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Archive 2012 · Anti Indulgence approach...

  
 
anthonygh
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Anti Indulgence approach...


It can't be denied that the majority of poster on here are individuals with a very decent disposable income who are up for indulging their photographic desires..but what about the rest?

It would be interesting to have opinions on getting into 'alt' image making on a budget.....and a budget of say $500 max to make it realistic.

This is still pretty wide.....so lets make two assumptions.

1. The photographer has a reasonable Canon or Nikon DSLR already and is interested in exploring 'alt' image making.

2. The photographer doesn't have anything that can be utilized (say a G1X owner) so is starting out from scratch.....



Dec 26, 2012 at 11:57 AM
XsigmaSD
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Anti Indulgence approach...


It is true, part of the fun of alt image making, is finding great bargains, and resurrecting great old, forgotten gear. This gets forgotten sometimes.
To answer your question... Just My Opinions

1. If you are not sure if this is going to be your cup of tea, I would suggest getting a couple m42 screwmount adaptors ($12-$20) and explore the wonderful world of screwmount. Start with a 50mm, any of the Pentax/Takumar 50/1.4s are nice, and can be had cheap. KEH has several right now, all ~$100, I found mine on Craigs List mounted to an inoperable Spotmatic for $50. Coatings are the only major difference across the common 50/1.4s with the SMC versions being the latest. So in safe mode (ordering from KEH) 50/1.4 SMC $100, 28/2.0 ~$250, and a 105/4.0 ~$100, with adapters would put you within budget, and give you a taste. There are also countless screwmount lenses in other makes from most of the big names, just search ebay for m42. They are also the most likely "overlooked" type at a flea market or garage sale.
The other route to take would be starting with just one lens like a Contax Zeiss 50/1.7, it can be had for $200-$300 depending on condition, with an adapter would still be in range, but the road gets pricey from there going forward.

2. Right now, brand new GH2 bodies are going for ~$500, a pretty good value. Used, $450 and less. Used Canon 5D bodies are going for about the same, and while laking most of the contemporary features, have image quality that stands up still today. I realize at those prices you still need lenses, so you are probably going down the screwmount path to start.

Anyway, just my thoughts, you will get as many opinions as there are members here! The key is, have fun with it, don't get hung up on brands. Find a look you like and explore it. Find some cool bargains and brag here. Happy hunting.



Dec 26, 2012 at 12:45 PM
Jabberwockt
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Anti Indulgence approach...


I think "alt" on a budget is actually a great topic. What got me into shooting alt was that some of lens were so inexpensive, some of them are not so anymore. Some ideas to save money:

1. Sell old lens to fund new purchases
2. Hold on to a lens long enough and some of them actually have appreciated in value.
3. Pick up a habit of going to garage sales nearby and occasionally stumble upon a deal, alt gear is not that rare.
4. Buy working lens in below average cosmetic condition
5. Wait for a "deal" on eBay, but know the prices and dont pay more than what you could resell them for

With today's prices. I think it is still very possible to have a good set of three alt lens all under $500. However, getting a digital body and still staying under that budget would be a challenge.



Dec 26, 2012 at 12:45 PM
XsigmaSD
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Anti Indulgence approach...


Jabberwockt wrote:

4. Buy working lens in below average cosmetic condition


This is a great point. Older lenses with metal barrels are really durable. Something in a junk shop that looks like its been run over by a car, may still be perfectly usable. If not, and you got it cheep, take it apart and learn about lens construction.



Dec 26, 2012 at 12:53 PM
douglasf13
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Anti Indulgence approach...


Like XSigmaSD said, it's hard to beat some of the Takumars, for the price. I was sad to sell my SMC Tak 50/1.4 for relative pennies, even though I no longer had a camera to mount it on. Fantastic build and focus feel.


Dec 26, 2012 at 01:03 PM
RustyBug
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Anti Indulgence approach...


Champagne taste, beer budget ... your talking my language.

One of my favorite "little gems" is the Oly 28/3.5. Finding "slower" glass that is a good performer can be very budget friendly. A C/Y 80-200/4 and a C/Y 50/1.7 could make a nice 28-200 3 lens set that would likely be near the $500 mark (not sure @ current pricing).

Both the C/Y's exhibit some nice Zeiss-ness ... and the Oly has some nice colors too.



Dec 26, 2012 at 01:27 PM
LightShow
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Anti Indulgence approach...


Nex5N or C3 & FD SSC 24/2.8, 50/1.4, 85/1.8, or just about any cheap lens(check flea markets, pawn shops, crags list, ebay, etc...)Should be able to get a whole kit for <$800 if you find great deals.


Dec 26, 2012 at 01:39 PM
Beni
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Anti Indulgence approach...


This was from my Tak 50mm 1.4 Super shot wide open this morning as I sat outside the bakery eating breakfast on a wall. Cost me $80 from ebay and that was including international shipping. Love what I can do with this lens. For portraiture it's dreamy beyond belief. Now that I have a Leica R8/9 split viewfinder screen ($40 or so) in my camera I'm nailing focus at f1.4 almost every time too! All this on a 5D costing under $500 if you look around.




Batei Hungarim Area, Jerusalem




Dec 26, 2012 at 01:52 PM
fsiagian
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Anti Indulgence approach...


$25 mint condition Rokkor 50mm 1.7 for my EPL2. So much fun. IQ from that lens is great. Still need to learn manual focusing without the focus peaking though.


Dec 26, 2012 at 02:14 PM
mh2000
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Anti Indulgence approach...


I heartily agree with Rustybug. Buy slower glass! Too many around here think that life doesn't begin until your reach f1.4... in reality, most good photos are taken with much smaller apertures.

If you are shooting on a cropped sensor, a bargain fast 50 is a perfect portrait lens, then look at something bargain 24-35mm in the f2.8-f3.5 range.

Buy a tripod! doesn't have to be CF... stop down and you will be amazed at the quality you can get from even a no-name prime.

Really, for $500 I'd probably buy a refurb Oly m43 body + Oly 17 or Sig 19 + Sig 30... way more fun IMO than a few MF primes for your DSLR... but that's me.




Dec 26, 2012 at 03:39 PM
telyt
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Anti Indulgence approach...


My 400mm f/5.6 T-Noflexar lens head was $200



(crop)



This lens wes terrible when I bought it, probably why it was so cheap. I figured out that some doofus had reversed the rear element. I flipped it back around and the image quality is fine.



Dec 26, 2012 at 04:26 PM
JohnJ
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Anti Indulgence approach...


It all depends on what you like to shoot. What good is a cheap 50 if you prefer wide angle shooting.

Almost every 50 mm lens is good when stopped down, the differences are the wide open end. You could list maybe 50 50mm lenses that all perform about equally and cost very little. This is no challenge.

The challenge is with wider and longer lenses, although 135's are generally undesireable yet abundant and there fore cheap.

I agree that the Zuiko 28/3.5 is amazing for the price.

I would agrue that the combination of the Mirex and medium format lenses also falls into the 'superior bang for your buck' group. Yes the adapter is expensive but combined with a few medium format lenses such as the Mamiya M645's it becomes an extremely cheap yet extremely effective tilt/shift solution. The Mamiya 80/2.8 ia almost free yet performs extremely well.



Dec 26, 2012 at 04:55 PM
Steve Spencer
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Anti Indulgence approach...


Here is the kit I got for my daughter. A cheap Olympus OM to EOS converter - $25. Oly OM 21 f/3.5 - $300, Oly OM 28 f/3.5 - $40, Oly 50 f/1.8 - $25, and Oly 100 f/2.8 - $75. With a bit of money to spare. Not only is this kit cheap, it is small. I also got here a Canon 5D classic to use the lenses on. It is actually a very high IQ and fairly small kit for a very low price.

If you need longer lenses, there are bargains to be had there too, but they don't fit as well in a $500 budget, but you could certainly add a 200mm lens and even a 400mm lens (if you shop well) if you substituted for the 21mm. Basically you can keep either wide angle or longer tele in a $500 budget, but not both.



Dec 26, 2012 at 05:18 PM
anthonygh
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Anti Indulgence approach...


I have to admit I had a personal reason for this post....I am into film quite a bit...but I recently bought a 5D with the idea of using an adapter for some 'alt' lenses to do both still-life setups and pictures from my coastal walks.

I am a bit bored with the clinically precise lenses I use at the moment and am doing a lot of 'manipulation' with PS and other software to get some visually strong images. It is amazing what can be done with B+W scans if converted to RGB first and experimented with....



Dec 26, 2012 at 08:35 PM
douglasf13
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Anti Indulgence approach...


Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that Canon FD lenses are cheap and often good performers.


Dec 26, 2012 at 08:39 PM
AhamB
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Anti Indulgence approach...


Some very nice options, most interesting on FF but also suitable for APS-C, without precisely working out the $500 budget:
Carl Zeiss Jena
Flektogon 35/2.4
Pancolar 50/1.8
Sonnar 135/3.5

These are all quite special lenses, although the Pancolar isn't a great performer at wide apertures.

Personally I'd prefer to use a ~$500 budget for fewer more expensive lenses than a larger collection of low budget ones, after having tried some low budget lenses like the Oly 28/3.5 and 200/4, Super Takumar 55/2, Vivitar/Komine 28/2 (fun lens though).
Rusty's proposed kit sounds good to me, but I would save up for a Contax 28/2.8 and replace the Oly (which is cheap as chips) later.



Dec 27, 2012 at 08:37 AM
Bifurcator
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Anti Indulgence approach...


Yeah there are a huge number of awesome "alt" lenses available on the used market for 20 to 50 bucks. Some lenses that you wouldn't even suspect of being awesome are super sweet on a µ4/3 or APS-C. If you're on a FF camera there are a lot less to choose from tho. Because one of the common problems with inexpensive lenses is that they have "bad corners".


I took this as a size comparison between 28mm lenses but all of these are very good and all together they cost only about $150 or $200.



Some primes to look into are the early Minolta, Pentax, FD Canon, Olympus and Nikkor models as shown above . Quite a few of these are every bit as good as new $1,500 Zeiss or Leica models (although without "Zeiss look" and the "Leica coloring"). Well, maybe besides flare and ghost control but so what...

Then there are zooms who's only problems are plastic bodies and slow motors. But adapted onto a mirrorless camera and used in MF mode who cares? Such can be found for $10 to $30 regularly and some of the ones I've used just cream the native offerings in IQ (again, this is assuming MF operation - which is big among alt users anyway!). Tokina and Tamron are the ones to look for in this section. Here's a set of zooms such as I'm attempting to describe:


This entire group cost only about $500 and a good third of these blow away any µ4/3 native zoom (of the same range) for example.



For me this is the most fun I've ever(!) had with photography! I go out and buy 3 to 5 20 to 50 dollar lenses that "look" interesting, bring them back, adapt them, and spend a day or two getting to know them. About 75% of the time I surprised at how good they are. About 20% of the time I'm floored by their IQ! And about 5% of the time I end up saying to myself: What total crap!



Dec 27, 2012 at 10:06 AM
telyt
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Anti Indulgence approach...


A couple of forums where 'cheap & fun' are king are mflenses.com and manualfocus.org


Dec 27, 2012 at 10:48 AM
RustyBug
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Anti Indulgence approach...


AhamB wrote:
Rusty's proposed kit sounds good to me, but I would save up for a Contax 28/2.8 and replace the Oly (which is cheap as chips) later.


Bingo ...

Even though I do have the C/Y 28/2.8 now, my Oly 28/3.5 still calls my name and holds its own ... as does my Nikon 28/2.8 AIS, but the entry $$$ for the Oly is definitely beer budget compared to the C/Y or Nikon. Probably >95% @ performance, <25% the $$$ ... which makes it excellent travel glass (i.e. cheap, small & light).

Of course, there is also the C/Y 35-70/3.4 or the Oly 21/3.5 ... but they don't fit quite as well into a $500 budget (maybe $700-$1,000), where the Oly 24/2.8 (my first alt) still keeps you close for a few more $$$ if you want wider/faster than the Oly 28/3.5



Dec 27, 2012 at 11:04 AM
ZoneV
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Anti Indulgence approach...


As others I think it would be good to search for cheap lenses on garage sales, fleamarkets and such. I get there sometimes expensive lenses for 10% of normal Ebay sold prices.
But first read a lot which lenses are good, and don´t start buying everything whats there - no Zooms. I think some people spend much money on bad lenses, or lenses that will not fit easiliy to their camera - like those Canon FD to Canon EOS cameras.
And take time to see at which prices are sold on Ebay (not those high Buy it Now prices).

Sometimes Ebay is good for cheap lenses too: Some not described lenses on cameras are pretty good - and cheap sometimes.

The Helios 44 58mm/2.0 is a very cheap lens with good performance. I got several for under 10 Euro each. Get some M42 extension tubes too (<5 Euro)

I think those simple 200mm f/3.5 lenses from Vivitar, Soligor, Tokina, .. are good and cheap (<30 Euro) too. Most 135mm f/2.8 or 3.5 lenses are good too I think. Have used those from Zeiss Jena (a bit more expensive) or Tokina (<30 Euro), or very old Steinheil Quinar (a bit expensive too).
There are Sigma YS 135/2.8 lenses (30 Euro) with special macro focus ring - I think those are not good performer - as long as you use them as they should normaly be used. With extension tubes and using the macro focus ring for bokeh control they are good tools - a bit like expensive Nikkor DC lenses :-)

Widenagle lenses are more problematic. Olympus 28/2.8, or even a Tokina 17mm/3.5 (~100 Euro) could be cheap enough too.




Dec 27, 2012 at 12:43 PM
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