M42 addiction?

Oh well, It was a while that I was feeling an uneasy sensation... the lack of prime lens... plus, an interest in vintage lens, because
I'm fashinated by this old style, heavy metal objects.... I find them beautiful.... To make it short, yesterday I was not in the mood of working, and I have been shopping on ebay for half a day... This is what I got:

M42 Lens to Canon EOS mount adapter
Pentax Super-Takumar 50mm 1:1.4
JUPITER-9 Russian 85mm Lens
Carl Zeiss Sonnar 135/3,5
Pentacon auto 50mm f1.8
PZF-Macro accessory bellows

I have never used seriously manual lens, therefore I am not sure yet if I'll use them or not.... but... I like them....

What do you think: am I going insane?

tiziano wrote:
What do you think: am I going insane?

That's precisely the question I am also asking myself now. What I currently have has enough bells and whistles to suit my needs, but no...here comes the 'old stuff fetish' and I'm now looking for an old Canon film SLR (from the age of the FD mount) and a 50mm prime lens.

Did you need to pay a good deal for those accessories?

That's exactly the problem... I bought all this stuff because it comes cheap... about 250 Euros overall.....
And last week I bought an EOS 3 film camera almost new for 300 Euros..... These things are so cheap, compared to new high level Canon stuff, that it's hard to resist.
I guess that, in a few months from now, I'll know if I'm insane or not, depending wether I'm using these things or not....

Oh, but the wisdom of today is foolishness tomorrow. Well, not always. Best of luck with your new purchases. Who knows...they might actually replace your current system!

Yes, have fun with them - If on the other hand you find you are not using them, you can always sell them back on ebay - There's always some idiot that will buy this sort of thing

kevin_c wrote:
There's always some idiot that will buy this sort of thing

Thanks Kevin! You know how to make people feel better!!!

Seriously though, have fun with the new purchases...
I've seen loads of old manual focus lenses on ebay and they do seem to hold a fairly good value if in good condition. Some of those optics are probably better than some new stuff, particularly the 'consumer' grade zooms.
I'm sure all the 'L' brigade around here will dissagree though...

EDIT: oops... I see you have an L in your line-up !!

Yes, I have an L, and I'm in love with it.... As you may have noticed, I didn't buy any vintage wide angle.... the idea was to cover the longer focus needs with cheap glass and good quality....

kevin_c wrote:
There's always some idiot that will buy this sort of thing

Did someone call my name?

Mrr tiziano, you ahve three very fine lenses there (I dunno the Pentacon). I have them and can vouch for them all. Of course, depends on condition. They could be rough. Mine are all minty fresh so no problems. The 135mm is about as sweet a piece of glass as you will ever own.

Enjoy ... and these lenses are appreciating in value all the time now (at least the good stuff is!) You can't lose. Try the Helios-44 58mm 2.0. Expect to pay £5 or so It's a great lens! Also, buy an adaptor for each and also a EOS end cap. Makes life so much easier.

Thanks Condyk.

Good idea, to have an adapter for each of them. If I find I'm using the lens, I'll buy them.
About the Pentacon, I plan to use it with the bellows, for Macro, because it has a focus distance of only 33 centimeters, and I paid for it only 10 Euros....

condyk wrote:
Try the Helios-44 58mm 2.0. Expect to pay £5 or so It's a great lens!

Just bought it.... It was new, for £ 8.95.... How could I resist?

I start feeling like those women with 200 pairs of shoes....

I thought you might 'pop-up' somewhere

Going slightly OT here, but do you get many problems with dust etc. on the sensor as I assume you are changing lenses fairly often(??) compared to us mere mortals with zooms...

kevin_c wrote:
I thought you might 'pop-up' somewhere

Going slightly OT here, but do you get many problems with dust etc. on the sensor as I assume you are changing lenses fairly often(??) compared to us mere mortals with zooms...

Never had any problems so far but who knows. Thing with primes is you change your shooting style and move around more. It's all much slower which is good. My keeper ratio really has improved from maybe 10% to around 40%. You just LOOK more and pay more attention to your settings. The realness of what you are engaged in improves significantly. But horses for courses. Some prefer to point and shoot machine gun style. I wonder how happy their wives are

condyk wrote:
.... But horses for courses. Some prefer to point and shoot machine gun style. I wonder how happy their wives are

Years ago I only had a 50mm and a 200mm with my old Canon A1 and took some of the best shots of my life with em.
As you say, you tend to 'look' for a shot with your eyes and use your legs rather than just using your zoom - zooms tend to make you lazy I suppose...

I do like my AF though , my eyesight is not what it used to be .

I change lens quite often, I and have to clean the sensor every two months or something. I do it myself, and it takes 5 minutes.