Manual Focus Lenses
My growing collection and impressions of them…
Tamron MD Adaptall 2 80-210mm 3.8-4
Tokina FD 50-250mm 4-5.6 Macro
Most of these were purchased at a local pawn shop…
I was in the store looking at the lenses because you never know what you will find where and the guy comes up to me and says, “I will give you 75% off anything in that case just to get them out of here.” That sweetened the deal enough for me to take the chance. I had already ordered a FD 50mm 1.8 off of ebay for $11 after shipping so I figured what the heck. I didn’t pay more than $9 for any one of the pawn shop lenses, most of them were in either Minolta or Canon mount, which I already had adapters for, and I only picked out clean glass.
I ended up with one PK mount Vivitar 135mm 2.8 that I gave to my father and one Sigma OM Mount 80-200 3.5-4 that will probably not get used until I decide to pony up for an adapter. All in all I think I got a fair deal on them.
The Canon 50mm, Rexagon 28mm, and Focal 28mm were all purchased on ebay. I initially bought the Canon 50mm to compare with a Minolta 50mm to see which was better, due to a shipping error I ended up with the Focal 28mm instead. I was a bit dissapointed although this gave me the opportunity to compare the 2 cheap 28mm lenses. Eventually I will add a Minolta 28mm and a Canon 28mm to the list to see what the difference in quality is.
The micro 4/3 format brings an opportunity to put some rather amazing glass in front of you camera for a fair price. Given the 2x crop factor, you end up with some odd focal lengths and it leaves a bit to be desired on the wide end. However with the 50mm for example you effectively have a 100mm 1.8 which would be cost prohibitve for me to attain any other way.
I believe that the manul focus lenses have also helped my photography in two ways.
The first is using primes.
By using primes I have been forced to think more about composition, effectively slowing me down and opening my eyes.
The second has been manual focus which has done the same. It has forced me to look at what I want in focus, depth of field, bokeh, and exposure all come into play. I have had to become more mindful of my practice and that is a very good thing.
In the end, with the manual glass up front, if I want to take a great picture, I have to set out to take a great picture.
