Good afternoon all. I wrote Fred Miranda this morning with the following query:
"Good morning Fred.
I'm wondering if you've ever considered a place within the current Reviews area for posting FM user-reviews of third-party older manual focus lenses, such as the Pentax SMC Takumars, Zeiss Planar T's, etc., etc., etc.
There's a tremendous resurgence in the popularity of these older, manual focus gems but there are few review sites that give their usage on new DSLRs any depth or detail.
Because I use several of these lenses ... as do so many other FMers ... I frequent the Alternative Gear and Lenses forum for opinions and info, but that's not as direct or quick as a dedicated review site. Quite often a search for one of these older lenses on FM.com will produce results that have little or nothing to do with the actual IQ of the lens on a modern DSLR.
Anyway ... just a thought. It sure would be great to have a central review site for these amazing (and relatively cheap!) older lenses."
Fred's response was enthusiastic, and here it is:
"Steve,
That is a great idea.
Perhaps you could start a thread on the Alternative board asking members which lenses they would like me to add to a new "Alternative lenses" category in the Reviews site. Could you do that?"
So ... that's what I'm doing. Please reply to my post with your choices for older manual focus lenses that should be incorporated into the "new" Alternative Lenses Review Pages on FredMiranda.com.
I do believe a simple list of your choices will suffice for now, ie:
1) Pentax SMC Takumar 28mm f/3.5
2) Zeiss Planar T 50mm f/1.7 MM
3) Zeiss Jena 135mm f/3.5
etc.
etc.
etc.
I don't think descriptions of the lens or reasons why you've selected them are necessary at this time, but perhaps Fred will inquire at some point later on, particularly if the list gets extremely long and unwieldy and needs to be trimmed down. I'd also suggest that you not concern yourself with duplicating lens choices that appear on someone else's list. Don't censor your own list because it appears elsewhere. The duplicating might be an easy way to come to grips with which of these lenses are the most popular and/or most sought after.
In any event, I think this kind of review section will be extremely helpful to those of us who pursue these types of lenses and who have found overviews, reviews and other details pretty wanting.
In fact, it may be that fredmiranda.com becomes the one, major and central source for user opinions on these lenses as used on contemporary and even the very latest DSLRs. For example, how would you rate an excellent copy of an old Pentax SMC on the new Canon xsi, if you were using such a combination? And if you were someone INTERESTED in how this combination performs before purchasing an old Pentax (and costly adapter!), where would you get your info?
FredMiranda.com!
Happy listing everybody ... and thanks very much for helping.
This certainly is a great idea, but the list will be huge.
I wonder if there might be a good way to manage the list in an orderly fashion before we get started?
For starters, I would like to see:
1) Every single Olympus OM lens
2) Every single C/Y Zeiss lens (and even the Yashicas, hell why not?)
3) Every single M42 mount lens (including Taks, of course) (ha!)
4) Every single Leica R lens
5) Every single Pentax K mount lens
6) Every single Tamron Adaptall lens
6) Convertible Minolta MC Rokkors
It isn't too difficult to find the complete listings of the categories above, and I'll do so if that's what it takes but, again, the list will be pages long.
I could send you an "unlocked" version of the Lens$db database pages. It doesn't have as many Olys as Paul would like, but it has pretty good coverage of many alternative brands. The older Splos$db (SMC Pentax lenses and other stuff) database has all Pentax lenses up to the introduction of the "crippled mount" no-aperture ring lenses. It'll be a big chore, but I'll be glad to add my $0.02 worth.
Voigtlanders lanthars (90, 125, 180....) Dynarex,...
Zeiss
Takumars
Old Nikkors
Vivitars (series 1,....)
Pentax 645, 67
Rollei
Jupiters
And pretty much all those that Cogitech suggested.
Here's the list of "alternative" manual focus lenses that I've used on EOS digital. The group at the end is medium format lenses.
Zenitar MC Fisheye 16/2.8
Pentax SMC Pentax 18/3.5
Spiratone YS 18/3.5
Nikon Nikkor 24/2.8
Olympus H.Zuiko 24/.2.8 MC Auto-W
Pentax SMC Pentax 24/2.8
Sigma Super Wide II 24/2.8
Kiron 28/2 MC
Carl Zeiss Contax Distagon T* 28/2.8 MM
Montgomery Ward 28/2.8
Nikon Nikkor 28/2.8 AIS
Pentax SMC Pentax 28/3.5
Pentax SMC Pentax-M 35/2
C Zeiss J MC Flektogon 35/2.4 DDR
Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm f/2.8
Schneider-K C-Curtagon 35/2.8
Pentax SMC Pentax 35/3.5
Spiratone Bellows Macrotar 35/3.5
Carl Zeiss Contax Tessar T* 45/2.8 MM
Carl Zeiss Contax Planar T* 50/1.7 AE
Pentax SMC Pentax-M 50/1.7
Pentax SMC Pentax-A 50/1.7
Leica Summicron-R 50/2 Lens
Pentax S-M-C Macro Takumar 50/4
Voigtlander SL Color Heliar 75/2.5
Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85/1.4 MM
Pentax SMC Takumar 85/1.8
Vivitar Series 1 Macro 1:2, with 1:1 adapter
Pentax SMC Bellows-Takumar 100/4
Vivitar Series 1 135/2.3 VMC [Komine]
Pentax SMC 135/2.5
Pentax S-M-C Takumar 135/2.5
Pentax SMC Pentax-M 135/3.5
Tamron SP 180/2.5 LD IF
Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 180/4 CF ED
Pentax SMC Pentax 200/2.5
Vivitar Series 1 200/3 VMC [Komine]
Nikon Nikkor 200/4 AI
Pentax SMC Pentax-M 200/4
Fujinon EBC 200/4.5
Tamron SP 300/5.6 Tele Macro (mod. 54B)
Nikon Nikkor * ED 400mm f/3.5
Spiratone Plura-Coat Sharpshooter 400/6.3
Pentax SMC Pentax 500/4.5
Vivitar Series 1 600mm f/8 solid cat
Mamiya Mamiya-Sekor 645 C 35mm 1:3.5 N
Mamiya Mamiya-Sekor 645 C 45mm 1:2.8 N
Carl Zeiss Hasselblad Distagon CF T* 50/4
C Zeiss J Pentacon 6 Flektogon MC 50/4
Mamiya Mamiya-Sekor 645 C 55mm 1:2.8 N
Carl Zeiss Hasselblad Planar CF T* 80/2.8
C Zeiss J Pentacon 6 Biogon MC 80/2.8
Mamiya Mamiya-Sekor 645 C 80mm 2.8 N
Mamiya Mamiya-Sekor 645 C 80mm 2.8 N/L
I would suggest that for the C/Y lenses, we not have different designations for the MM and AE versions (just mention it in your review), as they are often the same optical formula.
In additon to my arsenal of MF Nikkors (50/1.4, 85/2, 135/2.8 (post Q model), 200/4 (2nd gen model) and the amazing 300/4.5 (1st gen, pre-ED)...
the 180/2.8 Nikkor is incredible (tho it's F2.8 is offset by its weight)...
I found the sigma 24/2.8 to be better than the Nikkor 24/2.8.
I used a Vivitar 135/2.8 and was quite impressed with it.
The 50/2 pre-AI Nikkor is VERY good...and even better than that at 2.8.
Here's the list I have used or currently own. I would love to see other user's opinions on the following lenses....
OM 16mm f3.5 fisheye
OM 18mm
OM 21mm f2.0
OM 21mm f2.0 Macro OM 21mm f3.5 Macro
OM 21mm f3.5
OM 24mm f2.0 OM 24mm f2.8
OM 24mm f3.5 PC Shift
OM 28mm f2.8
OM 38mm f2.8 Macro
OM 38mm f3.5 Macro OM 35mm f2.8
OM 35mm f2.8 PC Shift
OM 40mm f2.0
OM 50mm f1.2
OM 55mm f1.2
OM 50mm f1.4
OM 50mm f1.8
OM 50mm f3.5 Macro
OM 85mm f2.0
OM 85mm f4.0 Macro
OM 90mm f2.0 Macro
OM 100mm f2.0
OM 100mm f2.8
OM 135mm f2.8 OM 135mm f4.5 Macro OM 200mm F4.0
OM 300mm f4.5
OM 35-80mm f2.8 OM 35-70mm f3.6
OM 75-150mm f4.0 OM 85-250mm f5.0 OM 500mm f8.0
OM 180mm f2.0
OM 250mm f2.0
OM 300mm f2.8
OM 1000mm f11.0
Nikon 500mm f5.0
Nikon 500mm f8.0
Nikon 28mm f3.5 PC Shift
Nikon 35mm f2.8 PC Shift
wow! That is a lot of glass!
Guys, it would help me a lot if you could also post a link to their websites. Let's also concentrate on lens that still for sale.
Thanks,
Fred
cogitech wrote:
For starters, I would like to see:
1) Every single Olympus OM lens
2) Every single C/Y Zeiss lens (and even the Yashicas, hell why not?)
3) Every single M42 mount lens (including Taks, of course) (ha!)
4) Every single Leica R lens
5) Every single Pentax K mount lens
6) Every single Tamron Adaptall lens
6) Convertible Minolta MC Rokkors
Fred Miranda wrote:
Let's also concentrate on lens that still for sale.
Does that include the used market? The list is going to be cut down drastically if lenses that are out of production won't be part of the compendium. It might be a good idea to go with the lenses that are still for sale first and then tackle the out of production stuff.
StevenPA wrote:
Does that include the used market? The list is going to be cut down drastically if lenses that are out of production won't be part of the compendium. It might be a good idea to go with the lenses that are still for sale first and then tackle the out of production stuff.
Indeed. The list becomes 10 times less interesting and this idea becomes significantly less compelling if we can only include lenses in current production.
The list is going to be cut down drastically if lenses that are out of production won't be part of the compendium. It might be a good idea to go with the lenses that are still for sale first and then tackle the out of production stuff.