Challenge: Images taken using old manual film lenses: I hope people will join in because I know that there are a lot of mirrorless shooters out there using old manual film days. This...

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I hope people will join in because I know that there are a lot of mirrorless shooters out there using old manual film days. This challenge is really just for the joy of digging some of that old equipment out and giving it some new life. It does not matter if you are using film or digital all that matters for this challenge is that you are using an old lens from back in the day. New manual focus lenses like the current crop of Zeiss or Samyang and such don't count, we are looking for that great ol' ground glass of yesteryear.

Please list your lens and if you have the info the shooting information.

Both of my images were shot with a Canon EOS R, on the first image ISO 250, f/8, 125th the second image was f/5.6, 1/400th. The reflection of the chairs in the water from the first image is what served as the background in the second image.

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CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The drawback of the manual focus lenses is the EXIF is incomplete. The camera may know the ISO and shutterspeed, but not the aperture, focal length, nor the lens model. I use EXIFTOOL to update the files to define the lens model. I do need to try to limit the lenses used to one or a few with obviously different focal lengths. Otherwise, I don't know which lens was used from just looking at the images later. I don't guess the aperture and leave it unknown.

I like the manual lenses on digital mirrorless for a few reasons: a) image stablization from the body, b) focus peeking at 10x in the EVF, c) if shooting something dynamic or off tripod, the AF Illuminator, and d) shooting at the selected lens aperture rather than a difficult 2-step metering.

Below is a Sony a7R2, Canon FD 85mm f/1.2L, 1/800, ISO-1000.

Nigerian Dwarf Goat by Paul Sager, on Flickr

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Really nice image Paul, I have looked at that lens on eBay and elsewhere, what may be surprising to many is that I was able to buy the original EF 85/1.2 for less money that resellers are asking for the older FD version.

I agree with the data problem, using old school lenses does require a bit of note taking if you want to track your aperture and zoom settings.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Blurryeyed wrote:

Really nice image Paul, I have looked at that lens on eBay and elsewhere, what may be surprising to many is that I was able to buy the original EF 85/1.2 for less money that resellers are asking for the older FD version.

I agree with the data problem, using old school lenses does require a bit of note taking if you want to track your aperture and zoom settings.

I was going to sell all my FD lenses because I wasn't getting the results I wanted from film. My eyes can't focus without the EVF zoom or AF illuminator, not as well as the AF on a film EOS body can accomplish. Taking those manual focus lenses to the mirrorless Sony changed my whole perspective, where the results are everywhere as good, with only the modest more effort of manual focus.

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50/2.8 Travegon

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Spiratone [?] preset T-mount 28

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Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

CHG_CANON wrote:

I was going to sell all my FD lenses because I wasn't getting the results I wanted from film. My eyes can't focus without the EVF zoom or AF illuminator, not as well as the AF on a film EOS body can accomplish. Taking those manual focus lenses to the mirrorless Sony changed my whole perspective, where the results are everywhere as good, with only the modest more effort of manual focus.

I just ordered a Canon 35/2 SSC from eBay, it is the convex version, I hope is it is as good as I have seen reported, I couldn't find the concave version at a price I was willing to pay. We'll see. I have a lot of Pentax M42's and just a few Canon FD's. The few Canons I have though are very good, these images here don't really show how good this 135mm is but they were images I took this morning so I posted them.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

User ID wrote:

50/2.8 Travegon

What can you tell us about the Travegon, I don't know this lens, I do know of Spiratone and I love old presets, I find them more enjoyable to use than the latter stop down ring.

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Don't recall the lens but
the exif reads " f/0 " so
that means "old manual
lens, no data". Vaguely
recall some zoom creep
from shooting straight
down, so not a macro.

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35/2.0 Ai Nikkor

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50 or 35 or ?? ... prolly Ai Nikkor

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Blurryeyed wrote:

What can you tell us about the Travegon, I
don't know this lens, I do know of Spiratone
and I love old presets, ........

I guess you'd like it then cuz it's a preset.
It's a quality lens, sold in specific mounts
for Exakta and M42 ... not in T-mount. It
was available in both short or long focus
mount. The long mount goes to 1:1. The
front element is verrrrry recessed, about
same as an old 55 MicroNikkor. It has a
coating, prolly a single layer, and typical
machined aluminum build. Has a classic
loooong sloooow focusing helix .... goes
fully twice around to reach 1:1 !

My example has a few foreign objects on
the inner surfaces but no haze or fungus,
and is very sharp, close to zero distortion
and minor corner shading is fully gone by
f/4.5. IOW, it's a top shelf normal lens.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Asahi Pentax Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4, Auto Sears (Ricoh) 55mm f/1.4, Super Takumar 35mm f/3.5, Super Takumar 135mm f/3.5, and Pentax SMC 50mm f/1.2

I have a love affair with the old Takumars, probably because they were some of the first vintage lenses I started collecting.

Super Takumar 50mm
Super Takumar 50mm...