The rarest lens? Really? And it's on eBay?

[dtornabene1]

This is quite the lens. I wonder how the glass would stand up next to today's highly advanced glass. Either way, straight lines at 13mm is pretty damn cool, even for me who is a Canon guy.

 

[Dubious Drewski]

What a wonderful find. It would be loads of fun to own a flat-field lens at that width.

I'd get it if it had the AF motor. Oh well.. Their loss.

At that width combined with f5.6, believe me, focus wouldn't be much of an issue. With my 10-20 at 10mm f4, I can just generally focus at an approximate distance to my subject and it matters very little; the depth of field at that focal length is deep.

Five inches and 3 lbs!! That's insane!

That's what she ... Argh. I shouldn't stoop to that. Hmph!

 

[Iron Flatline]

At that focal length, AF is really not necessary. You'd be FAR FAR faster just estimating and zone focusing.

Please brother. Don't confuse our G.A.S. brethren with skills and experience, it would take away their reason to participate in forums...

 

[usayit]

Please brother. Don't confuse our G.A.S. brethren with skills and experience, it would take away their reason to participate in forums...

:smileys:

 

[Sw1tchFX]

I don't know much about the 13mm, but unless the lens doesn't vignette at all like the 14-24, the Sigma 12-24 is also full frame, smaller, has HSM so it will AF even on D40's, and it's faster on the wide end.

But it's not really that sharp and it vignettes pretty bad at 12mm on film.

 

[ksmattfish]

Distortion free lenses were much more important before super computers and Photoshop (or other software like DXO). I'd spend $700 on CS4, $1300 on a fancy new computer, and then have $4000 left to buy a lot of really fun lenses, and be able to correct the distortion on all of them with the press of a button.

The thing is that just because it makes straight lines that doesn't mean the photo isn't going to look distorted. I remember a guy showing me photos from his fancy, high dollar, "distortion free", rangefinder lens; all I could think was "Is your refrigerator really trapezoidal in shape?"

 

[usayit]

Folks... remember the high price of admission is because the lens is rare... not because of what it does or performance (albeit a still nice lens). Once you cross into the world of collecting.. things are not logical nor straight forward. For example, a VERY WORN black painted Leica M3 will be valued several times higher than a a MINT conditioned Leica M3 of the exact same year..

My Heliar 12mm f/5.6 rectilinear lens "might" not be 100% head to head BUT its 1/10 of the cost and 1/10 the size. The difference is that my lens is still in production and very commonly found.