Fun/rare lenses that you've had a chance to play with

S.C

Active member
whether it be a super fast aperture, super telephoto, super expensive, or just super rare lens, post it here with a picture and what you think of it

Nikon 8mm f2.8 Fisheye Ai-s

(my friend's, he got it for $600 at a yard sale)

D3S_9124-600.jpg


have only used it on a crop, on which it vignettes a bit

build quaity is superb though and its really fun to use. has some neat built in rotating filters that arent very useful for digital, but still interesting to use.
 
3461438188_e6cfb29f95.jpg

I spent more time looking at the aperture than I did actually shooting. (the bookeh isn't even that great compared to some of the older primes I have got my hands on, its decently sharp though.)
 
that'd be a ridiculously long lens! and on that rebel that 85 looks much bigger than i thought it was
 
yeah it was fun. i borrowed it from my photo professor when we went on a field trip to the San Francisco zoo and i spent the whole time shooting birds from really far away haha
 
i got to play with a noctilux 50 f1 at a camera store once, the guy made sure to note that the lens cost more then my birth before handing it to me
 
Also right on the barrel... It's an 85mm f/1.2L

I have a sigma 400mm f/5.6 (got for $5) that has usm autofocus, and pristine front and rear elements.

I've also got a Pentax 50mm f/1.2. Real sharp when stopped down to 2-8.

Other than that I haven't gotten to play with much.
 
Local camera shop (LaZot for anyone in the burlington area) has these bins in the back full of used equipment, lenses, bodies, flashes, you name it. The majority of the stuff is just old MF lenses that have outdated mounts such as konica, or have broken mounts, focusing rings, apertures etc.

So one day I went digging through the bins and found this leather case, inside was that lens. Completely spotless, had both caps, and a 77mm uv filter.

It was a good day.
 
Auto NIKKOR Telephoto-Zoom 1:9.5 f=20cm ~ 1:10.5 f=60cm



(Not my photo but it's the same.)

lens_20-60cm_f9.5-10.5_170175.jpg


It weights 2,3kg and it's a glorious 50 centimeters long.
 
this is the best part about working at a camera store, i get to play with and use all the exotic lenses, canon 85 1.2, canon 50mm 1.2, canon 300mm 2.8 (not super special but it's a cool lens and surprisingly easy to handhold indoors). get to play with some nice equipment too like a hasselblad 500cm w/ 80mm 2.8 planar, a leica m6 (can't remember the lens) and those were both one customers cameras.
 
yeah it was pretty awesome for sure. i would never drop the money to buy one, but it was very entertaining for a few hours.

 
That's sick! I'd love to try one out, but I do feel that tilt-shift lenses have become obsolete because you can get an almost identical effect in post
 
they do more than just selective focus. there are many applications for architecture because of how they let you manipulate the depth of field
 
got cut off, but they let you do things like having a deep dof at a very large aperture and many other things that can't be done in post. For selective focus you are right, but I feel that it still looks worse when done as an effect
 
no problem. Most of the time when you notice that it's a tilt shit lens is because of the selective focus anyways. Architecture photography and discussions on techniques for it aren't huge topics here
 
actually i have read it is more because you can move the lens without changing perspective since you can simply shift the position of the lens. could be wrong that that is the primary reason, but i remember reading that somewhere. just seems like that would be the more practical application than manipulating the depth of field as far as architecture photography goes.
 
also i have the adapter to do this!
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=rare+camera+lens&start=335&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&biw=2489&bih=1308&tbm=isch&tbnid=dENQpURSeCkZnM:&imgrefurl=http://nexus404.com/Blog/2011/07/07/photojojo-device-lets-you-put-a-dslr-lens-on-an-iphone-give-your-iphone-camera-a-high-powered-dslr-lens-with-photojojos-new-adapter/&docid=aIVCtj8nby57OM&imgurl=http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads2/2011/07/iphone-DSLR.jpg&w=400&h=276&ei=DzUKT8ewIcLs0gHT4Z3zAg&zoom=1&chk=sbg&iact=hc&vpx=607&vpy=480&dur=330&hovh=186&hovw=270&tx=201&ty=98&sig=104595794901976033258&page=4&tbnh=108&tbnw=156&ndsp=112&ved=1t:429,r:31,s:335
 
Not a super rare lens but I have a Rokkor 58mm f/1.4 that I found at my grandpas house and I got an adapter for my t2i
 
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