Best lenses.

[FutherMucker]

My off-brand list:

Peleng 8mm fisheye
Sigma 30mm f1.4
Tokina 12-24mm
Phoenix 500mm mirror

Siggy & Toki come out of the bag a lot more than the others, but I still have some fun with the other glass now and then.

[RcMacStudent]

I know its already been (frequently) mentioned in here but I also really like my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8. It does almost everything I ask of it quite well and it’s cheap (I got mine used for $300 from KEH.com). I really couldn’t ask for more. Except maybe a free Canon 70-200 f/2.8 😀

[Killerclaw]

I know its already been (frequently) mentioned in here but I also really like my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8. It does almost everything I ask of it quite well and it’s cheap (I got mine used for $300 from KEH.com). I really couldn’t ask for more. Except maybe a free Canon 70-200 f/2.8 😀

Couldn’t we all.

[soosh]

My Tokina 12-24 is probably my most loved lens. The images I get from it blow me away on a regular basis. I also have a Sigma 20mm f/1.8 that I am using a lot more this year that the wide-open apertures are really nice to have. The Tamron 28-75 is superb as well, but not so much used with my night stuff…Just not been using that focal range much lately. I had a Canon 100mm Macro that was a fantastic lens. It was stolen and I replaced it with a Tamron 180mm macro that is sharp as hell but I don’t like it as much as the 100mm. The focus is slower, and the focal length is such that I don’t use it for much other than macro, where with the 100mm, I loved it for portraits. I’m going back and forth on selling the 180 and getting another 100.

I had one Canon 85mm f/1.8 that I loved but didn’t use much and sold, but then replaced it with another that didn’t seem to be as good and had more purple fringing. I should have never sold the first one, it was an excellent lens.

I also have a few 50mm lenses that I use from time to time. My favorite is a $5 pawn-shop Yashica ML that I have an adapter for. It’s broken in that it won’t stop down at all, so I can only use it at f/1.4, but damn does it give beautiful bokeh. Here’s a shot I took with it.

I had a Canon 50mm f/1.8, and frankly, I thought it was a piece of crap. It wasn’t really sharp until it was stopped down below f/2.8, at which point my Tamron zoom was still better than it. Maybe I got a faulty copy, but I won’t get another one. The lack of features like a focus indicator on the barrel was a deal-killer, too.

I had a Zenitar 16mm fisheye, and it was a pretty good lens until I got my 12-24. I don’t dig the fisheye look that much and probably won’t buy another for a long time. A friend of mine has a Tokina (?) fisheye zoom, and it looks just awful in the corners in my opinion.

I’ve also got a Holga lens adapted to a Canon lens mount, and it’s a lot of fun. I was hoping to do some night shots with it on really clear nights, to maybe get some holga-warped star trails, but that has not worked out yet. I can’t see to frame anything with it and it’s been too cold to really give it a lot of chances.

Other than that, I have a 50mm Industar, which is a neat looking lens

but I don’t use it a lot.

Oh, and there’s the 100-400 L IS. I really really love this thing. It’s heavy, obnoxiously white and large, and expensive as hell, but it’s just an awesome lens. I wish it was a little bit faster, but that’s about it. People complain about it being soft at 400mm, but I’ve found that’s usually user error because I’ve gotten some incredibly sharp shots with it.

[orionid]

Loreo lens-in-a-cap – Fun, especially when combined with the loreo loupe for extreme macros. You’ll see one example of this combo on the up-coming B-sides contest.

I lied. I think I’m saving it for money shots…. but it definately got outvoted by the voices in my head for B-sides.

[stupido]

What are your favorite off-brand (non-Nikon, non-Canon) lenses?

All of them? Actually do not have any Nikon/Canon lenses

I use Pentax DSLR and SLRs and Zenit SLRs. I have a fair collection of russian lenses, my favorites of the russians are the Tair 300mm/f4.5 on the photosniper, the Zenitar 16mm and the Jupitor 85mm. I have played a bit with the Industar 50mm on the Pentax DSLR and like the results

[soosh]

stupido, do you have any samples?

[Killerclaw]

stupido, do you have any samples?

Seconded

[stupido]

Here’s one from the Industar 50-2 50mm/f3.5 1969 model mounted on a Pentax *istDS.

[stupido]

various pictures with a Zorki 4K rangefinder with Industar 50 lens:
http://www.saracom.com/zorki4k/park2000/park2000.htm

various pictures with a Zenit 12xp most with Zenitar 16mm:
http://www.saracom.com/zenitar/zenitar.htm

some Photosniper pics:
http://www.saracom.com/ps_1.html

All of my marco pictures except last weeks were done with various screw mount lenses on a off-brand screw mount bellows mounted to one of my cameras.

[stupido]

More Zenitar 16mm on 12XP:

Cropped to make a panoramic pic

[3Horn]

My walk-around is a Tamron 28-200 that I picked up off of craigslist for $60. It’s decent for daylight, but in low-light I generally switch to my Nikon 50/1.8 or 10.5 fisheye.

I am however very interested in the Sigma 20/24/28 primes, especially the 1.4s.

[corsec67]

My walk-around is a Tamron 28-200 that I picked up off of craigslist for $60. It’s decent for daylight, but in low-light I generally switch to my Nikon 50/1.8 or 10.5 fisheye.

I am however very interested in the Sigma 20/24/28 primes, especially the 1.4s.

I have a Sigma 20mm f/1.8 for Pentax, and that is an annoying lens. Big, hard to focus, very soft. 82mm filter thread. I am actually thinking about selling it, I use it so rarely.

I agree with this guy, that it isn’t worth the money.

Only the cropped 30mm is f/1.4, not the 20, 24 or 28.

If you want a better alternative to the 28-200, for the same price as the 20mm f/1.8 I would suggest the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8; that lens has been discussed above.

[soosh]

I’m pretty fond of my Sigma 20mm f/1.8. I’ve only used it for night shots, though.

[corsec67]

I’m pretty fond of my Sigma 20mm f/1.8. I’ve only used it for night shots, though.

And then I just used my Sigma 20mm f/1.8 to take a macro picture for Wikipedia. That lens’ .25x macro mode can be very useful given the wider angle that lens has, as opposed to something like a 100mm macro lens.

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