Who all is using older film lenses? aka: cheap ones

I was just wondering how well some of the cheaper kit lenses from the older film bodies were doing on the Canon crop bodies. I am looking to upgrade from my 18-55mm kit lens, but do not have the money to spend on a $300 lens. I was hoping that there was an older EOS lens that would put me under $150 and still provide sharper pictures than the kit lens. I can do without the focal length down to 18mm, and could deal with 24-28mm as the widest. I just want something with slightly higher image quality than what the kit provides.

Any suggestions?

I have looked at the:
Tokina 19-35mm f3.5-4.5
Canon EF 24-85mm f3.5-4.5 USM
Canon EF 28-80mm f3.5-5.6 USM


Would any of these lenses provide superior image quality over the standard 18-55mm kit lens that I have now?

I have an old sigma 28-80 f-3.5 that still takes a good pic but faster to manual focus it I think

I would love to see some example images straight from the camera using any of these older lenses, as I cannot seem to find any threads regarding this.

civicseth wrote in post #5023330
I would love to see some example images straight from the camera using any of these older lenses, as I cannot seem to find any threads regarding this.

I dont think many people are still using them unless there higher quality lens' so they tend to hang on to them longer ,I havnt used any of mine in awhile I'll have to dig through some CD's to find em

Well, I think I found a Tokina 19-35mm I'm going to pick up. From the reviews and such, it will be an improvement from the kit lens I have now, but with a limited range.

the ef 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM and ef 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM have good reputations.

Jaetie wrote in post #5023449
the ef 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM and ef 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5 USM have good reputations.

Do these autofocus with, say, the 30D, 1D, 1Ds ?

.

24-85 or 28-105. My 28-105 is so good, and was so cheap, that it's single-handedly stopping me from buying a 24-105L (that, and the fact that I hardly ever use zooms).

danpass wrote in post #5023726
Do these autofocus with, say, the 30D, 1D, 1Ds ?

.

Just like all other EF lenses do.

You might look for an older version of the Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 EX DF lenses. I have one that is several years old. I just got it back from Sigma, they replaced the focusing cam and calibrated it, and it's fantastic! Probably a little above your $150 price, but well worth it.

If you want some amazing old "film" lenses, take a look at the Pentax Takumars or the Olympus Zuikos. They require an adapter to work on the Canon bodies and are manual focus, but they go for cheap and blow away any of the lenses you mentioned. You can pick up a Zuiko 50 1.4 for about $50 and a 24 2.8 for maybe $150. The quality from these lenses will blow away any L zooms in their range.

liquefied wrote in post #5023779
Just like all other EF lenses do.

[Hijack]

so what was the deal with canon "changing all their lenses"?

what was that all about?

[/hijack]

.

Hogloff wrote in post #5024107
If you want some amazing old "film" lenses, take a look at the Pentax Takumars or the Olympus Zuikos. They require an adapter to work on the Canon bodies and are manual focus, but they go for cheap and blow away any of the lenses you mentioned. You can pick up a Zuiko 50 1.4 for about $50 and a 24 2.8 for maybe $150. The quality from these lenses will blow away any L zooms in their range.

You mean all the L's in the $50.00 range?

I use the Tokina 19-35 Seth and from 5.6 to 8 it's very good on sharpness. The thing I like about this lens is that 5.6 and above there is no fringing. Hoya did a great job with the coatings and it's as solid as a rock.

The EF24-85USM and 28-105USM are both better than the kit lens.Not a huge amount better but a usefull amount.
The main reason you don't see many being used on digital is due to their lack of wide angle ability.

Interestingly i've seen a few specialist portrait photographers using them -i.e those baby photographers you see working in malls.

SlowBlink wrote in post #5024227
You mean all the L's in the $50.00 range?

I use the Tokina 19-35 Seth and from 5.6 to 8 it's very good on sharpness. The thing I like about this lens is that 5.6 and above there is no fringing. Hoya did a great job with the coatings and it's as solid as a rock.

That's good to hear. I haven't head much negative about this lens besides below f5.6 I picked it up for right at $100 shipped, so hopefully it will be a slight improvement over the kit lens.