3 of My Favorite Vintage Manual Focus Wide Angle Lenses for use on Mirrorless Cameras

I talk about 3 of my favorite manual focus lenses that I use on mirrorless cameras.
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[@michaelrasmussen3347]

SMC Takumar's (Asahi Pentax) are also multi coated. The SMC is an abbreviation for Super Multi Coated 😉

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

@@michaelrasmussen3347 Yes, you are correct. Thanks for watching.

[@JaredTremper]

Yeah, I have that Pentax 35mm lens - on Z7ii it’s surprisingly crisp and even a pre-modern rendering except the far corners get a little less sharp. The multi-coating has lovely color rendering on mirrorless. It may not be ideal for landscape (unless I shoot in 5:4 or 1:1), but it’s killer for street photography.

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

I'm sure that the multicoated version would be better thank mine in a backlight situation. Agreed that its great for street photography. Thanks for watching.

[@williammoskovitz7772]

I too use Vintage lenses on my mirrorless digital Olympus camera (EM10 MarkII). My Konica 28mm F 3.5 and Tamron Adaptal 28mm F 2.8 both produce excellent results and are relatively compact even with the adapter. Both fly under the radar in my humble opinion !!!

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

I'm not familar with those 2, but there are many good lenses that are not well known. Thanks for watching.

[@williammoskovitz7772]

@@julesvuottosphotofocus4696 Jules: Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia that you might find interesting.... "Konica SLR interchangeable lenses were named Hexanon. The optical quality of most Hexanon lenses is regarded as truly superb, particularly the older fixed-focal length (prime) lenses. Many camera manufacturers of interchangeable lenses produce a few great lenses among their line, but Konica managed to achieve near excellent quality over a broad range of focal lengths[25] in lens tests conducted by several photographic publications over the years. Hexanon lenses were used by the Japanese government as the standard against which all other lenses were measured".

[@leod1671]

Thanks for the video, Jules. Of the older lenses I have one of the ones I enjoy the most is the Nikon 50mm “pancake” AIS lens I got when I first purchased my FE2. I have used it with my D100, D7000, and D850. I liked it so much that I purchased the 50mm1.8D lens so that I had autofocus. Can’t put my finger on it but the pancake lens was better in some ways. Anyway, enjoy your content, look forward to your next video on the zooms

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

@@leod1671 Thank you

[@zappa0609]

I am using next manual focus F mount lenses on my D750, and when I go to mirrorless, these lenses will be used on that also : Zeiss Planar 85/1.4. Zeiss Distagon 35mm/f2. Voigtlander Nokton 58mm/1.4. Voigtlander Skopar 28mm/f2.8. Nikkor 24mm/f2.8 AIS. I own a Micro Nikkor 55mm that I don't use anymore, and there will be 1 AF F Mount lens going to mirrorless and that's the AF20mm/f1.8, a sublime wideangle lens.

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

@@zappa0609 You have a very nice collection of excellent manual focus lenses. Thanks for watching my video.

[@thomasphillips5850]

One of my favorite vintage lenses is the SMC Takumar 28 f3.5 it is tiny, use the hyper focal distance and you can't go wrong. The SMC Takumar e5 f2 is another sweetheart. Great video ,thanks

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

@@thomasphillips5850 I have the older much larger 28 3.5 Super Takumar. Another small sharp wide angle is the 28mm 3.5 Olympus Zuiko. I’ll be publishing a video on that lens in a few weeks. Thanks for watching.

[@campbells0ups]

great video! in the market for a wider angle lens myself

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

@@campbells0ups Thanks for watching. There are a lot of good inexpensive manual focus lenses available from Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax. Thanks for watching.

[@philmtx3fr]

These old lenses of the 60s and 70s, full metal are gorgeous : canon FL or FD, Nikon non AI, Takumar, minolta before MD and even Miranda are great experience. If you accept rubber rings Olympus, Zeiss c/y, Rollei are also great. The old fashioned Nikon Zf permits a very simple focus assistance (far more pleasant to use than the focus peaking) and lets us rediscover all these jewels. The fact that they are full metal makes them the perfect companions for this great and beautiful camera. Thx Jules and don t hesitate to share some more lenses to try. On my side I pass get pry nice moments with Nikon 28mm f2, voigtlander 40mm f1.2 ( this one is new even if it looks like a Nikon pre AI) Nikon 85mm f1.8 and Nikon 105mm f2.5 and 180mm AIs ED.

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

I agree that the all metal lenses are beautiful. Thanks for watching.

[@randyk1919]

Great topic! I have and love, as well, the Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 and have built up a small collection of AI, AI-S and pre-AI Nikkors -- plus a couple Takumars -- for my Fuji X-T5. IBIS, specifically, has made all these old lenses more viable than ever for me. My favorites evolve but currently lean toward the S-M-C Takumar 55mm f/1.8 (thorium glass), Nikkor AI 35mm f/2, Nikkor AI 85mm f/2 and the Nikkor 105mm f/2.3 (Sonnar). Also using cheap adapters like the Fotasy, without any issues.

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

@@randyk1919 It is great, being able to have the use of IBIS with 60 year old lenses. Thanks for watching.

[@zappa0609]

Offcourse a 35mm is not really a Wide Angle but more used as a bit wider standard lens. 28mm lenses are great, wide, but not that wide that it has predominant wideangle distortion. You're right about man.focus in street photography, using zone focussing. The 24mm/2.8 AIS lens, I own also, sublime lens!

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

@@zappa0609 The 242.8 Ais is excellent.

[@cameraprepper7938]

I have used may kind of "classic" analog SLR Lenses, but I do not any mor, there are 3 issues, the asapters makes the Lenses much larger and heavier, you do not get EXIF data and for a 60 megapixels sensor full frame Camera, many old SLR Lenses cannot perform well enough. But what bothers me most is the lack of EXIF data, because I cannot remember which Lenses I have used ! So those that makes adapters should make adapters that can be coded with EXIF data ! I can recommend Contax Lenses, Leica R Lenses, Canon FDn Lenses and Tamron SP adaptall-2 Lenses.

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

On the Nikons if you set non cpu data into the camera it will record the lens focal length and maximum aperture but not the shooting aperture. If you change lenses you have to remember to set non cpu data for that lens. I will put in a voice memo with my Z6 and Z8 after taking the picture. Definitely not as convenient as using a lens with a cpu. Thanks for watching and your comments.

[@cameraprepper7938]

@@julesvuottosphotofocus4696 I just remembered that back in the early 1980´s almost all new Nikon Camera came with the cheap Nikon E 50mm 1.8 Lens which at that time felt like made in full plastic. Me an nearly all photographers I know did never use 50mm Lenses, any Lens shorter or longer than 50mm. So there are many 50mm Lenses hide away, that is also why it is easy today to find 50mm lenses in very good condition !

[@user-hz8mv2tx2f]

I like using my 28mm canon fd for street photography, but cant get shots i like with 24mm. Can you do a video on best way to use these ultra wide for street photo/news reporting/documentary style

[@julesvuottosphotofocus4696]

@@user-hz8mv2tx2f Good idea. I’ll try to find time to do that. Thanks for watching.