Any recommendation for 24-35mm prime lens? Even MF or M42 will do.

sapphire · Sep 18, 2012

Hello everyone, I am very excited to be in this forum. This is my first post as you can see. I had my t3i for 3 months now. Currently I got the 18-55, 50 1.8, 70-300, and my new love Rokinon 8mm fisheye.

I have been taking pictures everyday now and I love the 50 1.8 prime. But it's already at the point that I am very fussy about the sharpness or maybe I just read too much about the 50mm 1.4 canon and the sigma. So I am now looking for new prime lens.

I read a lot about old and cheap MF lens like the SMC super takumar 1.4 50mm. I can get it from eBay for $50.

I have been using my MF Rokinon 8mm quite a bit and I have no problem using MF lens.

Since I don't have $400 to spend on a 50mm 1.4 canon. I would hope to ask for suggestions for older MF lens, I am going to go the M42 converter .

Often 50mm is a bit too tight for me most of the time as a walk around lens. So I hope to find something in the 24-35 mm range and f/2 or smaller.

There are just too many old lens floating around so I can't really decide which one to get. I looked at the zeiss Planar T*, etc.

TIA!!

sapphire · Sep 20, 2012

Hmmm... No replies.. Just wanna ask should I post my message in another forum section? I am pretty new to this site and not sure which is the right section to post.

zcar21 · Sep 20, 2012

Maybe 8mm is not a problem in manual focus but at 35m it might be. The best choices are sigma 30 1.4, canon 24 2.8, canon 28 2.8 or canon 35 2.8. I'll go with sigma for the best quality for under $400, or canon 28mm for the cheapest option.

sapphire · Sep 21, 2012

Thanks for your suggestions. I also found out Sigma 30mm 1.4 is a popular prime for cropped frame. I have also looked at the Rokinon 35mm f/1.4 MF lens, but people are saying it's a FF lens?

jaomul · Sep 21, 2012

EF 35mm f/2. Excellent lens for relatively small money

zcar21 · Sep 21, 2012

yeah, I'm sorry the 35mm is f/2.0. Like I said before at 8mm everything is in focus but at 35mm it's better to have af. There is a rokinon 14mm also, this one shouldn't be a problem for manual focus but it's about $400, and the sigma 30mm seems like a better choice.

Derrel · Sep 21, 2012

Yeah, the 50mm f/1.4 Super-Takumar is a pretty logical m42 choice. The 55mm f/2 or 55mm f/1.8 Super-Takumar is a lot cheaper...I got one two months ago + a 3-piece Vivitar Series 1 m42 extension tube set for $9.95 at Goodwill. It's a pretty sharp lens, but a BIT difficult to focus accurately with ease--it has a very slooooooow manual focusing ring travel, and it's...tough to focus, for my middle-aged eyes.

Nikon's older 50mm f/2 is "okay" also...same with their 35mm f/2 O.C. Nikkor, which is "old" now, and low-cost.

panblue · Sep 21, 2012

Sapphire,
M42 Meyer/Pentacon 3.5/30, or 2.8/35 Flektogon, (the 2.4 is a lot more expensive);
or 2.8/24 Konica Hexanon, (if you can find an adaptor to mount it).

Probably a few Soviet lenses too that I've forgotten the names of.

sapphire · Sep 22, 2012

Thanks for the suggestions. My friend has the 35mm/2, it seems to have pretty good IQ. I never compare, but wonder if it's sharper than the 50mm 1.8 or not. Also, how the 24mm and the 28mm 2.8 sharpness compare to the 50mm 1.8?

For AF lens, I guess my best bet is the Sigma 30mm 1.4 $400~ need to save up

For MF lens, I never looked at the 35mm f/2 O.C. Nikkor before, how does it measure up to the Canon counterpart in IQ?

Meyer 30mm 3.5 and Flektogon 35mm 2.8, I heard of them, if they are cheap and just as sharp as the Canon 50mm 1.8, that would probably be my best choice.

What body are you using panblue?

Last question, using MF lens for street photography is a big NO NO? Can't I just stop down to like 5.6 or 7 and rely on hyperfocusing?