spring is here time for a new lens

scyzoryk_o4 · Apr 8, 2007

Hello...Well ive been cluttering this forum with my beginner questions but i guess thats whats it for right?? haha well here we go again...
So right now the only lens i have is the standard 58mm that comes with the zenit...now im looking for something a little more versatile. I need a bit more to play around with. Im thinking a zoom lens(no macro photography for me yet) of a sort maybe something in the range of 28 to 200mm?? or 75 to 300mm??i really dont know..
thats what i would like to find out...im planning to be taking a lot of pictures of forest, waterfalls, the beach, the escarpment, the lake, maybe a deer, an interesting jogger i run into..
so any suggestions on lenses that will fit my camera??
the zenit is a 42mm screw lenses single-pin operating type.
please be as specific as possible because im still new to the whole lens selection thing..
oh um depth of field isn't too important to me and i think ill be using 100 iso black and white film shooting in excellent to decent lighting conditions...
well again sry for the long post and any help would be greatly appreciated!

Maksym

Torus34 · Apr 8, 2007

The entire range of M42 lenses will probably work well. The Pentax series are considered by most to be quite satisfactory in terms of image quality and build. There are loads of them around.

Don Simon · Apr 8, 2007

Personally with m42 lenses I would stick to primes rather than zooms. As Torus34 said the Pentax (or Asahi) lenses were often very good, also good m42 lenses were made by Yashica, Fujica, Carl Zeiss Jena, Chinon, Cosina, Vivitar (especially the Series One or those made by Kiron)... many are listed here. But again I personally don't think these old manual-focus systems were best for zooms but rather for primes.

blackdoglab · Apr 8, 2007

Like ZaphodB said, stick to primes. i've got a 35mm Tokina and a 135mm Vivitar and like them a good deal. The Vivitar is great and realatively fast. The Tokina isn't bad either, but I've thought about trying either a vivitar or a yaschica. What's wonderful about the m42 system is that you have a lot of options for some good, cheap lenses.