lens which is 50-75 years old but, which still can produce a pleasing (although, perhaps not technically optimum) images..

Generally, for serious work, I would select a modern lens in a heartbeat. However, there is one lens that is really quite wonderful. It is, of all things, a Sears product. Sears never produced any lenses, they just re-branded glass from various manufacturers. The Auto Sears 55mm f/1.4 lens is made by Tomioka of Japan. Tomioka produced lenses for several companies who sold these lenses under their own brand names. This lens as developed quite a cult following because of sharpness and bokeh.

The A6500 makes it easy to use manual focus lenses; every bit as easy as when I shot using a manual focus film camera..

[Caldrive]

I do have Auto Revuenon 55mm 1.4 ;-)

The thing is that I'm faster with manual focusing (and framing at the same time) than with AF. If I'm looking for clean picture then the Color-Ultron 50mm 1.8 or Flektogon 35mm 2.4 or Orestor 100mm 2.8 but generally I'm not ;-)

[rpcrowe]

ASFAIK: The Auto Sears 55mm f/1.4 is the same lens as the Auto Revuenon 55mm f/1.4 produced for and re-branded as Sears by Tomioka. It is quite a decently sharp lens even wide open at f/1.4, I just got the adapter for the Sony and this is one of my first shots to show the sharpness and shallow DOF. It is not meant to be anything but a DOF and sharpness test at f/1.4...

[shreds]

"Guten Abend"

The lens conundrum…..thought I had it nailed when I moved over to full frame ten years ago, as my existing lenses just were not up to the job. So I upgraded.

That is until last year when I had the opportunity to shoot an internationally famous singer 1:1. So I inevitably decided that a very specific portrait lens would be more appropriate than everything else I had in the kitbag.

I have also put it to good use since and it is a gorgeous lens. I may post some of its results in due course. Like everything else though it is knowing how and when to use it. Like most things it is designed for a purpose. So I now consider I already have +1, unless I look at some other genres…..

[Caldrive]

Wie gehts?

Try Minolta MD 50mm 1.4 (MD II or MD III - with 49mm filter thread) and you will be amazed :-)
I still can't believe how good (and cheap) are those lenses...

[rpcrowe]

Wie gehts?

Try Minolta MD 50mm 1.4 (MD II or MD III - with 49mm filter thread) and you will be amazed :-)
I still can't believe how good (and cheap) are those lenses...

They used to be a LOT cheaper until the mirrorless cameras that could effectively use adapted lenses came along. I have tried using an adapted manual focus lens on my Canon 6D Mark ii and, while it is possible, it is certainly a LOT easier to use one on my Sony A6500...

Additionally, the Canon manual focus lenses were effectively paperweights since it was so difficult to adapt them to EOS cameras. Now these wonderful old lenses are gaining in popularity AND PRICE

I really needed a full frame format to make effective use of the spiral bokeh of my Russian 58mm Helios lens, I decided to just get an M42 to EF mount adapter. It wasn't worth buying a full frame Sony just to play with one lens. The adapter only cost me three U.S. Dollars...

[Caldrive]

I'm using a speedbooster adapter with fuji X that gives me +/- FF eqiv (50mm is 54mm)