Camera Labs

Hey everyone,

I have a Nex 5 that I would like to get some cheap extra lenses for. I'm specifically looking for something with a little extra zoom (around 150mm-250mm). My brother has a Nex camera with a 135mm (I think f2.8) Panagor that has horrible chromatic distortions. If I could find something similar (maybe with a little extra zoom) with less chromatic distortion, that would be nice.

Do you have any recommendations for cheap lenses? I don't have any adaptors yet, so any brand will do.

Gr,
Mark

Thrift/charity/secondhand shops. I bought so much lenses from there.
Your best bet would be M42/P-wire/screw mount lenses, they are the most commonly adapted.

Pentax PK mount is also quite common in thrift stores, but adapters might be harder to found

_________________
I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

I know plenty of places where I could buy hundreds of old lenses. The problem is that there are so many and I'd like to get a decent one. I don't want to waste my money on something that isn't sharp or has horrible chromatic distortions or some other problem.

Heh, hit and miss there. Older sigmas can be crap, but some are good. Vivitar has plenty of manufacturers, and you can only see which manufacturer made the lens by the serial number. Meyer-optik has a crappy 50mm F/2.8, but a great 135 afaik. Mamiya has good glass. Helios 44-2 has good bokeh.

_________________
I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

It's not so much a matter of one mount or one brand that will give you excellent lenses and another will give you junk - it's unfortunately on a lens-by-lens basis. There are some gems in almost every mount, and it sometimes just takes a bit of experimenting or searching around to run into the good ones. I have about 25 manual lenses I've collected over the past 9 months for my NEX3 - the most I've spent on any of them was $17. Some have been 'average', none have been 'poor', and a few have been excellent. When I find a lens or lenses I'm interested in, I search around the forums and internet for some input on the lens from anyone who has one or has used one - sometimes it's an old lens review from film days, sometimes it's a current user with a NEX or M4:3 body on one of those forums or rangefinder forums...if the lens gets mostly poor reviews, I'll pass. If it gets decent to good reviews, I'll bite, assuming the cost is low enough where I have little to lose.

Some of my gem lenses I've picked up cheap have been:

Chinon 135mm F2.8 (Pentax K mount) - superb sharpness, lovely bokeh, very low CA, mild PF only in extreme contrast situations, nice contrast.

Vivitar 200mm F3.5 (Konica K-AR mount, Komine build) - same as above - sharpness is excellent, likely exceeding the sensor, while color and bokeh are pleasing and no CA issues.

Konica Hexanon 50mm F1.7 and 40mm F1.8 (Konica K-AR mount) - two lovely primes, nice and fast, good sharpness, very nice stopped down a bit, slightly dreamy/diffuse wide open, no CA issues to speak of.

I generally like Konica's Hexanon lenses, and many of the Vivitar branded lenses can be quite excellent, if you stick with those built by Komine especially, or sometimes the Cosina or Tokina builds (which you can find out from decoding the serial numbers). Since these were built for many different mounts, you can just look for the lens, and pick up the adapter needed to mount to the NEX.

_________________
Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg