Worth Venturing MF on DSLR

[Caussway]

Recently got back a 7D body more for passion to "Minolta" ( I started photography with dynax). I've nikon system for fast AF , Afs etc. Used to own 7D and sold 2 yrs ago, love the color so bough a used 1 recently. Wanted to use it more fr portrait and thinking to get some fast MF primes like 50mm F1.4, 135mm F2.8.
Hoping to get good contrast, sharpness and especially good color / skin tone.

No lenses yet, ordered a M42 to MA adapter (no glass element + electronic contacts to report focal lenght). Thats will be my humble beginning into MF experimentation.

I never really used a MF lens on DSLR, wondering am I overlooking some serious trade-offs getting MF lenses. These are my understanding , from the readings I did so far.

1. I lose AF , so forget fast moving / action things.

Found a good reading here http://www.jayandwanda.com/photography/dslr_man_focus/man_focus.html

http://www.dyxum.com/columns/other/HaodaScreen/gubbe.asp

2. Manual metering - is ok and I do this quite often even with AF lenses.

3. lose Infinity focus - not a issue for portrait

Hoping members can share thier exprience with MF lenses :

You love everyting manual.
Gave up, Not worth.
Old lenses not a match for modern DSLR - Prone to flare / CA.
MF is just too troublesome.
With high ISO , AS - fast MF primes is not useful anymore.

Let's just share your thoughts , experiences , frustrations, some pictures, your setup etc.

 

[Rashkae]

thinking to get some fast MF primes like 50mm F1.4, 135mm F2.8.

Why not get the AF versions of these lenses?

 

[TME]

I think he's really after a cheap system so that he can afford to maintain 2 systems and take advantage of the fantastic colour of the KM system...

 

[Caussway]

Why not AF version Or am I hunting for cheap n good :lovegrin:

These are just my personal humble opinion
It's a hobby not a profession for me, so no rush to take pictures fast
You always have limited budget or rather want to spend less for hobby.
Cheap doesnt mean not good , There are many M42 lenses are great optics.
You can find M42 135mm Carl Zeiss for $150, How much Sony CZ 135mm ?

Experimenting something new , getting this work on your system is always fun.
You can learn more than taking pictures, not just focus & click.

"fantastic colour of the KM system... " Yes you got my 1st point why I want
to do it on KM instead of my nikon :thumbsup:

 

[shmuckerz]

hi
not fully sure about this...
but one of your points:

"3. lose Infinity focus - not a issue for portrait"

i think with Manual Focus you can still get infinity focus, apeture set to smallest (f22?) and i believe you will be able to use focus to "infinity"..

(sorry if im wrong :sweat:.. but quite sure ive done this on film camera, F50 using Manual Focus and a kit lense)

just my 2 cents worth

 

[Caussway]

Found a very good reading about the M42 to MA-F adapters

http://www.flickr.com/groups/sony_alpha/discuss/72157608288010526/


The the owesome gallery here :thumbsup:

http://fiveprime.org/flickr_hvmnd.cgi?method=GET&sorting=Interestingness&photo_type=250&page=3&noform=t&search_domain=Tags&photo_number=100&sort=Interestingness&quicksearch=1&tag_mode=all&textinput=m42&search_type=Tags

 

[Trash]

1. I lose AF , so forget fast moving / action things.

2. Manual metering - is ok and I do this quite often even with AF lenses.

3. lose Infinity focus - not a issue for portrait

Perhaps I am wrong but with a bit of limited experience,
1. Difficult but not impossible to MF. Maybe you want to change your focusing screen (split image)?

2. Set the camera to Aperture priority, it will assume that you are using a F1.0 lens and sets the shutter speed accordingly. (It does not matter what you actual aperature is)

3. My understanding is with a well built M42 adapter, any lens should focus to infinity. However a lot are built with poor tolerance and you might need to use sandpaper to adjust the thickness slightly to enable focus to infinity.

 

[TME]

Why not AF version Or am I hunting for cheap n good :lovegrin:

These are just my personal humble opinion
It's a hobby not a profession for me, so no rush to take pictures fast
You always have limited budget or rather want to spend less for hobby.
Cheap doesnt mean not good , There are many M42 lenses are great optics.
You can find M42 135mm Carl Zeiss for $150, How much Sony CZ 135mm ?

Experimenting something new , getting this work on your system is always fun.
You can learn more than taking pictures, not just focus & click.

"fantastic colour of the KM system... " Yes you got my 1st point why I want
to do it on KM instead of my nikon :thumbsup:

Well... by cheap I mean cheap and good... definitely not cheap and lousy... obviously the lure of the MF lenses on the KM platform is that you can get excellent results very cheaply... *relatively speaking of course... :thumbsup:

 

[Caussway]

Any Alpha MF converts here ? Can you share your valuable experience and photos.

Found a good album for good M42 lenses (not on alpha though )
http://www.galactinus.net/vilva/retro/eos350d_sonnar200.html

 

[Agetan]

I still use a bunch of Minolta MF lenses, namely

50mm f1.2, 35mm f1.8, 85mm f1.7 and 85mm f2 which are very fine piece of lens...

Nowadays, with photography, people start losing focus and only going for technical side and you will see comment like, not sharp enough, bokeh is not nice and things like that.

those minolta lenses does has their individualism and once you know them, you will love the images coming from them.

yes, the focus might be slightly off, but it is a good reason to focus on artistic side.... if you examine many of the GREAT images from Great photographer around the world, their signature shots are mostly ever slightly soft and full of emotion.

Emotion is not something can be created with equipment, but it is the unity between the person who understand their equipment and the ability to "capture" that instant of time as well as great "Pre-visualisation".

So comes back to MF on DSLR, my view is WHY NOT? try it out and see if you like it or not. I love mine.

Regards,

Hart

 

[Rashkae]

One of the best lenses ever made for any system, the 135STF, is manual focus only...

 

[Caussway]

Hi Age, nice to hear from you. You own F1.2 :thumbsup:

Eyeing a CZJ 135mm 3.5 , My twin babies growing up fast.
Need get one and capture all those golden moments.

Fully agree with you, a picture should express a moment,
an expression , a story..... it doesnt need to tell what
camera / lens used. I read here a A100 owner grumbling
over poor resale value, A100 = 3 tanks of petrol :bsmilie:
But the same A100 + "old" manual lenses used by a guy in flickr (check link above)
above to capture spectacular images , simply stunning :thumbsup:
These days I'm surprised with amount money beginners spend
on thier hobby.

I still use a bunch of Minolta MF lenses, namely

50mm f1.2, 35mm f1.8, 85mm f1.7 and 85mm f2 which are very fine piece of lens...

Nowadays, with photography, people start losing focus and only going for technical side and you will see comment like, not sharp enough, bokeh is not nice and things like that.

those minolta lenses does has their individualism and once you know them, you will love the images coming from them.

yes, the focus might be slightly off, but it is a good reason to focus on artistic side.... if you examine many of the GREAT images from Great photographer around the world, their signature shots are mostly ever slightly soft and full of emotion.

Emotion is not something can be created with equipment, but it is the unity between the person who understand their equipment and the ability to "capture" that instant of time as well as great "Pre-visualisation".

So comes back to MF on DSLR, my view is WHY NOT? try it out and see if you like it or not. I love mine.

Regards,

Hart

 

[gnn19]

point number 3 from your first post...
you don't lose infinity..sometime it's just slightly miss...
read arkku page on flickr...he explain well about this issue...

i have zenitar 50mm f/2,super takumar 135mm f/3.5 and tair 300mm f/4.5...
i love zenitar and takumar...both produce a nice bokeh...
what's not so good about old lenses IMO are their contrast...
it's just not as good as any AF lens I have...
but hey,you just need less than 5 minutes to tweak contrast in PS right

btw,been hunting for CZJ flektagon 20mm f/4 and any meyer-optic but haven't found one till now ..

 

[Caussway]

Hi thanks for that valuable info. Mayer-Optic, which one ?

point number 3 from your first post...
you don't lose infinity..sometime it's just slightly miss...
read arkku page on flickr...he explain well about this issue...

i have zenitar 50mm f/2,super takumar 135mm f/3.5 and tair 300mm f/4.5...
i love zenitar and takumar...both produce a nice bokeh...
what's not so good about old lenses IMO are their contrast...
it's just not as good as any AF lens I have...
but hey,you just need less than 5 minutes to tweak contrast in PS right

btw,been hunting for CZJ flektagon 20mm f/4 and any meyer-optic but haven't found one till now ..

 

[gnn19]

Hi thanks for that valuable info. Mayer-Optic, which one ?

135mm f/2.8 or 75mm f/1.9...
there's some on ebay every once in a while...
but it'll be too expensive if i bought it from there...
you know with plus tax shipping etc...

 

[Caussway]

Finally received my M42 adapter (Hoada programmable) and CZJ 3.5/135mm.

First, cant belive such old lens can still be in EX condition. Very solid all metal.
Didnt really do any serious test but from like 100 test shots I found it's very sharp even wide open, better than 50mm 1.7 I used to own.

Color reproduction is very natural. But metering in outdoor can be very tricky, lucky it's not a issue with digital.

This lens is real value for money for US$100 provided MF is acceptable.
But the MF part is another beauty, one should MF with a real MF lens.
Will post some pictures when I take this out next week.