looking for a good MF lens

weird i know but i am looking for a good MF lens that can be easily adapted to the EOS mount. ideally i would like something around 35-50mm with fast aperture (1.2-1.4). it will only be used on the 5DmkII for video and maybe even for general shooting if it is really good. i don't want to spend too much on this so let's keep it budget friendly

Look at my gear list. There are quite a few.

Anything in an Olympus OM or M42 screwmount will work great.

There are dozens of 50mm f1.4-f2 lenses in both mounts on ebay weekly. Most 35mm lenses are not going to be that fast

which M42 / eos converter would you recommend?

nwa2 wrote in post #7003223
which M42 / eos converter would you recommend?

Fotodiox, Haoda, CameraQuest.

Kind regards, Wim

any experience with the SMC Takumar 50 1.4 M42 mount lens? i can grab one for pretty cheap on ebay and it looks like a solid little lens.

blonde wrote in post #7003268
any experience with the SMC Takumar 50 1.4 M42 mount lens? i can grab one for pretty cheap on ebay and it looks like a solid little lens.

Jman13 seems to love it. Try searching for a few of his posts, that may help.

Kind regards, Wim

I would recommend getting your hands on a Helios 44-2 58mm f2. It has a really creamy bokeh and at f2 is relatively sharp. It is also really cheap because so many were manufactured. It is a derivative of the excellent Zeiss Biotar 58mm f2 lens. Also I don't know if it's just me or not but I sort of have a feeling that at f2 it's actually slightly faster then my canon 50mm f1.8. Also has an 8 blade aperture which gives a much nicer bokeh then the 50mm.

Picture straight out of the camera(just some slight level mod because my exposure was a little wonky. no sharpening watsoever)

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Oh man, there are so many to pick from!

The SMC takumars are nice, I still use mine and it cost me 30 bucks. Real sharp, but the bokeh is weird. I really like the old Nikon MF lenses too - they have some sweet normal lenses. The Summicron 35 f/2 is good but you want to keep it cheap so it's probably a nono, as is the Nikon 50 1.2. Your choices are massive - I agree with the browsing through gasrocks' gear list, it's insane., but for low prices, the taks are hard to beat.

Also there are better, cheaper options for adapters than to go through the big name retailers. Look to ebay - a lot of the made in china ones are exactly the same as the more expensive ones (same factory rebranded), but cheaper.

perryge wrote in post #7003721
Oh man, there are so many to pick from!

The SMC takumars are nice, I still use mine and it cost me 30 bucks. Real sharp, but the bokeh is weird. I really like the old Nikon MF lenses too - they have some sweet normal lenses. The Summicron 35 f/2 is good but you want to keep it cheap so it's probably a nono, as is the Nikon 50 1.2. Your choices are massive - I agree with the browsing through gasrocks' gear list, it's insane., but for low prices, the taks are hard to beat.

Also there are better, cheaper options for adapters than to go through the big name retailers. Look to ebay - a lot of the made in china ones are exactly the same as the more expensive ones (same factory rebranded), but cheaper.

That may well be true, but you might have to get three to find a single, properly working one. At least, that is my experience. Finish is, IME, not aal that great. Those from Haoda, FotoDiox and CameraQuest are very good indeed.

Kind regards, Wim

wimg wrote in post #7003841
That may well be true, but you might have to get three to find a single, properly working one. At least, that is my experience. Finish is, IME, not aal that great. Those from Haoda, FotoDiox and CameraQuest are very good indeed.

Kind regards, Wim

Oh yeah, you're absolutely right that there's a lot of crap out there - you have to know where to look, don't randomly buy made in china stuff because their QC is terrible.

I guess it is true that with the brand name adapters you can be more certain to find a proper working one. But the one I got was a no name china made one, which actually works perfectly(it mounts on the EOS correctly and the lenses mounted onto it perfectly focus to infinity) and it's actually machined pretty well.

Yah. I know a guy, member of this forum, he does quality control - I got a bunch of Chinese adapters from him and they're great.

blonde wrote in post #7003268
any experience with the SMC Takumar 50 1.4 M42 mount lens? i can grab one for pretty cheap on ebay and it looks like a solid little lens.

Great lens, excellent build, very sharp. I use this lens on my 5D. As far as M42 adapters go, I pretty much stick with two ebay dealers: happypagehk and big_is. The adapters from happypagehk can be coded with the lens' max aperture and focal length; the adapters from big_is can only be coded with the focal length at this time.

I just picked up a minolta rokkor 58 1.4 for $70 and i have been nothing but impressed by its performance. Heres a shot that was at F2. Focus was on her eye . No pp just converted to jpg.

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