Cheap, old lens for reverse mount.

[calforhelp]

First off, hello everyone. I've been looking for a good Photography forum for a while now. I'm just getting into photography and I'm getting my second DSLR.

I really like the concept of reverse mounting your lens for macro work, however, I don't really want to be exposing the rear end of my $1500 lens to do it.

So I'm looking for just an old lens that has a 58mm or 52mm filter ring that I can use for this purpose. Obviously autofocus doesn't matter and a manual aperture ring would be ideal.

I'm using this on a 7D but I'm thinking that an old, prime, wide angle, manual lens would be my best shot.

I won't be using the lens a ton so if I could find one on eBay for around $10-$20 that'd be fantastic.

I don't care about brand. All of my stuff is Canon but I'll definitely make an exception for this.

So to sum that up, I'm looking for a lens that is:
-Wide angle (below 30mm)
-Preferably prime
-Full manual (focus, aperture)
-58mm or 52mm filter ring
-above all, Cheap.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Derrel]

Pentax, Nikon, Canon FD, Minolta MD, and Olympus OM mount manual focus lenses would probably be good candidates. Nikon made a huge number of lenses with 52mm front filter threads, in many focal lengths. Olympus and Pentax had many 49mm thread lenses. Minolta and Canon were all over the place on filter thread sizes in the MF era.

Pentax M42 thread mount lenses, most of them with auto-diaphragms, had a handy Auto-Manual diaphragm stop-down switch, which makes it easy to stop the lens down to shooting aperture,and then open it back up with the flick of a switch, which is kind of handy sometimes.

eBay or a local area pawn or thrift shop would be good places to look; the 10-$20 prcie range is a pretty low price range, but there were zillions of low-priced 28mm f/2.8 and 28mm f/3.5 lenses sold in the 1970's and early 80's, with off-brand names...stuff like Asanuma, Sakar, Quantaray, and all sort so of other oddball names (Focal, from K-mart, etc,etc--those are the $10 and $20 lenses today. Name-brand will cost more than $20 sometimes.

 

[calforhelp]

I've found a lot of Nikon 28mm f/3.5 lenses but I don't know what the filter size is. It's not listed on the lens and the sellers never say in the description.

I'll hit up a few pawn shops in the area and see if I can find any.

EDIT:
Well hopefully this lens will work since I bought it
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...877369&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_500wt_1182

 

[table1349]

Since you are looking old a word of advise. DON'T LOOK FOR CHEAP!!! Old film gear is already cheap. You can find old film lenses for $10.00 - $20.00 these days. For a bit more you can get what was once TOP QUALITY glass for a few dollars more.

This is one area not to sacrifice quality, since the prices are already rock bottom. There are plenty of photography shops in Florida. Check around for something along the line of the FD 50mm f1.4. It was an outstanding lens and can be found for under $100. Nikon, Pentax, Olympus all made similar glass. If you are not looking into moving critter macro you might want to look for an old manual bellows and lens. I wanted to mess with one for some product stuff and ended up with a great setup for around $120.00 for bellows and a 50mm lens. New bellows are going for less than $100 and used can usually be picked up for around $20-$30.

Of course if you are looking to shoot moving critters, bellows are a pain in the butt.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[calforhelp]

Since you are looking old a word of advise. DON'T LOOK FOR CHEAP!!! Old film gear is already cheap. You can find old film lenses for $10.00 - $20.00 these days. For a bit more you can get what was once TOP QUALITY glass for a few dollars more.

This is one area not to sacrifice quality, since the prices are already rock bottom.

Just my 2 cents.

So was this a good purchase? I mean it was $7 shipped. Tokina is a fairly good name correct?

 

[table1349]

Since you are looking old a word of advise. DON'T LOOK FOR CHEAP!!! Old film gear is already cheap. You can find old film lenses for $10.00 - $20.00 these days. For a bit more you can get what was once TOP QUALITY glass for a few dollars more.

This is one area not to sacrifice quality, since the prices are already rock bottom.

Just my 2 cents.

So was this a good purchase? I mean it was $7 shipped. Tokina is a fairly good name correct?

You will know when you shoot it. In it's day it was an average rated lens. Nothing spectacular, then again nothing bad. And if you don't like it, $7.00 ain't gonna kill you. I hope. :mrgreen:

 

[Dwig]

...
Pentax M42 thread mount lenses, most of them with auto-diaphragms, had a handy Auto-Manual diaphragm stop-down switch, which makes it easy to stop the lens down to shooting aperture,and then open it back up with the flick of a switch, which is kind of handy sometimes...

Few of the M42 lenses have these switches other than the Pentax/Asahi Takumars. Most, though not all, of the other brands lack the switch. The switch, though, makes these lenses in effect "pre-set" rather than "manual" aperture, a distinct improvement. Takumars generally have 49mm filter threads though a few are 58mm.

I agree that you should avoid the truly cheap lenses, though many very good to excellent older film lenses can be had very inexpensively these days. The Pentax/Asahi Takumars are generlly very good lenses and can be a good choice.

My personal experience with reverse mounting is mostly with Nikkors. The 50mm f/2.0, 35mm f/2.8, 28mm f/2.8, 24mm f/2.8, and 20mm f/3.5 (later 52mm filter size version) all work extremely well. Most similar lenses from Canon (the FD and nFD mount versions), Pentax (both thread mount and K-mount), and Olympus lenses should all work well. Pentax and Olympus lenses will most often be 49mm filter size. Nikkors will be 52mm, and Canon FD are most often 55mm and the nFD are often 52mm. The older Canon FL lenses are 58mm or 48mm.

 

[jpatt6236]

I also did not want the rear elements of my expensive lenses exposed when I reversed mounted them for macro photography. To address this problem, I took the rear mount cap for my Canon lens and cut to top off leaving as much of the original depth as possible. I then took a 49mm to 52mm step up ring and super glued it to the top of the cap. The 49mm thread was just slightly smaller that the opening of the cap allowing for a flush mount of the ring. This not only helps protect the rear lens elements but allows you to screw on common 52mm protective UV filters or even a series of additional close up filters. Let me know if you would like photos. Total cost for the modified rear cap is the cost of the step up ring and some super clue.

 

[Dwig]

I also did not want the rear elements of my expensive lenses exposed when I reversed mounted them for macro photography. To address this problem, I took the rear mount cap for my Canon lens and cut to top off leaving as much of the original depth as possible...

This is a very good idea. Canon, BTW, offered such an item back in the old MF days. Their's lacked the filter thread, but did have a tap that held the diaphram lever in the stop down mode, a feature necessary with come variants of the FD mount.

Nikon offered a well made metal ring, the BR-3 ring, which provided this type of rear element protection along with a 52mm filter thread. The filter thread allows for easy attachment of additional hoods and macro flashes/ringlights, in addition to filters.