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What's the best cheap lens you've bought?

Horatio

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Mar 13, 2020
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Location
South Carolina
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For me, it's the Nikkor 35-105 AI zoom, $25 shipped. Really sharp and minimal distortion. Second in line would be a Canon 50mm f1.8 in LTM mount, which I got cheap ($40) because of fungus.
 
I got an Elmar 50 3.5 ltm that was in perfect condition but was attached to some odd piece of aluminum and covered with grime for around $100. That's not really "cheap" for a lens but it's cheap for that lens. Also, I got an F-mount Vivitar 21mm lens for somewhere around $20 because the guy couldn't identify the mount. It's one of those Vivitar lenses that are actually good. I didn't have a Nikon at the time and bought a Nikomat specifically for it. I have bought too many cameras and lenses to properly answer the question, though.
 
All my 50s were cheap. The best one in technical terms is probably the MC-Rokkor 50 f/1.4 that I got for 20 Euros. I also enjoy the Jupiter-8 and the Super Takumar 50 f/1.4. Other than 50s, perhaps the Jupiter-12, also under 30 Euros iirc. Not a technically very good lens, heaps of distortion and field curvature and flare. But I somehow like it, I don't even mind the weird aperture ring all that much.
 
Depends on what our boundary for cheap is, but I picked up a Nikkor-Q 135mm f2.8 non-AI for $29 a bit more than a year ago and it is a superb lens, great wide open and wicked sharp by f4.

Honorable mention: The xenar on my rolleicord which I got for $85 is the best tessar-style lens I own out of at least 20 I've tried.

Best deal: Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 180mm f2.8 for Pentacon Six, converted to Pentax 6x7 for $70. Perfect condition. Nearly a perfect lens at all apertures. The retailer (a certain three letter website in Georgia) considered the P6x7 conversion to be a fault and downgraded the condition instead of realizing that it was a huge value boost.
 
These two zooms were so good and so inexpensive (less than $100usd each) that I bought two ... one to use and one to store as a backup.

Nikkor 75-150mm Series E Zoom f/3.5 AIS manual focus (52mm filter)

Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5 to f/5.6 G AF VR (52mm filter)
 
My best cheap lens has been a Canon 50mm f2.8 ltm lens I bought for my Canon 7. I now have a f1.8 that is haze-free for my Leica, but it wasn't cheap.
 
M42 Mir 1A 2.8/37mm (with removable mount and funny diaphragm mechanism) for $1.
 
for 35mm, probably the Nikkor 50mm f/2 pre-AI. It was included on a Nikkormat ft2 body that I bought for $60.

best ever, a Goerz 14 inch red dot artar f/9. About $65.00 great super sharp lens. For large format, barrel lens (no shutter). Compact size too.
 
A couple of free OM lenses - a 200mm f/5, and a 35-70mm zoom.
 
On the presumption this is aimed only at 35mm SLR or RF lenses, I'd have to put this on my Tamron 70-200 (T-mount to M42). I think I paid ten dollars plus shipping from KEH back around 2004, turned out to give very good quality, even on a 2x teleconverter.
 
20 years ago bought a Leica M3 with a Summicron 50/2 V.3 for $500 and sold off the M3 body for $500 thus the lens was free. Lovely lens, I still use it.
 
I haven't bought that many lenses, but probably the best was the Rokkor CE 80mm f5.6 that only cost me about L20 Sterling.
 
A screw-mount S-M-C Takumar 28/3.5 for $15 plus shipping. It was listed as having some fungus which wound up being only superficial on the front group of elements, so not a bad fix. A lot of those older Takumars seem to be good value for what they cost (excluding some expensive ones like the 85mm/1.8), always with such pleasing color rendition.
 
Helios 44 58mm f2 with camera for < 20 euros.
 
I got a Konica 70 to 150 for $5.00 at a yard sale, she had the lens no camera, just put a price on it to get out of the house. Still cheaper, a free Minolta 35 to 80 A mount, a coworker gave a 7000 with the lens he had sitting around after his brother passed.
 
My Nikkor 50mm F2's are best lenses I have bought second hand, and are also the best lenses I have owned (too many legends to count).

They also happen to be some of the cheepest I have purchased ($50 - 60).
 
Best bargain: Takumar 55/2 SMC. It was free, I paid £25 for that and the Praktica body it came with and then sold the body for £25. Great little lens, love the rendering.
Second best: My AI 55/3.5 Nikkor was £45 or so I think. It was sold as is and looked beat up but had clean glass. 15 minutes of cleaning it and using a toothpick on the engravings made it look pretty good. The focus is a bit heavy, especially in the cold but apart from that, it is perfect.

Top prize: Back in the day when digital was a new thing and Nikon only made DX sensors like the D2H/X, I got a beat up 17-35/2.8 for £200 from a newspaper PJ. Looked like $hit but the glass was clean and the motor not too squeaky. After a few years of use I dumped all the small format stuff and went medium format, sold it to all the kids buying the new Nikon FX bodies for something around £700.
Bonus: Same as the 17-35, I got a 105/1.8 AIS for something like £100, it was not the most popular focal length as the DX cameras made it an awkard 150mm lens. Once people starting buying those again sold it for £400 or so.
 
100/6.3 Reichert Neupolar, $14. Two (2) Dagor type 240/9 G-Clarons, $20. 100/2.0 TTH Anastigmat (6/4 double Gauss type), $30 delivered. All originally sold for much, much more.

None made for 35 mm still, but quite inexpensive anyway.
 
Best lens I've bought cheap was for large format - it was actually a twofer deal on an online auction. A Cooke Series II 10.4" f4.5 Anastigmat and a Voigtlander 11.5" f3.5 petzval as a set for $225. Both were dirty and dusty, and the Cooke looked like someone's dog had tried very hard to turn it into rawhide. But once cleaned up, the Cooke was in much better condition than it first appeared, at least performance-wise. And the Voigtlander? a ca. 1863 lens, complete with original flange and one waterhouse stop. Glass has rub marks but no damage. It's probably a $2000 lens. For smaller formats, I've not gotten any bargains. One I do kinda regret letting go was the Sigma 18-35 I had for my Contax cameras. I bought it new with my employee discount at the camera store. I've looked for another copy over the years, especially once I got back into Contax SLRs, and have never seen another copy on the used market. It was not a perfect lens, but to have all those focal lengths in one lens, especially considering what it would have cost to duplicate that with Contax glass? It was a bargain!
 
The best lens I got cheap, about $30, was a Meyer-Gorlitz Diaplan 100 mm f/2.8. Maybe this doesn't count because it was a projector lens that had to be modded for use on a camera. But it gives results similar to a Meyer-Gorlitz Trioplan, which can sell for a thousand dollars. So it seemed like a good deal to me. For a camera lens per se, the best one was a Helios 44-2 58 mm f/2 at about $40.
 
My best bargain lens was a 50mm f/1.4 Super Takumar that I bought for $20 including the Spotmatic it was mounted on. Although that lens has wound up costing me a lot of money in the long run, as it was my introduction to the wonderful world of Pentax screw mount lenses. I now have four other Takumars, all of which cost me more than my first (but considering how good they are, were still bargains).
 
Rare Isco Iscoliton 50/2 for Exakta. Five bucks at an estate sale. I'm waiting for a deal on an Exakta body to try it out.
 
Nikon E series 100mm/2.8 for 35€, Nikon E Series 50mm/1.8 for 30€, Industar I-22 LTM for around 20€, 28-80 Nikkor AF for like 15€, Hektor 139mm M mount for 50€ ... list is very long. There are many, many excellent lenses that are next to nothing. Only be sure that you find a good sample.
For Nikkors - key is not to look in ebay in lenses, but look in analog cameras section. Lens with some F55 or something is often cheaper than the same lens itself.
 
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