21.05.10
Budget Lenses
Old analogue lenses are back in fashion and Tor McIntosh says they’re the perfect budget-conscious solution to extending your creativity and building up your kit bag. Great quality and cheap prices make them the obvious way to go, but you’ll have to remember how to focus.
I’m sure I wasn’t alone in consigning my trusty film SLR camera and collection of manual lenses to the attic a decade ago after moving into the digital world of megapixels, white balance and sensor sizes. However, popular trends, from fashion styles to music genres, are known to regenerate after a short hiatus, and before you know it mini skirts are back on the high street and the latest hyped female musician has an uncanny resemblance to Kate Bush.
The same has happened in the photographic industry: although digital photography is firmly here to stay, there’s been a resurgence of interest in vintage lenses, generating a healthy market for high-quality optics that have been gathering dust in attics and lying neglected in camera shop store rooms. These days, the words ‘low cost’ and ‘ultra-wide aperture’ are rarely uttered in the same sentence, yet by turning our attention to the past and sourcing vintage lenses to use on DSLR cameras, a world of creative opportunity has opened up for photographers of all abilities at a mere fraction of what a comparable modern autofocus lens would cost. There’s an array of affordable vintage prime portrait lenses — 50mm, 85mm, 105mm and 135mm — available on online auction sites, such as eBay, and in secondhand camera shops, that can easily be attached to your DSLR using adapter rings, which are available cheaply online.
Alongside the value-for-money appeal, another alluring quality of these solidly built ‘classic’ lenses over their modern counterparts is the optical quality, which ensures these lenses deliver extremely sharp, crisp results. Although generally regarded as portrait lenses, all of the prime lenses mentioned above can be used to shoot a variety of subjects, including weddings, travel, still life, low-light scenes and, of course, studio and outdoor portraits.
While rummaging in my attic recently, I stumbled upon a bag of old camera equipment that I thankfully hadn’t resorted to selling in my haste to ‘go digital’. Intrigued by the vintage lens trend, I dusted down an old Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 and attached it to my DSLR. Initially it felt slightly strange — the juxtaposition of a lens that’s a few decades old, fitted to a camera body that’s only a few years old — yet, after reminding myself how to manually focus and adjust the aperture, I was hooked, and a wave of nostalgia for the good ol’ film SLR days washed over me (though having the ability to see the results of using a retro lens on my camera’s LCD screen lured me back to the joy of digital cameras).
Perhaps one of the hardest things to get accustomed to when using a vintage lens is the lack of autofocus, particularly for those who began photography during the digital era and have never experienced the tactile nature of twisting a lens focusing ring. Also, with some vintage lenses lacking compatibility with DSLR camera electronics, a vast majority of DSLR users will have to learn, or remind themselves, how to manually adjust the lens aperture for correct exposure measurements. However, these easy-to-learn manual functions shouldn’t be seen as a nuisance, in fact the control you have over focusing and correctly exposing each shot encourages you to slow down and think about every image, rather than relying on your camera’s autofocus mechanism and electronic metering system.
The biggest selling point of using a vintage lens on a DSLR is the affordability of owning a lens with an ultra-wide maximum aperture. For under £50 (if you’re lucky with your bidding) — or for free if you still have your old lenses to hand — your shooting options are immediately expanded, with handheld, low-light photography using a low ISO rating no longer a challenge. Add to this the extreme shallow depth of field possible with fast lenses, and photographers even on the tightest budget can start experimenting with depth of focus techniques, such as isolating a foreground subject in the frame by throwing the background completely out of focus and creating a wonderful bokeh effect (the blur made up of small circles rendered from out-of-focus points of lights).The ease with which you can fit a vintage lens to a DSLR means that both amateurs and professionals alike can reap the rewards of using vintage lenses on their DSLRs. In fact, some professional photographers include a number of different budget portrait lenses with the same focal length in their kit bags specifically as creative tools, as each lens can create an image with a different character and a unique look.
So, don’t feel that you have to miss out on expanding your photography skills because the latest autofocus prime lenses available on the market are out of your budget range. For the small price of having to do the focusing yourself, a fast secondhand prime lens is a cheap and easy way to shoot stunning, pin-sharp images.
For more information (and quite a bit of technical jargon) you can visit: http://forum.manualfocus.org/
The main thing about buying any used lens is to make sure the optics are in good condition: no nicks, no scratches, no dust and no fungus. If you’re looking to experiment with vintage prime portrait lenses, here are a few popular choices to look out for:
- Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/1.8
- Pentax (SMC Takumar) 50mm f/1.4
- Contax Zeiss 85mm f/2.8
What works and what doesn’t
Due to mechanical and optical considerations, some DSLR cameras can function with a wider selection of vintage lenses than others. However, by investing in suitable and appropriate lens adapters, you will be able to use a larger number of third-party lenses with your DSLR body. Here’s a brief outline of what works with what and how.
Nikon
Nikon users are at an advantage as Nikon DSLRs can fit any Nikon F-mount lens without the need for adapters. However, Nikon cameras are not easily compatible with the majority of third-party vintage lenses.
Canon
Canon EOS DSLRs, with their EF lens mount, are incompatible with vintage Canon FD-mount lenses. However, with a specific cheap lens adapter, you can easily fit FD-mount and third-party vintage lenses to your Canon DSLR.
Olympus
With an Olympus MF-10M adapter you can mount vintage OM lenses onto any of Olympus’s Four-Thirds DSLRs. Similar to Canon, with a specific lens adapter a number of third-party vintage lenses can also be fitted to Olympus DSLRs.
Pentax
Pentax DSLRs can be mounted on just about every Pentax lens ever made, as well as third-party vintage lenses that use the Pentax K-mount, such as those from Ricoh, Cosina, Miranda, Centon and Phoenix.
Sony
Sony DSLRs are compatible with all of Minolta’s AF-mount lenses. By using the appropriate lens adapter you can also use all of the lenses produced that use the M42-style screw mounts known as the Praktica thread mount.
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