Fast Primes for cheap

[treewhale]

I have said it before, I will buy a punch in the face if it is half price. With the 2014 sabbatical forcing me to turn my eyes further from shaving soap, I have refocused on one of my more expensive hobbies - guess which one. I shoot Canon, and my gear is strictly consumer-grade. I have no thoughts of ever turning pro or earning a nickel from photography. My main interests are travel photography and street photography, although casual natural light portraits of friends and family is something that I expect to do more of, particularly as Untitled Treewhale Jr. Project is on the way.

My setup as it stands is the following:

Canon T1i
18-55 kit lens (gathering dust)
Very cheap Tamron 100-300 zoom (also gathering dust)
Tamron 18-200 zoom (Has replaced the two other zooms for essentially all purposes)
Bower 8mm Fisheye (Because it was cheap, and dammit, it is a lot of fun!)
Holga lens for Canon (also because it was cheap and dammit, it takes really cool pictures!)
Canon 50mm 1.8 II (Also because it was cheap, and damn, I have gotten the bulk of my favourite shots with this lens)
Macro Extension tubes (Crazy magnification with almost zero stand-off range)

I have a Canon 35mm F2.0 coming in the mail to replace / supplement my 50mm as a low-light lens and for general walk around purposes if I don't think I will need a zoom capability, which I hope to have a lot of fun with.

So I seem to be arriving at place where I use one Zoom in daylight conditions for walking around when I might want to compose a shot in a flash, for the rest of what I do, I think I have decided to opt for a set of fast prime lenses. I don't have any intention of loading up on expensive L glass or big-dollar 3rd party lenses. I may step up to full frame at some point, if a 6d shows up used in good condition for the right price, and because of that, I am building a collection of lenses that can move to a full frame camera if I decide to do that.



So - Here's my question:

Who has had experience with Samyang / Rokinon / Bower lenses? I am looking particularly at the 14mm and the 24mm. I have used the 8mm a lot, and I really like the build quality and ergonomics, and manual focus is not an issue with the DOF of a fisheye lens. I expect that the 14mm would give me a similar experience in terms of use, but I am unsure if the 24mm is something I want to look at. I would be using it for mainly street and travel photography, including in low light conditions, and because of that, I am concerned that the manual focus would be too fussy.

Anyone have experience with the Samyang 24mm lenses (or other 24mm manual focus lenses on a crop body SLR) to assuage or confirm my concerns about the utility of this lens for my purposes?

I am also thinking of the 85mm Samyang product because it is so blazingly cheap, and because it would wind up being used for portraits, mainly, but with that lens, I have a much more serious concern about the depth of field. Sure, you can dissolve the foreground and background, but if you can't focus on what you are pointing at, what good is all that bokeh going to do? Should I just bite the bullet and drop a few hundred bucks to find out for myself? Enablers - GO!

 

[blary54]

No experience with those lenses. They will probably work ok. The resale value probably wont be that great.
This is a good website to check out for lens reviews. They rated the Samyang 85mm an excellent value.
http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/610-samyang8514apsc

 

[treewhale]

I've read a lot of reviews, but they conflict heavily about the ease of manual focus.

Maybe a better question is whether anyone has an opinion on the focus peaking feature in Magic Lantern.

 

[Eeyore]

I am not convinced by the Samyang build quality. Manual focus is fine by me; my CZJ lenses are MF as well.

 

[cb91710]

I picked up a Samyang 500mm tube and doubler (both T-mount) on the bay for about $125.
For what it is, it works, and takes okay shots:



This image was cropped to center the moon, but was not resized (other than B&B's resizing).
I did tweak the color balance to "blue up" the image, and tweaked the contrast to bring out the details a bit better.

The raw image (showing the relative size of the moon to the full frame)
This one is a different exposure as I was bracketing about 30 shots, when I cropped the above I overwrote the original:



Wife was impressed and for my birthday got me a Tamron 200-500

Now... at the other end of the spectrum, I picked up a Vivitar 8mm fisheye. I have a strong suspicion that Samyang, Rokinon, Vivitar, and Bower are all the same hardware.
Note, on both the Samyang 500mm, and the Vivitar 8mm, the D3100 reports that there is no lens attached, and I have to run in full manual mode. No TTL metering, no AF. Just like 1970
Given this, for an "everyday carry-around prime" I think I would spend a bit more and stick with a Tamron or another known-quality piece that maintains the operation of the camera's electronics.

Here's a couple of shots from the Vivitar 8mm:

 

[Thumper_6119]

Great shots!

 

[treewhale]

After a little digging, I have bought a handful of old m42 screw mount glass rather than a brand new manual lens. When they arrive, I'll post a few pics for fun.

 

[Eeyore]

After a little digging, I have bought a handful of old m42 screw mount glass rather than a brand new manual lens. When they arrive, I'll post a few pics for fun.

Which ones? There is a lot of difference between lenses.

What adapter do you use?

 

[treewhale]

I am waiting on all my purchases, three cheap Chinese adapters, a Helios 44-2, Carl Zeiss Jenna 50mm 2.8, Praktica Pentacon 135mm, Super Takumar 50mm 1.4, industar 50-2 and Sears 28mm 2.8.

I am eyeballing a couple more ex-soviet lenses, particularly a Mir-1 and Jupiter-9.

It should be a lot of fun, and all of it was cheaper so far than one Samyang 85mm, so if I decide I don't like it, I am not out of pocket a great deal.

 

[Eeyore]

My favorite among those is the Super Tak. I was slightly less impressed with the Pentacon 135mm. It is a very good lens, but I am spoiled with my CZJ 135mm. The Helios and Industar are good, but both with interesting OOF behaviour. I don't kbow the Sears.

 

[treewhale]

Sears had rebranded lenses from a number of producers over the years, apparently most commonly Ricoh.

 

[mos6502]

TBH a lot of those old Soviet and East German lenses get attention for being "exotic" but they're not particularly impressive. My favorite normal M42 lens is a Yashinon 2/50 I got for $9 off ebay and blows the helios and pentacon lenses I've had out of the water.

If you do want a arcane east block lens though - I highly suggest the Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 2/50 and the Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2.8/50 (which you seem to have one on its way to you).

The Tessar is especially well suited to close up work. I used it to copy the slide I posted above. It has an extremely close focus, and on an extension tube it is nearly as good as a dedicated macro lens costing several times as much.

 

[treewhale]

One reason I am picking up old soviet bloc lenses is that my first camera was a Praktica IV built in the GDR in the late 50s and I have a touch of the nostalgia.