What are good old lenses for canon?

[Nikon_Josh]

On a crop body, a 50mm is always a good place to start for portaits. As an example, this is a really nice 50 for the money: Carl Zeiss 50mm f 1.4 Planar lens Contax Nice | eBay

Keep in mind though, that when you adapt from other mounts, you lose all automatic control of the lens. You need to set the aperture with the ring on the lens, not on the camera body, and of course no auto-focus. You can get an adapter that has an autofocus confirmation chip in it, so the little red lights in the viewfinder will still light up when you achieve focus manually.

Landscape lenses on your budget will be a much more significant challenge... for landscape you need wide, and wide is expensive.

As you're looking around at old lenses, a good way to get an idea for how they perform is to search for them on flickr. Often there are entire groups dedicated to certain lenses, so you can see lots of shots and also talk to people that own them.

Analog, I see you got that Zeiss 35 1.4 in the end. How is it?? Seems like a beautiful lens from what I have seen and heard!

 

[analog.universe]

Analog, I see you got that Zeiss 35 1.4 in the end. How is it?? Seems like a beautiful lens from what I have seen and heard!

I did! It's been very nice indeed! I'm glad I waited for it and didn't just go for the 35L... The images from the Zeiss have that unique contrast and 3D look to them, in addition to being extremely sharp. My only complaint so far is that I noticed some longitudinal chromatic aberration in one shot. It was a wide open shot into some very bright reflections, and the highlights in front of the focus field picked up a purple color cast... easy enough to get rid of in post. Other than that I've seen no optical flaws at all, the center of the image outresolves my sensor even at 1.4, and the edges catch up by 2.8.

It's made for a much better walk around lens than the Zeiss 50 I've got as well. The 50 being a macro lens has a very long and precise focus throw (like 330 degrees), which makes it a little hard to quickly manual focus in certain situations. The 35 only has about 180 degrees of throw, and 1 meter to infinity is probably within 45 degrees. The focusing ring is also most of the surface area on the lens body, so the ergonomics of it are perfect for quick shots. It's still pretty good for closeups though, nice short MFD.

Seems to me like Zeiss went right after Canon and Nikon these past couple years, releasing the 35, 50 and 85 1.4's. I hope this means there's a 24mm 1.4 on the way soon!

 

[Dao]

Talks about 24mm f/1.4, Samyang is going to release one manual focus 24mm f/1.4. Based on their other fast lenses, it may worth take a look.

Samyang announces 24mm f/1.4 ED AS UMC lens: Digital Photography Review

 

[Nikon_Josh]

Analog, I see you got that Zeiss 35 1.4 in the end. How is it?? Seems like a beautiful lens from what I have seen and heard!

I did! It's been very nice indeed! I'm glad I waited for it and didn't just go for the 35L... The images from the Zeiss have that unique contrast and 3D look to them, in addition to being extremely sharp. My only complaint so far is that I noticed some longitudinal chromatic aberration in one shot. It was a wide open shot into some very bright reflections, and the highlights in front of the focus field picked up a purple color cast... easy enough to get rid of in post. Other than that I've seen no optical flaws at all, the center of the image outresolves my sensor even at 1.4, and the edges catch up by 2.8.

It's made for a much better walk around lens than the Zeiss 50 I've got as well. The 50 being a macro lens has a very long and precise focus throw (like 330 degrees), which makes it a little hard to quickly manual focus in certain situations. The 35 only has about 180 degrees of throw, and 1 meter to infinity is probably within 45 degrees. The focusing ring is also most of the surface area on the lens body, so the ergonomics of it are perfect for quick shots. It's still pretty good for closeups though, nice short MFD.

Seems to me like Zeiss went right after Canon and Nikon these past couple years, releasing the 35, 50 and 85 1.4's. I hope this means there's a 24mm 1.4 on the way soon!

Glad your enjoying it, seems like an amazing buy. I guess even the best lenses in the world have slight weaknesses like the CA you mentioned! Manual focus does intrigue me, I always rely on AF but feel MF could be amazing fun.

But what got me the most about the Zeiss lens, is how they are designed and the build quality. What a stunning piece of engineering! They look pretty darn gorgeous aswell.

 

[analog.universe]

Analog, I see you got that Zeiss 35 1.4 in the end. How is it?? Seems like a beautiful lens from what I have seen and heard!

I did! It's been very nice indeed! I'm glad I waited for it and didn't just go for the 35L... The images from the Zeiss have that unique contrast and 3D look to them, in addition to being extremely sharp. My only complaint so far is that I noticed some longitudinal chromatic aberration in one shot. It was a wide open shot into some very bright reflections, and the highlights in front of the focus field picked up a purple color cast... easy enough to get rid of in post. Other than that I've seen no optical flaws at all, the center of the image outresolves my sensor even at 1.4, and the edges catch up by 2.8.

It's made for a much better walk around lens than the Zeiss 50 I've got as well. The 50 being a macro lens has a very long and precise focus throw (like 330 degrees), which makes it a little hard to quickly manual focus in certain situations. The 35 only has about 180 degrees of throw, and 1 meter to infinity is probably within 45 degrees. The focusing ring is also most of the surface area on the lens body, so the ergonomics of it are perfect for quick shots. It's still pretty good for closeups though, nice short MFD.

Seems to me like Zeiss went right after Canon and Nikon these past couple years, releasing the 35, 50 and 85 1.4's. I hope this means there's a 24mm 1.4 on the way soon!

Glad your enjoying it, seems like an amazing buy. I guess even the best lenses in the world have slight weaknesses like the CA you mentioned! Manual focus does intrigue me, I always rely on AF but feel MF could be amazing fun.

But what got me the most about the Zeiss lens, is how they are designed and the build quality. What a stunning piece of engineering! They look pretty darn gorgeous aswell.

I've found that when I'm working with really narrow DOF, I get more keeper shots with manual focus than I do with auto. Perhaps it's a limit to my skill using autofocus, but even with center point and doing my best to place that point carefully, I often end up just slightly front or back focused. Catch the tip of someone's nose instead of their eye in a quick portrait etc... makes a huge difference at 1.4. With manual you can just watch the focus plane move through the image and put it wherever you want, even in places where there is no actual object to focus on. The only time I miss auto is for fast moving subjects, but I feel like that's even a skill that I can improve with time.

The build quality is the nicest I've ever seen, yes. 100% metal and glass, built to last forever. Even the hood is metal, with a precise bayonet mount. The control in the focus ring is as accurate as my perception can detect : ) You can turn it the smallest perceivable amount, and then back, and there is absolutely no play in the interface whatsoever, every motion translates to a focus change. Also infinity = infinity, turn the ring till it stops and you're there, no exceptions. I'm sure the construction accuracy is why they've never implemented an autofocus system.

 

[jkzo]

seems that godd old lenses are not dispensable. with inguniety these lenses can be put to use for extra ordinary results. thanks for enlightning on this issue

 

[Nikon_Josh]

I did! It's been very nice indeed! I'm glad I waited for it and didn't just go for the 35L... The images from the Zeiss have that unique contrast and 3D look to them, in addition to being extremely sharp. My only complaint so far is that I noticed some longitudinal chromatic aberration in one shot. It was a wide open shot into some very bright reflections, and the highlights in front of the focus field picked up a purple color cast... easy enough to get rid of in post. Other than that I've seen no optical flaws at all, the center of the image outresolves my sensor even at 1.4, and the edges catch up by 2.8.

It's made for a much better walk around lens than the Zeiss 50 I've got as well. The 50 being a macro lens has a very long and precise focus throw (like 330 degrees), which makes it a little hard to quickly manual focus in certain situations. The 35 only has about 180 degrees of throw, and 1 meter to infinity is probably within 45 degrees. The focusing ring is also most of the surface area on the lens body, so the ergonomics of it are perfect for quick shots. It's still pretty good for closeups though, nice short MFD.

Seems to me like Zeiss went right after Canon and Nikon these past couple years, releasing the 35, 50 and 85 1.4's. I hope this means there's a 24mm 1.4 on the way soon!

Glad your enjoying it, seems like an amazing buy. I guess even the best lenses in the world have slight weaknesses like the CA you mentioned! Manual focus does intrigue me, I always rely on AF but feel MF could be amazing fun.

But what got me the most about the Zeiss lens, is how they are designed and the build quality. What a stunning piece of engineering! They look pretty darn gorgeous aswell.

I've found that when I'm working with really narrow DOF, I get more keeper shots with manual focus than I do with auto. Perhaps it's a limit to my skill using autofocus, but even with center point and doing my best to place that point carefully, I often end up just slightly front or back focused. Catch the tip of someone's nose instead of their eye in a quick portrait etc... makes a huge difference at 1.4. With manual you can just watch the focus plane move through the image and put it wherever you want, even in places where there is no actual object to focus on. The only time I miss auto is for fast moving subjects, but I feel like that's even a skill that I can improve with time.

The build quality is the nicest I've ever seen, yes. 100% metal and glass, built to last forever. Even the hood is metal, with a precise bayonet mount. The control in the focus ring is as accurate as my perception can detect : ) You can turn it the smallest perceivable amount, and then back, and there is absolutely no play in the interface whatsoever, every motion translates to a focus change. Also infinity = infinity, turn the ring till it stops and you're there, no exceptions. I'm sure the construction accuracy is why they've never implemented an autofocus system.

Thanks for the insight! This is interesting, so the MF is actually a benefit at times not a hinderance as its made out to be by so many reviewers!