Good lens karma = scoring a classic

I was dead tired yesterday after a long day dealing with a sick family member and numerous doctors and nurses. Then I sat in rush hour traffice for a while.

Came to my downtown exit and decided to turn right and swing by my local camera shop. Chatting with the very attractive staff member, who I've come to know over many visits, I was already starting to feel better.

We chatted a little about the difference in Canon/Nikon (found out she shoots a 20D! I thought everyone in that store shot Nikon or MF). We got to talking about the difference in the lenses.

I mentioned I had shot in the store with the new Nikon 50mm 1.4 the other day. She mentioned that they had just taken a Canon 50mm 1.8 metal mount in trade that afternoon. I asked to see it.

It looked to be in really nice shape. She offered to mount on a Canon body, I said not necessary.

I didn't want to charge it on my credit card, as I'm trying to keep my "available credit" as high as possible since I've been thinking of grabbing a D700.

I decided I would get the lens if I had the cash. I asked her how much, she said $150 plus tax, came to $161.08

I reached for my wallet and started counting. I had exactly $162 in cash. We both kind of looked at each other, and she goes "you've got lens karma"

Of course I bought it. I haven't had time to shoot with other stuff going on, but wanted to share my story here before another long day with family illness.

Taking the shots just now, I noticed the lens had a date code. As long as I've been after a 50mm 1.8 metal mount, I didn't realize, or else I didn't remember, they have a date code.

Date code is UC0703, which I think is 1988. That easily beats my previous 'oldest lens' of URxxxx.

Here she is:

Cool story, nice score on the lens. Sorry to hear about the family issues, though.

Score! Nice. Any ducks?

beepclick wrote in post #7367590
Chatting with the very attractive staff member, who I've come to know over many visits, I was already starting to feel better.

This was my favourite part of the story .

Hey, you scored a classic! Hope to hear good reports!

I'm always on the lookout for that lens. I've owned a couple, then ended up giving them away (I'm like that).

The last one I bought was a couple years ago in a pawn shop in Reno, NV. It was mounted on an EOS 650 film body, and I bought them both for $75.00. It was shortly after that the prices on them really started going up, so I put it up for auction as a fundraiser for the forum. I think it sold for $125, if memory serves.

Optically, they're very similar to the nifty fifty, but they have (obviously) the metal mount and DOF scale. It's a great little lens, and it should serve you well.

timnosenzo wrote in post #7367632
Cool story, nice score on the lens. Sorry to hear about the family issues, though.

What Tim said. And I sincerely hope your family's health situation is resolved soon.

Ian

Thanks for the comments everyone. Much appreciated.

Just got the call - gotta go. Hold down the fort.

Oh man, this just serves to remind me how I missed out on one an online auction site. It is one of the dreams of any camera nut to find something like this undervalued because the seller is unaware of what it was. In this particular auction, it was clear they thought it wasn't as valuable as the newer II, never mentioned it as being the first one, and the pictures clearly showed the metal mount. Even bidders new of it, but didn't dare ask the obvious question for fear of alerting people who didn't know. I meant to bid on it, but it ended in the middle of the day so I couldn't. It went for about US$100, which is far cheaper than they normally go for.

Oh well, I did manage to get a Manfrotto tripod and head once for $10 at a garage sale.

But then it was stolen.

But I got another one for $75.

But that got stolen.

YEs, I believe in gear-karma.

sorry to yeah about your issues...

and damn, that is a score. I've know about this lens for a while, but is it the same TINY size of the new version? I love the cap (ALL black) and the fact it has a focusing ring. Is it's AF still noisy like the 1.8 II?

nice score though, regardless of IQ I'd keep it for the history alone.

jacobsen1 wrote in post #7368372
Is it's AF still noisy like the 1.8 II?

I'd bet that its the same as the Canon 15mm fisheye. I had a 35mm f/2 that is of the same lineage and vintage as the original 50 f/1.8, and the build quality and AF were the same as the 15mm fish.

Nice one. I purchased a camera body from someone last year--- the person called me to confirm and said he had a lens-- did not know much about it but it worked on my camera body (1D MKII) ---I gave him $10 for it--- when it arrived it was a 50 1.8 METAL Mount.......yippy! I still have it-- thought about selling it because I do not use it-- but hard to sell such a classic.

glad to hear this story. mine just arrived yesterday (from a fellow POTN'er).
it's 2 things to me:

1. built like a tank, compared to the mkII.
2. totally sharp and awesome. i only kind of liked it on my 40D, but it's amazing on my 5D.
i think i'm in love.

here's a test shot:

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rooftopsuicideclub wrote in post #7368677
glad to hear this story. mine just arrived yesterday (from a fellow POTN'er).
it's 2 things to me:

1. built like a tank, compared to the mkII.
2. totally sharp and awesome. i only kind of liked it on my 40D, but it's amazing on my 5D.
i think i'm in love.

here's a test shot:

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

full-res shot here:
http://www.flickr.com …skell/329553469​6/sizes/o/

Sorry but either your front lens is cracked or really wet...

Awesome find Congrats.

stathunter wrote in post #7368689
Sorry but either your front lens is cracked or really wet...

Perhaps, but you can't beat that MFD! =)