Your best lens.

zenrhino · Mar 17, 2008

Thought I'd join in on this one. Fun thread!

35mm:

Helios 108 53mm f1.8 Russian Sonnar clone. To paraphrase Jim Carville, "It's The Bokeh, Stupid." Add to it that it's a Contax mount and my Kiev 4 has just a whisper quiet shutter and bright rangefinder patch and I end up with an awesome combo for candids.

SMC Takumar 50mm f1.4 M42. My old Ashai Spotmatic SP II is my knockaround "three lenses in a canvas bag" camera and the fiddy is my go-to lens. Fiddy is just kind of how I see the world, I guess.

Mamiya Sekor 28mm f2.8 M42. Ive never seen another one of these on ebay and I got it free on a broken Praktica. Its sharp and focuses smooth like buttah.

Ok, that's three so I'm already over my limit.

JBrunner · Mar 17, 2008

For 8x10

210 G-Claron.

You can shave with it.

Mark Fisher · Mar 18, 2008

Gotta be my 85mm f1.8 Canon EOS lens.....sweet bokeh, fast accurate focussing, reasomagle size.....and sharp. My cheap little 50mm f1.8 is a close second,

On LF, it is my 150mm Sinaron f5.6 followed by my 240mm G-Claron.

Chuck_P · Mar 18, 2008

A Rodenstock Sironar-N 210 for my 4x5 because it's the only LF lens I have at the moment; it seems to do quite well---so far

brian steinberger · Mar 18, 2008

Mamiya 6, 50/4. Best lens ever!

jd callow · Mar 18, 2008

brian steinberger said:
Mamiya 6, 50/4. Best lens ever!

yeah thats what I said a few pages up. I figure you, me and the other guy are in the top 1%.

Uhner · Mar 18, 2008

90mm Grandagon-N f 4,5.

Snapshot · Mar 18, 2008

My best lense is my Nikkor AF-D 50mm f1.4. It's fast and produces consistently sharp results at every aperture. The autofocus on is very quick, which is useful for action shots.

André E.C. · Mar 18, 2008

Hmmmmm, tough one!

135- It´s by far my Zeiss Sonnar Opton f/1.5 for the Contax IIa, after all the years since introduction, it's able to blast me every single time, with razor sharp images and superb rendition, surely one of the best 50's ever built.

6x6- Tough call, but I think i will go for the Zeiss Planar 80mm f/2.8 CF for the Blad, it's a great all around lens, with superb image quality and construction, it´s small and not very heavy to carry as a one optic set.

6x9- Well, the Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 105mm f/3.5 T of my folder, it´s something spectacular, extremely sharp and it's consistent, a bit of a lay down with the guess focus thing, but whatever, the stunning optical quality compensate everything.

Cheers

André

Lol999 · Mar 18, 2008

My Nikkor 28mm f3.5 It's not as sharp as the f2.8 if you listen to the internet, but it's been plenty sharp enough for me. I shoot everything with it from portraits to landscapes.

Cheers, Lol

davetravis · Mar 22, 2008

After I built my Ilfochrome darkroom I quickly outgrew the 35mm limitation of printing only up to 11x14. I needed more detail, and wanted to print up to 20x24 without going LF. I went with the Pentax 6x7 system and my best lens is the 135mm macro. It's incredible at close focus, but also is very sharp as medium tele. The DOF range is perfect for landscapes and area studies also. I can get a compression affect that looks like I used tilt in LF.
DT

matti · Mar 22, 2008

My 3,5 80mm Zeiss Planar on my Rolleiflex. Much better out of focus rendering than the tessar on my "T". And sharp!
In LF, my 210 mm uncoated Heliar.

/matti

mabman · Mar 22, 2008

Since I got it, I've fallen in love with my Konica Auto S2 and its Hexanon 45/1.8. Cheating a little, I know, as it's not an interchangeable lens, but with its contrast and sharpness I find I reach for it a lot when I go to shoot.

Also in 35mm format, I like my Jupiter-9 in M42 mount (85/2) - being a Sonnar clone the bokeh is really nice. Some people have said quality is highly variable here, but my 2 samples work fine. Nice for portraits.

I've been neglecting my MF gear, so hopefully I'll put more of it through its paces this summer.

Otherwise, I've been impressed with the lens on the Argus C3 - surprisingly nice bokeh on my sample. I also want to do more shooting with that camera. And I've been pleased with the results from the Olympus 35RC - not only is the lens quite sharp, the whole package is very compact. I recently had my FED-50 lens CLA'd along with its FED-2, so I'm anxious to go out with that one, too....

So many lenses, so little time

Palantiri7 · Mar 23, 2008

In first place, without question, is the Rollei 80mm Planar PQS for the Rollei 6XXX system. There is something about the 3-dimensionality that this lens lends to pictures that no other lens I have used can match. Also, highlight rendering is delicate, and bokeh, dreamy.

In second place, I would have been, before this thread, slightly embarrassed to say, but the Zuiko 75-150 f4.0 zoom is it. It is not the sharpest lens, nor does it have very high contrast, but its got gobs of that 3D look I love.

In third place, the Fujinon A 240mm F9.0: large format lenses don't come much better than this.

Peter Schrager · Mar 23, 2008

best lens

150mm schneider Super-symmar on my 5x7 deardorf....basically a kick ass lens for large format...doesn't need to be closed down past f/22
Best, Peter

waynecrider · Mar 23, 2008

Palantiri7 said:
In first place, without question, is the Rollei 80mm Planar PQS for the Rollei 6XXX system. There is something about the 3-dimensionality that this lens lends to pictures that no other lens I have used can match. Also, highlight rendering is delicate, and bokeh, dreamy.

Agreed. There is something about that lens that I can not seen in others.

Also in 35mm format, I like my Jupiter-9 in M42 mount (85/2) - being a Sonnar clone the bokeh is really nice. Some people have said quality is highly variable here, but my 2 samples work fine. Nice for portraits.

I'd be interested in that as well. My Pentax is just sitting.

mabman · Mar 23, 2008

I'd say go for it - the M42 versions run about US$100 from eBay or elsewhere - as lenses go it's pretty inexpensive, so even if you get a dud, it's not a huge loss.

Uncle Goose · Mar 28, 2008

my best one is the Bronica 150MC for the ETR model. that's just a fabulous lens for portrait.

Russ Young · Mar 29, 2008

35mm macro hands down the Tamron SP 90mm f/2.5, excruciatingly sharp, lovely bokeh at non-macro usages
35mm portrait Minolta Varisoft 85mm arguably the best soft-focus lens made for a 35mm camera, bokeh to die for, smooth color
6x6 Olympus D. Zuiko 75mm/f3.5 on the Mamiya 6 folder, beats every Tessar I've used for resolution, contrast.
6x7 Macro Pentax 135 Macro is a fine performer at both 1:1 and at fair distance, light, easy to use, ideal focal length
4x5 Macro hands down, 150 Apo-Gerogon screwed straight into a Copal #1
4x5 I prefer a longer focal length than 'normal' so it is the Fujinon A 240 f/9; contrast & resolution are impeccable. For less ''surgical" images, I just know you're going to laugh but 162mm f/4.5 Raptar which possesses both sharpness and smoothness.
5x7 my fave format 210 f/9 Computar is a superb performer, sharp, contrasty, never runs out of coverage
5x7 Portrait no question: Kodak 305mm f/4.8 soft-focus lens. I have tested about 120 soft-focus lenses and none beat this one. Kodak took the Pinkham & Smith "Semi-Achromatic" design of 1901 and gave it better glass, a coating and minimized the chromatic aberration for panchro and color film. This is the lens that the mortician will have to remove from my cold hands.

Of course, different horses for different courses.

Russ

Jon Shiu · Mar 29, 2008

Diana-F lens: beautiful tonality of atmospheric quality of light.

Jon

benjiboy · Mar 30, 2008

All my lenses, are better lenses than I am a photographer.

Stephen Frizza · Mar 30, 2008

commercially me best lens is on my enlarger its my Rodenstock Rodagon 1:4 F=80mm - this baby is worth its weight in gold then some!

however for photography i love my Canon EF 7-200mm f/2.8L IS USM it sees the most use.

Drew B. · Mar 30, 2008

My 50mm shift lens for the Mamiya 645...simply because it makes money; plus its a gorgeous piece of equipment!

Tom Hoskinson · Mar 30, 2008

6x9cm - EBC Fujinon SW 1:5.6 65mm on my GSW690 III Professional

6X7 cm - f 4.5 43mm L Mamiya on my Mamiya 7 II

8"X10" - Schneider150mm f/5.6 Super Symmar XL

4"x5" and 5"x7" - Schneider 110mm Super Symmar XL f/5.6

k_jupiter · Apr 2, 2008

Tom Hoskinson said:
6x9cm - EBC Fujinon SW 1:5.6 65mm on my GSW690 III Professional

6X7 cm - f 4.5 43mm L Mamiya on my Mamiya 7 II

8"X10" - Schneider150mm f/5.6 Super Symmar XL

4"x5" and 5"x7" - Schneider 110mm Super Symmar XL f/5.6

You are not into wide angle are you? *L*

tim in san jose

Your best lens.

zenrhino

JBrunner

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Mark Fisher

Chuck_P

brian steinberger

jd callow

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Uhner

Snapshot

André E.C.

Lol999

davetravis

matti

mabman

Palantiri7

Peter Schrager

waynecrider

mabman

Uncle Goose

Russ Young

Jon Shiu

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benjiboy

Stephen Frizza

Drew B.

Tom Hoskinson

k_jupiter

Your best lens.

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