Manual lenses?

[brookie418]

What is your opinion on a manual lens? I was looking at a Canon 50mm, but it is manual and I have never used a manual lens before!

 

[robertwsimpson]

it's a lot like the automatic ones, but more work!

 

[SrBiscuit]

i find that i suck at using manual lenses when shooting on the go, but in a controlled environment, when you have time to compose the shots i find manual to serve me well.

 

[benlonghair]

I used to use a manual 50mm on my old Minolta SRT201. Wasn't a big deal at all. Of course it had a focusing screen in it.

Will this lens meter? That'd be my big worry.

 

[icassell]

I used to use a manual 50mm on my old Minolta SRT201. Wasn't a big deal at all. Of course it had a focusing screen in it.

Will this lens meter? That'd be my big worry.

I never had automatic lenses when I was actively shooting 35mm (Minolta XD-11) ... I never missed what I didn't know existed Even sports photographers survived for years without automatic.

The difference is that the current crop of dSLRs don't have good focusing screens. If you really want to go the manual route, you might consider getting a KatzEye screen (which I was about to do for my 30D, but now think I'm going to buy a 7D). I still find myself focusing manually quite a bit.

http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/

 

[Dao]

What is your opinion on a manual lens? I was looking at a Canon 50mm, but it is manual and I have never used a manual lens before!

Are you using a film body with a split screen?

Edit: nevermind ... must be digital camera since this post is in Digital Discussion ... duh!! If that is the case, what lens are you referring to? Is it a EF mount lens?

 

[usayit]

50mm manual lens from CANON is FD mount.... difficult to mount on EF digital body.

 

[Dao]

50mm manual lens from CANON is FD mount.... difficult to mount on EF digital body.

That's what I figured. Unless a EF 50mm lens with a broken AF.

 

[robertwsimpson]

I have a 50mm manual and a 50mm auto.

 

[usayit]

Back to manual lenses in general... you have to discuss a particular lens... there are good and bad. In general, older zooms are not as good as present day zooms. There have been significant improvements to zooms over the recent decades. As for primes, you'll find lots of great bargains assuming your camera system can be adapted to the manual lens. Some of these primes will be as good as their newer AF counterparts. Nikon and Pentax systems are particularly good at being adapted to older branded lenses.

Again.. depends on the lens in question.