Hi Jon,

Thanks for sharing that clip. It looks great. Being a musician, I especially enjoyed how we built three instruments into one, but then tuned them so he would only have to fret the positions on one of the necks. Very interesting.

Hey Dave, can you post an example clip?

Excellent thread idea! Here's my top 4 based on what I reach for in my bag....

Vivitar Series One 28-90 2.8-3.5: As an event shooter, I like this lens because it hits the sweet spot when it comes to documentary shooting. Very useful focal range and excellent optics.

Vivitar Series One 70-210 3.5 (Kiron Version): Very useful zoom range and excellent "vintage" look especially during magic hour.

Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 50mm 1.4: Superb lens and a true "bokeh monster". Super sharp at 1.4 and the colors it produces are wonderful.

Helios 44M (58mm f/2): It's seriously one of the best, if not THE BEST kit lens ever made.

The Volna-3 80mm 2.8: This one is actually a medium format lens in the Pentacon Six lens mount. It's not the fastest but I love the optical quality of this piece of glass. It's wonderful to use when there's a sufficient amount of light for great telephoto shots. It also runs under $100 so if you need an 80-90mm prime on a budge, this is a great option. I use it alot!

Runners Up.....

Mamiya Sekor 55mm 1.4/Rikenon 55mm 1.4: Both these lenses were made by the same manufacturer, Tomioka, and have a wonderful look to them. I use the Rikenon variant and love the focusing ring on it.

Mir 24M: Fantastic lens. Super sharp, super contrasty, and excellent build quality. Add to that, it's also practically a macro lens. The only reason it doesn't make the top 4 is because the 35mm focal range is an odd one for me to use as a prime.

Great thread!!!

I was in the search for vintage lenses for 3 reasons:
1. they are cheap
2. many of them are great for video
3. they also fit full frame cameras like my 5d

I' am going for the following list:

1. takumar 50mm 1.4 (for portraits)
2. mir-24m (for use as 50mm on 1.6 crop factor cameras like 550d)
3. helios44m (i live the bokeh)
4. vivitar 28-90mm 2.8-3.5 (for events where I need various focal lengths)
5. zenitar 16mm 2.8 fisheye (I like the fish-eye lenses for some cases)

my question is:

is there a vintage super wide with the characteristics of tokina 11-16? (e.g a 11mm 2.8 prime)

I also want to buy an anamorphic adaptor but maybe later...

Can someone tell me how this works?

What are the differences on a full-frame/crop body (i.e. 1.5/1.6). Do they vignette? What is the crop factor? Are there any disadvantages? I am very interested in these lenses.

One note on the SMC Takumar 50 f1.4; as great as this lens is, it often requires a "de-yellowing" step. Many of these lenses have a slight yellow tint on the one of the lenses caused by one of coating methods. This can be removed by leaving the lens in a window for a few weeks facing the sun or quicker by artificial UV exposure, if you have that available.

The lens is superb once de-yellowed.

It is a sensor size thing...
Everything about it is here: Crop factor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Is there a lens in the range of 16-35mm?

Can someone explain it to me? I really can't find an answer to my question at that wiki page.

Ok, any OM lens is going to be nice. 50 1.4 in the house !

completely overlooked, total steal. Vivitar 35-105 3.5. Under $100. constant iris, internal zoom ! check out my review here Is the 1976 Vintage Vivitar 35-105 3.5 a Mini Primo ? UPDATED

I'll have a video review up

anything vivtar series 1 should be nice - I have a 28mm 1.9. wasn't so cheap, great lens. also got a 400mm 5.6 I'm liking :)

its easy to spend a lot for a good lens, far more challenging to find a good one for less.

I'm also considering a OM 35-105 2.8, $1200 or so if you can find one, and a OM 21 F2.0

Update.

5 Votes: Helios 44m 58mm f/2
4 Votes: MIR 24m 35mm f/2
3 Vote: Olympus OM (50mm f/1.4)
2 Votes: Nikon MF lenses
2 Vote: Takumar SMC 50mm f/1.4
1 Vote: Helios 40-2 f/1.5
1 Vote: Ziess Planar T
1 Vote: Leica-R series lenses
1 Vote: Micro-Nikkor 55mm f/3.5
1 Vote: Nikkor 105mm f/2.5
1 Vote: Nikkor 180mm f/2.8
1 Vote: Vivitar 35-105 f/3.5 or f/2.8
1 Vote: Volna-3 80mm f/2.8
1 Vote: Mamiya Sekor 55mm 1.4
1 Vote: Rikenon 55mm 1.4

For those of you asking about wider vintage lenses.. I haven't come across anything yet but I am not going to rule it out. For a range of atleast 16mm you will need a 10mm. I think that the Tokina 11-16mm is going to be the way to go for the T2i users. Couple the top vintage lenses with 1 $600 lens and you'll have about $900-$1000 in lenses alone. Couple that with the price of the T2i, you'll have around $1,800 in bassic equipment. For some of you who are just getting into videography, you chose the T2i simply because it was cheap and it had superb ability. If Canon never came out with the T2i (or other DSLRs), your "cheap" rout for this kind of quality would be waaaaaay above the $2,000 mark. Remember, the XH-A1 started at $4,000 and even then you didn't have good shallow depth of field nor the ability to switch lenses.

Interestingly enough, I have two similar lenses, a MD mount Vivitar 35-105/3.5 and a M42 Makinon 35-105/3.5. Both are constant iris, internal zooms, but are build very differently. Even my Vivitar looks a bit different from yours.

what the serial # on the vivitar ? mine starts with 37, so its made by tokina. it does seem that they made at least 2 versions of this lens.

also to note, there are 6 versions of their series 1 70-210 zoom, ver 3 seems to be the best optically. however it is a single touch lens :( all the rage back then, not at all these days.

My Vivitar also starts with "37", a Tokina build. The "macro" ring and colours look different from yours, and also the aperture goes in the opposite direction (assuming you didn't flip the pic).

Ok, in order to understand crop factor you really have to do some reading. So, check this: A simple but very direct way of showing the difference between full frame and crop sensor | Philip Bloom

Practically is a number that you have to multiply with your lens's focal length in order to understand how your camera sees the image compared with a full frame camera.
So, if you have the 7d or 550d or 60d (they all have a crop factor x1.6) and you use a mir-24m which has a focal length of 35mm your camera will crop the image as if your lens was a 56mm (35mm x 1.6 = 56mm).

The good thing about vintage lenses (besides the lens personality) is that they were made for full frame cameras and they work in both crop and ff bodies!

That's the basic idea about crop factor I hope I helped you.