M42 Lenses - Your Recommendations?

Hi,
I'm looking to buy some M42 prime lenses, at approximately these focal lengths:

• ~18/20mm
  
• ~35mm
  
• ~50mm
  
• ~85mm
  
• ~135mm
  
• ~200/300mm

• ?
  
• Carl Zeiss 35mm f/2.8
  
• Pentax SMC Takumar 50mm
  
• Jupiter 85mm f/2
  
• Carl Zeiss 135mm f/3.5
  
• ?

The obvious answer at 50mm is an SMC-Takumar. There are many variations, of course, but they are cheap enough that you can go through 3 or 4 to find the best.

For the 50mm focal length, I'll go along with the Hoff. I have a 50/1.4 SMC Takumar that is excellent. However, if you plan on mounting this lens on a 5D, you'll probably have to file down the ring that encircles the rear element...it contacts the mirror on its downward travel. It only took me a few seconds to shave it down ever so slightly, and now it works flawlessly. I say 'probably' because the 5D is kind of quirky from one camera to the next with regard to the mirror box. Some will have an interference, some will not.

For other focal lengths, I'd recommend the following lenses:

18mm: Olympus 18/3.5 Pros: Very little distortion (practically none), very, very sharp. Cons: Hard to find, very expensive ($900 to $1000).

21mm: Olympus 21/3.5. Excellent lens...can be found in the $300 to $400 range.

35mm: Leica Elmarit-R 35/2.8 2nd Version, Zeiss 35/2.8. Both excellent lenses, but if I had to choose I'd go with the Leica (sharp corner to corner). Each can be had for about $250, plus or minus.

50mm: 50/1.4 SMC Takumar in M42 mount (about $60) or the Zeiss 50/1.7

85mm: Zeiss 85/2.8 (much more affordable than the Zeiss 85/1.4) Both stellar lenses.

That's about all that I can help with. I pretty much have the 85/2.8 as my longest alt lens...I'm primarily into the wide primes for landscape shooting. There are better lenses out there, but the price will usually jump up quite a bit. The little Oly's are very reasonable price-wise (with the exception of the 18/3.5).

So many choices, perhaps send me a PM with some specific questions about what.

Hoff, Gasrocks, any thoughts on the SMC takumar 55 1.8 vs the smc takumar 50 1.4 for use on a 5D, including how feasible an M42-EF mount would be?

How feasible is the mount? Very? Not sure of the question, PG.

RE: the 55mm, yea, I meant to say, don't discount the 55mm Takumars. My best one is a 55mm and I've tried a few 50's.

TheHoff wrote in post #6396524
How feasible is the mount? Very? Not sure of the question, PG.

Oh I was just referring to the 5D mirror and whether sanding of the mount is actually required.

As for the lenses themselves, they're so cheap that I guess it warrants trying a few. I'm not 100% happy with the canon 50 1.4 wide open, so I might give the takumar 50 1.4 a go.

perryge wrote in post #6396646
Oh I was just referring to the 5D mirror and whether sanding of the mount is actually required.

See my post above regarding the SMC Takumar 50/1.4...you'll have to do a slight bit of filing, but not to the lens mount. If you don't need to shoot at infinity, its not a problem and you can just slap the lens onto the camera and go at it. However, to get infinity focus with this lens on a 5D, you'll probably have to do the filing (unless you're one of the lucky ones whose 5D doesn't have a mirror issue).

On M42 I have :
Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f/2.4 - stunning lens. One of the sharpest 35mm FL lenses ever made and almost a macro lens (~1:2). better then the older f/2.8 version. Highly recommended.
Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f/1.8 - Very sharp! Better contrast and sharpness, lower CA and a nicer look wide open then the Canon 50mm f/1.4 @ f/1.8
Jupiter 9 85mm f/2 - unique bokeh, but far from creamy. I personally love it, others don't. Nothing special in terms of sharpness. Quite soft wide open. I prefer the Canon 85 f/1.8 to it.

I've got the Helios 40 (85mm 1.5) and Tair 11 (135mm 2.8). My Tair is an M39 mount, but it's available in the M42 mount. The Helios has unusual bokeh; the Tiar very, very smooth bokeh (there are 20 aperature blades on the Tair).

In any case, I like them both.

Have you looked at the Cosina/Voigtländer line? Very good lenses for reasonable money. Look carefully; some are M42 screw mount, others are M mount:

http://cameraquest.com​/voigtlen.htm

Hi, I've got a Pentax SMC takumar 50/1.4 you can have for nothing if you want to pay the postage. PM me...

I've a couple other M42 lenses I have to clear out, but I've not yet put them in the marketplace.

Apologies if this is the wrong place to say this...

There so many great lenses to choose from. These are only a few.

Jupiter 9 85mm f/2 This is a wonderful lens with very unique bokeh as Dragos has stated. I to love it and would never give it up because of the distinctive look it gives to my pictures.

Helios 40 85mm/1.5 This Russian lens is one of the most famous and expensive 85mm lenses in the manual focus realm right now, The bokeh is is again very very unique making the lens something special.

SMC or Super Takumar 50/1.4 At around $60.00 there is no better lens value the optics are very sharp.

Zeiss Planar T 50/1.4, 50 1.7 These are well regarded as some of the best in there class. You couldn't go wrong with either.

Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f/2.4 This seems to be one of the most popular manual focus lenses you can get, also check out the Russian MIR 37A this is also a well regarded, not to mention cheaper prime.

Zeiss Sonnar 135 /2.8 again very sharp optics. There is a lot of info and test out there on this lens.

SMC or Super Takumar 135/2.5 or 3.5 I've had both of these lenses and find them like most SMC and Super Taks very sharp dependable performers.

Preset Pentacon 135 /2.8 (The bokeh monster) This is a East German lens (I think) that has some of the creamest bokeh I've seen, very nice for isolating subjects.

I'm selling my Super Takumar 50/1.4, it never impressed me but I have something like 14 other 50's to pick from. The bokeh (6 blades) is not nice at all. It gets sharp by 2.8 but is nothing real special. Also thinking of selling my CZJ Pancolar 50/1.8, also 6 blades and nothing special to me.

I don't know if this has been mentioned(I didn't read everythingops but, depending on what camera you are using i.e. if it's a Canon EOS platform, then Carl Zeiss have just annoused a Canon EOS mount 50mm 1.4 and a 85mm 1.4. These are manual focus lenses but have the correct Canon mount, also I think they transfer the aperture setting to the camera so it's viewable on the LCD but I'm not sure on that.

I've also used a SMC Takumar 50mm on my 5D worked fine, but seemed to always over expose by about a stop, so I just dialled in the right amount to exposure compensation. Same for a Zenit 50mm and a Sunagor 70-210 f/3.5.