Manual lensesForgotten gems

Petteri Hietavirta

flickr.com/photos/pepez/

twitter: pethie

Manual lenses are

• Prime or zoom lenses without autofocus

• Not necessarily the same system as the camera

• Available at second hand markets

• Cheap

...

• Strong built• Possible to fix yourself• Primes are mostly ok, zooms not that

great• Plenty of makers, some unknowns

– Chinon, Tokina, Pentax, Pentacon, Helios, Jupiter, Soligor, Carl Zeiss etc...

SMC Takumar 55mm f1.8

Vivitar 35mm f1.9

Amanda Deluxe 135mm f3.5

Uses

• Portraits

• Landscape

• Macro

• Video

• Experiments!

What is required?

• A simple £10 adapter in many cases

• In some cases an adapter with a lens element

• Knowledge about which lens works with your camera

• Focusing screen

M42 to Canon EOS Adaper (photo: CC chunghow33)

Common camera systems

System distance

Canon FD 42.00

Canon EOS 44.00

Contax/Yashica 45.00

Leica M 27.80

Leica R 47.00

M42 45.50

Micro 4/3 19.25

Minolta MD 43.50

Minolta AF 44.50

Nikon 46.50

Olympus E-system 38.85

Olympus OM 46.00

Pentax K 45.50

T2 55.00

distance

Canon EOS fitting with adapter without a lens

Canon FD 42.00

Canon EOS 44.00

Contax/Yashica 45.00

Leica M 27.80

Leica R 47.00

M42 45.50

Micro 4/3 19.25

Minolta MD 43.50

Minolta AF 44.50

Nikon 46.50

Olympus E-system 38.85

Olympus OM 46.00

Pentax K 45.50

T2 55.00

How to buy

• Available at typical second hand market places

• Check price level, certain lenses are high on demand and expensive

• Beware of M42/T2 difference, similar looking but wont fit

• Check operation - no deep scratches, smooth focus, no fungus, clean aperture blades

• Radioactivity

How to use

• Use manual or aperture priority• Set aperture wide open, focus, set aperture

for the photo– Preset focus lenses

• Check focusing using live view with 5x magnification

• Check how accurately the AF-confirm adapter works

Amanda Deluxe 135mm f3.5

Questions?

Petteri Hietavirta

flickr.com/photos/pepez/

twitter: pethie