Vintage 50mm Lens Shootout - 10 Lenses, Under $100

The G.Zuiko F1.4 yellowing is the entire front element. Don't take yours out in the sun as the grease will evaporated and condense on the glass...some tiny amount of it. That won't ruin the lens but you'll have to open it to clean it. I recommend you use UV 405nm LEDs. My 25W LED string I use for curing resin actually cleaned up the yellow in about 8hrs.

Hi, may i know what adapter you use for you nikon lens?

really appreciated this.. your methodology was unbiased unlike many of these kinds of videos which are 'these are the 10 lenses I bought at garage sales over 20 years'.. I like 'best selling' as a more reliable indicator of general quality.. though crazy fad is not to be dismissed as a possibility.. I wanted to add my direct experience with almost all the pentax 50s.. I'd check out the A series 1.7.. and the 55mm f1.8 which is outstanding for creamy yet sharp either the thread mount or the first couple bayonet. The 50mm f1.4 you tested I shot with for many years.. it's nice.. but more akin to the other 50mm M series the f2.. the 55 has a different formula.. they are pretty dang cheap for being such a great lens. another 'hidden gem' is both pentax macros in the FA (the ugly barrels with red lettering and a tiny focus ring) both the 50mm and the 100mm f2.8 are SPECTACULAR for the used costs.. <suscribed>

The Nikon 55mm F2.8 Macro is even sharper than the 1.8.. It is a bit slower however. and in hot climates the lubrication has a tendency to leak onto the aperture blades...so keep it cool.

Here's my top four 50mm lenses that I've collected for under 100 bucks each.
Carl Zeiss planar 50mm 1.4 T*
Carl Zeiss Ultron 50mm 1.8 concave
Pentax K SMC 50mm 1.4 (early k non m version)
Canon FD 55mm 1.2 SSC Aspherical

What about the Konica Hexacon series? 50mm 1.4, 57mm 1.4, 57mm 1.2, 85mm 1.8, 135mm 2.5

No Helios m44-2 with the awesome bokeh

The thorium isn't in the coating, it's in the glass.
You can get rid of the yellow cast by exposing the lens to a white led light for about 24 hours.

Yeah, regarding the poor performance of the Zeiss lens, one problem with all vintage lenses is that they're vintage lenses.
They've been soldiering along for 30-40-50 years and you can't know if they've been dropped, or repaired/cleaned by someone who put them back together incorrectly.
If you get one that is disappointing, try another example.
For sure, none of these lenses had gritty focusing when they were new. So a gritty one is dirty, or was improperly lubricated when rebuilt.

I've beenusing old MD mount Minolta lenses on my Canon DSLRs since I bought my T3i in January 2012. I have a 50mm f/2 lens and also a wider angle 45mm and a 35mm Minolta lenses. I also have 2 FD mount Canon lenses. I agree with you on how they have to connect to my adapter. It's not as simple as the Minolta lenses. The Minolta lenses were my Dads to his SRT-201 & his Newer Minolta X-9. My Canon lenses belonged to my Grandfathers AE-1. I'm glad I get too continue using these lenses from time to time. I've owned a T3i, 5D mark III, Canon 80D (no longer have), Canon 90D and my Canon R7. I love the look and organic feel o get from vintage lenses. Yes thee is always a bit of photoshop touch up needed afterwards. But it's still fun.

Hello..I work as a sports photojournalist in Turkey. I have Canon FD, Nikon AI-S and D, Minolta MD Rokkor, Pentax SMC, Olympus OM Zuiko, Carl Zeiss Planar (24-28-35- 50 -135 mm.) lenses. I want to use them on Sony Alpha NEX 5 and NEX 6 with suitable adapters. Which is the most suitable (in mm) for video shooting? I'm waiting for your answer. Greetings from Turkey..

I cannot get the craze about vintage lenses. You can get manual and automatic lenses for near every mount today, like cheap chinese Yongnuo to very good Samyang-Rokinon, Irix, Sigma, etc. The used market have a lot of native mount lenses too, from bargain nifty fifty to old autofocus Canon L lenses. I mean, I know the price difference, but I purchased a used, perfect condition, 50mm 1.8 Yongnuo for my APSC Sony for the same price of a Minolta Rokkor. Even the manual Ttartisan 50mm 1.2 is at the same price. Or the 35mm 1.2 too. I think the only practical case to buy vintage lenses is when you need fast telephoto or telephoto zoom (f4 or faster) because the price difference is huge. Almost any other case is better covered by used or new, manual or auto, native mount lenses (Canon and Sony for me).

Hello Andrew & Denae, as always congratulations for your channel and these wonderful reviews, but I have a doubt, I bought an AX mount URTH adapter to use some old Sony lenses and the adapter ring only takes 8 steps, is it normal?

No Fuji? 😩

Good luck finding a Zeiss for under $100, at least on ebay.

Great video! thanks for taking the time to make it. I've adopted an Olympus Zuiko OM 50mm f1.4 and 28mm f2 on my Fuji X-Pro2 both with a dummy adaptor as well as with a Metabones SpeedBooster Ultra. Have to say, I'm really enjoy using these legacy lenses. I actually find that the sharpness is better with the SpeedBooster. However, on the Pro-2 body, the Speedbooster doesn't fit properly and I don't have focus at infinity. Been meaning to fix this, but It will require filing down the back of the Speedbooster, which I've been putting off 😁 (previous using a Fuji X-E2, that worked perfectly for many years!)

You can quickly clear up that yellow discoloration on you Super Takamar with a IKEA
LED clamp spotlight

Thank you for your excellent video. I still have my old Olympus lenses and OM10, OM2SP & OM4 gear and have recently gone back to using Olympus MFT for travel photography. It would have been interesting to see what results you got from the Zuiko 50mm f1.4, but I guess they go for more than $100? My 86 yr old dad just gave me a Nikon F-301/N2000 & EM in 2021, both having series E 50mm f1.8 lenses, which I will be adapting to my Olympus due to their pancake like size. I would have been interested to see what results you got from this plasticky but cute little lens? I often hear variants of the phrase 'the best lens you have is the one on your camera,' and tho' it is fall/autumn, I hope to use my zuikos and series E when travelling. Cheers, your video has inspired me to use my vintage glass.

The cannon FD adapter, is fiddley. But the lens still shoots great. But its not that annoying...Its more annoying when I have a TAMERON with the Adaptall2 to FD, and then FD to E mount. that is annoying.

And why is there no Pancolar in the review ?

nice video. please do a 25mm and 30mm video. mabe best vintege video sets.

I know some folk have put their Takumar Thorium glass under a UV light for a couple of days to successfully remedy the yellowing.

Great tips..I just got a used Nikon 55mm 2.8 macro lens and very pleased with its sharpness and resolution! Thanks

I shoot a lot of vintage/legacy Nikkors from when I shot for the newspapers in the 80's. Just a suggestions, you may want to consider three lenses from that era. Without going into detail, the first is the Nikon (not a Nikkor) 50mm f/1.8 e-series. It is very sharp and inexpensive; the next is the 50mm f/1.8 Ai-s lens that was sold only in Japan. Identified by serial numbers starting n the 205... to 226... range (Roland's Nikon database has more precise data listed under "Ai-s 50mm /1.8 Japan"), but it close focuses to 1.5 feet as opposed to 2 feet for other 50mm Nikkors, Last but not least is a relatively unknown zoom auto focus (Nikon literally calls it an AF lens) 28 to 80mm f./3.3-5.6G strictly bare bones; I call it eccentric. It close focuses surprising close (it has no distance scale on the lens, but I've gottin closer than 2 feet (I think; some say it focuses to 14 inches). It is out of production since 2005. Each of these lenses I was able to purchase in the past five years for under $70 (The zoom maybe still offered on Amazon, the others on e-bay).

No Yashika Yashinon 50mm?

Good luck finding a Super Takumar 50 1.4 in that pristine condition for under $100.

The music...cut it off.

I am a fan of how the FD lenses bloom vs flare when light is in or near the frame. They give a rather dreamy look that's hard to find in other lenses.

Amazing that the Canon 1.8 SC only weighs 195ml lol

I have the smc asahi pentax 50mm 1.7 That is a supersharp lens, has great colors and so easy to manually focus with.

...may I suggest Topcon RE Topcor lenses?

Great content, thanks ! Would be very interested for a 35mm showdown indeed ! Great format

I'm quite surprised by the results from the Zuiko because it's an early silvernose copy, probably even single coated

Messy

Great video! Would love to see your take on vintage Leica lenses because you’re not a Leica shooter. Is there really a “Leica look?” Do you like it? 50 dual range and 40 summicron would be great.

Nice comparison and information laden video! If you haven't already considered it, I would love to see Konica Hexanon lenses thrown into the mix. And you could always do a 50mm - 55mm f1.2 comparison vid! Thank you for all your hard work!

I have a super takumar 55mm f1.8 from my grandpa that passed away. It's an amazing lens

Can this Nikon nikkor 50mm Ais compatible with MFT cameras such as the Olympus OMD? Will std manual lens adapter work on this setting? Thank you

Your kid is really cute

Where can I find that hat from??

This is a really thorough comparison. Excellent! Thank you.

I have a Canon FD lens with the proper adapter for my camera. I recently noticed that the aperture ring on the adapter does not do anything to the aperture on the lens when I rotate it. In this vid you mentioned that you have to get it on just right for the aperture adjustment to work correctly. I'm thinking I'm putting it on right, but obviously not. I will search for a video on here, but do you have any other tips or techniques to get the adapter on the lens correctly?

I tested lots of lenses and the zeiss planar ist my sharpest. Seems to depend on the individual model.

HELLIOS ?

Dimensionality of the lens is the most important feature of the lens and nodody reviews that (in other words subjet pop). The zeiss plannar beats all those lenses in that category. contax zeiss, zeiss classics and the ZE or ZF.2 or any Leica lens are the king of the hill.

Unwatchable. The dreary pointless background noise was wearisome beyond belief.

I came across the Olympus 1.8 50mm for free. Great lens, little soft wide open but it’s got a unique look. I also picked up a Nikon 50mm f2 pre AI for $50 from keh about 5 months ago. It’s such a sharp lens when stopped down and is one of the nikons that has a nice flare with lights. All the AI and AIS lenses have like no flare at all, it is kind of lame lol.

I use a SMC Pentax 1:1.2/50mm on aps-c Sony body. I took out the ball bearing to de-click it and it works smoothly for video, too. Love it. Color isn't as good as I'd like, but built like a tank.