|
|
Post by Barrington on Feb 14, 2018 10:23:49 GMT
Sounds fab Barry. Which lenses are you using? The wife would probably want a single lens with reasonable zoom, 28-100 ish - is that out of the question with such a camera? You would need to look at the Lumix LX100. Has a 24-70mm zoom. Yep another great camera I had one of its predecessors , the LX 100 has stuck around for quite a while in these days of forever changing models. |
|
|
|
Post by julesd68 on Feb 14, 2018 19:08:43 GMT
Sounds fab Barry. Which lenses are you using? The wife would probably want a single lens with reasonable zoom, 28-100 ish - is that out of the question with such a camera? Mine came with a 12-32mm I do have a 30-100 also , if she isn't going to swap lenses a camera with a fixed zoom may be a better bet. The Panasonic TZ range are very good the TZ100 is an excellent camera and with the TZ200 coming out soon the price will come down. . Tz100 looks ideal, perfect travel camera, especially if the price comes down! |
|
|
|
Post by ChrisB on Feb 16, 2018 13:04:19 GMT
Back to my adventure with old lenses now, if you don't mind. One recent purchase has been a Sigma lens with an M42 threaded mount. I was actually interested in the other lens included in this lot which contained a camera, two lenses and a flash unit among other things. The Sigma is a 28-200mm f4-5.6 zoom with macro. It's of almost all metal construction and weighs a fair bit for its size.  Vintage Sigma lens: photo taken with vintage Pentax 35-70mm f3.5-4.5 on (semi-vintage) Canon 20DBeing an M42 mount, this one needed a different adapter. It's manual focus only, so there was no need to get one with a focus confirmation function. However, it did need a variant that has a flange designed to depress the pin which allows manual selection of aperture. No big deal, the adaptor was still under £4. The lens and all the gear that came with it cost a princely £17. I'm trying to learn how to make better pictures and I thought this lens might be good fun to use while playing about with shutter priority mode. We set up a bird feeder just outside the kitchen door a couple of weeks ago in order for me to do things like this. The photo below is one of my early attempts. Shutter priority: some things happen really fast. Trying to manually focus on something that isn't there yet is tricky!! I don't think it's too bad for a first go though.  |
|
|
|
Post by Slinger on Feb 16, 2018 14:05:49 GMT
I like that Chris, the foreground is nice and sharp and loads of lovely Bokeh in the background.
|
|
|
|
Post by ChrisB on Feb 16, 2018 14:11:21 GMT
Thanks.
The photo looks as though it's on the wonk, but the pole isn't vertical at the moment due to the fact that a bloody great Rook landed on it the other day!
Aren't bird's wings just incredible pieces of engineering?
|
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Feb 16, 2018 14:35:24 GMT
Superb photo for a quick test with an unfamiliar lens, Chris.
I had a later Sigma zoom like that for my Minolta X-300. I got a lot of good use out of it and practically gave it away in the end.
|
|
|
|
Post by ChrisB on Feb 16, 2018 14:45:45 GMT
I'm dead chuffed with it. For the price I paid, it's rather incredible!
Alongside all of our old Pentax lenses, I've managed to snag 4 four really good quality lenses, all in excellent condition for a total of 24 quid. Seems you're not alone in practically giving lenses away, Martin.
|
|
|
|
Post by ChrisB on Apr 7, 2018 15:35:50 GMT
Well, haven't I been having fun with this game?!
To date, I've snagged quite a collection of lenses from Ebay, all for under £20 each. In fact, I think the highest price for a single lens has been £15. My best bargain, though has been a biggish Pentax zoom with a slightly dented hood, which I hooked for a mere 99 pence!
Here's the list of what I have bought:
Zeiss 135mm f/2.8 - mint condition, a beautifully built piece of greatness. Praktika bayonet mount (part of a photographer's complete kit of stuff for £7)
Zeiss 50mm f/1.8 - not perfect, but usable. Praktika bayonet mount (part of the above pile of gear)
Helios 58mm f/2.0 - the standard lens on all those 100s of 1,000s of Zenit cameras, sought out for the whacky bokeh effect it produces. M42 screw mount (part of another complete set of gear for £16)
Sigma 28-200mm f4-5.6 - as seen in the post above. M42 screw mount (part of the above pile of gear)
Pentax 50mm f/1.7 - this one is incredibly sharp now that I have dismantled and cleaned it, but it came with a bad fungal infestation on all of the elements. Pentax K-mount bayonet. (£12)
Pentax Takumar 55mm f/2.0 - the most beautifully engineered lens I have ever used. Perfection - I want more Takumars!! M42 screw mount (£12)
Pentax 80-200mm f/3.5-4.5 - superb. The built in lens hood has a slight dent - who cares? Pentax K-mount bayonet (£0.99p!!!!!!)
Hoya 35-70mm f/4.0 - this was brand new, in the never-been-opened box, a lovely little mini-zoom. M42 screw mount (£8)
Optomax 35mm f/2.8 - a lovely, tiny little thing with a set-mechanism for aperture control. M42 screw mount (£4)
Tamron 28mm f/2.8 - a chunky little bruiser. This is on an Adaptall mount, a universal system where all the lenses are the same and you buy a mount to suit your camera. Now I can buy any Adaptall lens and it will fit my cameras. M42 screw mount (£15)
Toshiba 28mm f/2.8 - Who knew Toshiba were making lenses in 1980? Not me! This arrived today, a pair of perfectly mint condition devices in 2 sealed, unopened boxes. Pentax bayonet mount on a Toshiba Tosner mounting system similar concept to the Tamron Adaptall (£15)
Kenlock 35mm f/2.8 - Not unused, but in mint condition, still in the original packaging. Another one with a tiny dent in the (detachable) hood. Chunky as hell, hardly anything about it on the web, this one takes a great photo. (£9)
There have been some disappointments.
A Praktica zoom arrived full of fungus and proved to be impossible to rectify as a lot of the parts were glued plastic, so I was not really able to dismantle it. That went in the bin but it only cost 99p.
Another, rather special and much sought after lens was won for under £7 and the seller cancelled the sale with an excuse that she had just discovered it was broken. Hmm, yes OK.
One which I bought from a camera shop in Wales arrived broken and I was given a refund along with the offer of something else to the same value from their Ebay store (now, that's customer service!)
I've learned a few things too.
1) Many people who advertise lenses on Ebay don't know that the type of mount on a lens is an absolutely a vital piece of information. If you are willing to take a risk, or if there is a good photo (see point 2, below), this can work to your advantage and massive bargains can be had.
2) Many, many people who advertise photography gear on Ebay take absolutely appalling photographs!
I bought two Sigma zooms from someone who fell foul of both of the above. My reasoning was that they seemed to be in superb condition so, for the right price the risk was worth taking. I could always take some decent photos and advertise them with the vital mount info included. This would almost certainly end up making a small profit. I won them for £6. It turned out that the mount was for a Minolta camera and that is one that just won't work with a Canon camera on an adapter because you can't focus to infinity (the distance between the rear element and the sensor (or film) is wrong). You can buy an adapter with an additional lens in it to correct the problem but I think that defeats the object of buying old high quality lenses. Anyway, it turns out that my daughter's partner has a Minolta camera, so he will take those. All good then!
3) Fungus can be a real problem in old lenses (and some not so old ones). If you are careful, you can dismantle and clean them up, bringing them back to life. Prime lenses are fairly easy to do - Pentax lenses are simple to do. Zooms are trickier. You need the right tools to do this but they are not expensive.
When the weather starts to improve a bit, I'm going to be rather busy out and about with all my new toys.
|
|
|
|
Post by Slinger on Apr 7, 2018 16:52:25 GMT
That's an impressive list, Chris. I remember the Helios 58mm with fondness, but Toshiba???!!! I empathise with you about the "Oh sorry, I've just noticed its broken" scenario. I had two gorgeous guitars from two different sellers that both "fell down the stairs." It's funny, but when I sent them a new, lower, offer for the now damaged items they both declined. Both guitars were models I had set alerts for so they popped up again when the lying b*st*rds re-listed them at a later date.
|
|
|
|
Post by ChrisB on Apr 7, 2018 17:40:56 GMT
Yes, I've done exactly that too and I also made a note of the serial number which was visible on one of the photos of the front end of the lens, so even if they use another Ebay account I'll be able to spot them!
|
|
|
|
Post by julesd68 on Apr 8, 2018 11:03:20 GMT
Very interesting Chris. There are certainly plenty of lens bargains out there as so many people demand 'mint' condition.
I read an article about how lenses that may appear knackered can perform as well as 'perfect' ones - it's amazing how many imperfections / scratches on the front glass you can actually get away with.
|
|
|
|
Post by ChrisB on Apr 8, 2018 11:09:01 GMT
Well, yes. You can focus through a wire mesh fence to see what's behind it in perfect clarity, which always occurred to me as a magical trick. Given that, a tiny imperfection or two ought not to be too much of a problem.
|
|
|
|
Post by ChrisB on Apr 10, 2018 23:47:09 GMT
I have to stop this, it's very addictive!
Snaffled a couple of Takumars since my last post. On Sunday, I got a 28mm for £16, which I think broke my price ceiling. Tonight, I really pushed the boat out and bought an allegedly mint 135mm for £20.
Last night, I was playing around with the Pentax 50mm f/1.7 that I bought the other week and was shocked once again by how crisp some of the images I made with it were. The colours are astonishingly rich and the contrast is superb. This thing cost £12 and you would need to spend hundreds to get results like this on a modern lens. The other difference is that the modern one would be made of plastic and will cease to work in a few years.
|
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Apr 11, 2018 5:20:06 GMT
Remind me, Chris, what camera and lens fitting you have?
|
|
|
|
Post by ChrisB on Apr 11, 2018 5:35:36 GMT
I'm putting these on a Canon 20D. The Pentax K mount and M42 lenses are also going on a Pentax K-r dslr. We also intend to use them on a couple of Pentax 35mm cameras too. Mischa owns a beautiful black MX and I have a P30 but at the moment I am actively looking for a tidy old Spotmatic F, something I have wanted to own since I was in shorts.
|
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Apr 11, 2018 6:17:48 GMT
Despite having owned better cameras later, the two that I miss most and which I used for some wonderful trips were my Zenit EM and Praktica B200.
|
|
|
|
Post by ChrisB on Apr 11, 2018 6:45:27 GMT
I have spare Praktica and Zenit bodies which I don't know what to do with. Ebay is stuffed full of 35mm camera bodies which don't sell. I'd like to give them to someone who can make use of them like a charity or someone learning photography but no-one wants them. If you'd like to have one or both of them to play with, then you are welcome.
|
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Apr 11, 2018 6:59:35 GMT
Thanks, Chris, offer much appreciated. However, I really don't see me going back to film any more. That ship has sailed!
|
|
|
|
Post by ChrisB on Apr 28, 2018 11:18:58 GMT
....at the moment I am actively looking for a tidy old Spotmatic F, something I have wanted to own since I was in shorts. And I got one! This arrived a couple of days ago.  It came with a slightly low rent Hanimex 28mm lens, so the glass hunters weren't interested in it. All the better for me, because that kept the price low. £23, would you believe?! The photo shows it with the beautiful little Takumar 135mm that I snaffled a couple of weeks ago. Very pleased. |
|
|
|
Post by MartinT on Apr 28, 2018 11:30:56 GMT
Wonderful old camera tech, Chris. I remember those well but never did own a Pentax.
|
|
