DannyKaye Loc: Sheffield now but soon moving to Blanzay

Again, all of them, but I’ll try to pick a few.
Nikkor 200mm f/4 macro AiS incredible quality and from the 60s.
Laowa 15mm f/4 macro, the most corrected, perfect wide angle I have ever seen and focuses to 1:1.
Lensbaby, pretty much anything but the Burnside 35 stands out as exceptional.
Nikkor 24-85 f/2.8-4 hated by many but light, sharp and fast focussing, at least my copy is. Also cheap.
Tamron 90mm macro, in all of its incarnations, it just keeps getting better and better.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

My 28-300. I know, it's not exotic, but overall, it has surprised with with very good pictures. If I'd known what I know now, I would have stuck with Nikon crop cameras, my 28-300, Tamron 10-24mm, and Nikon 50mm f1.8. It's all I ever needed. I might have gotten something more specific for shooting inside gyms, but that's all I would have needed.

danersmiff

I had an old Sigma 18-40 (i think) I paid less than a 100 for.
It did not like working with my new camera, and shot soft.
Nothing was very sharp. I made a deal with UsedPhotopro in
Indianapolis, they gave me 105$ trade in.
I used the credit, some of my customer points, and $17.00
for a Canon 55-250 kit lens...
I call it my 17 dollar lens
(i know it aint-really-- but the other lens was useless to me)

chefpat1

Hi,
Without a doubt, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens. I paid around 125 for it and it has become my fav walk around lens for street photography. Tack sharp images and takes up little space.

Eckenheimer

For me, it was the Canon 40 mm f2.8 “pancake” lens that weighs almost nothing on a Canon full frame like the 5D Mark III. Sometimes it’s good to have a sharp lens that doesn’t weigh you down.

Ed Commons

I have been using Nikon cameras and lenses since the mid 60's. All lenses I have purchased have been of excellent quality. Haven't purchased many lenses since moving to digital I would probably stick with Nikon, however after using a friend's Sigma on a trip, I was impressed with it's quality. Don't get caught up in chasing lenses. Each manufacturer , be it Nikon, Canon or a third party lens can make an excellent lens of a particular focal length and a not so great lens of another length. It's always best to try out a lens. Professional camera stores will usually allow this within limits. Mail order. Check their return policy. Take the lens out immediately an shoot some test images with it.( Different lighting, different setting, different subject and download them immediately. The look at the images carefully. Other people have their favorites and will stand by them....... but I refuse to use a Canon lens on a Nikon.

User ID

Yes-yes ! Was glad to find an open box price
on that one, cuz I wasn't expecting anything
special ... just a work-a-day lens that is also
very tiny. IOW my expectations of it made it
unappealing at full price. I was SO WRONG !

Sometimes I even put it on a Sony, where it
is no longer a pancake due to the extension
provided by the adapter. But it's such a fine
optic that the image alone warrants using it
even without the pancake aspect.

Both 24 and 40 are Ghost Busters. I tried to
provoke reflections and found it's damn near
impossible even with a filter in place. Had to
check about that, cuz if these lenses needed
to wear lens hoods then they wouldn't really
be compact pancakes anymore.

Even at full retail, these lenses are the very
cheapest way to deliver a high quality image
to your sensor. Sharp from wide open, but in
some scenes the corner shadowing *might*
bother you until you get to f/4 ... or it might
not. Depends on the type of scene.

User ID

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Sony 16/2.8 Pancake.

Soooo many online comments saying it's
not sharp. When I found one cheaply enuf
I went for it, and I wouldn't say it's NOT
sharp. But it's not "impressively" sharp at
any aperture. But it's quite adequate when
stopped down.

OK so where is the SOOPRIZE ?

It's sold an APSC lens, but I enlarged the
opening in the rear baffle [very easy job]
and find it covers "H" format. So I use it
on my a7xxx bodies.

Here's the new coverage, and example of
the 351 degree in-camera panorams that
a 16mm enables on that format. Click the
"Download" invitation under the panoram.
It's good fun. And then use the magnifier
icon for a more bigger funner view ;-)

(Download)

Quinn 4

Retina - Xenon f:1.9/50mm lens and a Retina- Rotelar f: 4/135mm lens. Also the Retina-Curtagon f:2.8 35mm lens. All three lenses go to my Retina Reflex IV. Found the camera and lenses off e-bay for $75.00. A few years ago.

Flickwet Loc: NEOhio

Well it would seem that many of you are happy with your Tessars...also known as originally a 4 element design by Zeiss the same design has evolved as it became faster up to f2.8, with additional correction. The usual focal length is 45-50 in 35mm parlance, 75-125 in MF. any faster and you have a Planar.
Fortunatly the tessars are simple and cheap.
The beauty of the Tessar is: wide open they are the most extraordinary portrait lens available, fewer glass surfaces allows greater micro contrast, not as pin sharp as stopped down, but the subtlest softening of focus only serves the portrait itself. Oh wait, you want to do a landscape picture? Stopper down captain, she can take it.
This is why the Nikkor 45mm f2.8, are so divine still, on a crop sensor the lose the vignette gets and lack of corner sharpness that also contributes to their reputation for portraiture