Wide Open Only Lenses

Anyone have maybe an older lens, or a broken lens, or whatever, that you can still use but only wide open? Do you use it a lot, sometimes, or never? I have an older Sigma 180mm Macro which has excellent IQ, but it can only be used wide open on the DSLRs. I do have an old EOS620 on which it works fine. It's a great lens overall (IQ and 1:1 macro), and I just trying to decide if I should keep it. Oh, and because someone will tell me to, it's no longer supported by Sigma, and can not be re-chipped.

I had a sigma 24mm f/2.8 prime that was the same way. I still enjoyed it wide open on a 5D. None of the older lenses like this hold much value, so you may as well keep it.

My 135L is in perfect working order, but I might not notice for a while if the aperture broke

Ha! I don't think I ever stopped down the 135L either when I owned it.

I would say that for macro use the ability to stop down is very important. You can play with shallow DOF effects, but all your pictures would soon start to look the same. I should probably admit I am not a big fan of the shallow DOF effect that seems popular at the moment, but all the same, in macro even f/8 will not give a big DOF. For non-macro uses you should be fine.

Madweasel wrote in post #14723982
I would say that for macro use the ability to stop down is very important. You can play with shallow DOF effects, but all your pictures would soon start to look the same. I should probably admit I am not a big fan of the shallow DOF effect that seems popular at the moment, but all the same, in macro even f/8 will not give a big DOF. For non-macro uses you should be fine.

Agreed! For a portrait lens, maybe?!? Not for a macro lens!

Scanning film is rather tedious. You could consider trying a Canon 10D camera which may still stop down properly with your Sigma lens as the 10D seems to be the break point. You'd have decent digital macro system for little money. I've seen Canon D30, D60, and 10D bodies go very cheaply on Craigslist.

I have some lenses without moveable iris - only one f-stop:
Mirror lens (catdioptric) 500/8 and 1000/10.
Microphotographic lenses like Olympus 50/3.5.
Microscopy lenses like Nikon CF Plan 10x n.A.0.3
Relay lenses
Reprographic lenses like Rodenstock Apo Gerogon

Some of these lenses are so sharp that it seems every smaller aperture will deteriorate image quality

Cesium wrote in post #14723837
Ha! I don't think I ever stopped down the 135L either when I owned it.

+1 from when I owned one, I dont think I ever considered stopping down either.

Yeah, I really like the IQ of the lens, the FL is nice, and to have the true macro had been a bonus. I don't really do any macro stuff, but it's nice to know I have the option if I want it.

You guys have totally swayed me to keep the lens. For what I paid for it, I couldn't touch a lens with half the IQ. I have my trusty EOS620 from back in the day, and the lens works fine on it, so if I wanted, I also have that. But I do like it for a portrait lens as well, albeit a little long.

Here's one I took of my daughter over the weekend using it, only brought out the colors a bit, and resized, otherwise SOOC: