What is the best lens to get?

[cadabri]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone on here knew what lens I should choose. I am looking for a prime lens for a full frame camera, that can take a decent picture (Good sharpness, bokeh, and minimal color apparition) that is under 150 for the lens plus adapter for Sony E mount. I would prefer the lens to be a 50mm, but If the lens is good quality, I don't care. Thanks for your help!

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Honestly, for that amount of money you're not going to get anything worthwhile.

[cadabri]

1 minute ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

Honestly, for that amount of money you're not going to get anything worthwhile.

There are a lot of decent film lenses that can take sharp images, but there are just too many to choose from and was wondering if anyone on here knew which were the best

[Hans Christian | Teri]

4 minutes ago, cadabri said:

There are a lot of decent film lenses that can take sharp images, but there are just too many to choose from and was wondering if anyone on here knew which were the best

An FD to E-mount adapter alone costs quite a bit. The Canon FD-mount 50mm f/1.4 is decent, but not much more than that, and can be had for reasonably money.

[cadabri]

10 minutes ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

An FD to E-mount adapter alone costs quite a bit. The Canon FD-mount 50mm f/1.4 is decent, but not much more than that, and can be had for reasonably money.

I am looking for a cheap 20 dollar adapter from amazon or ebay, I dont need auto focus with the adapter. And I am looking for things from any system, Minolta, Mammya, Pentax, some old Russian m42 mount, any lens as long as it produces a good image

[Hans Christian | Teri]

4 minutes ago, cadabri said:

I am not looking for a cheap 20 dollar adapter from amazon or ebay, I dont need auto focus with the adapter. And I am looking for things from any system, Minolta, Mammya, Pentax, some old Russian m42 mount, any lens as long as it produces a good image

Getting a good FD to E-mount adapter opens you up to a world of absolutely magnificent lenses. like the classic (and more or less affordable) 50 f/1.2, 85 f/1.2, 135 f/2.0 and 24 f/1.4

[wwsalmon]

I'm not a pro at this, but here's a thing I found: https://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R2H0BGF6UWNZV1/ref=cm_lm_pthnk_view?lm_bb=&tag=primelenses-20&ie=UTF8

[cadabri]

3 minutes ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

Getting a good FD to E-mount adapter opens you up to a world of absolutely magnificent lenses. like the classic (and more or less affordable) 50 f/1.2, 85 f/1.2, 135 f/2.0 and 24 f/1.4

Ah, I meant to say I AM looking for a cheap 20 dollar adapter

[Hans Christian | Teri]

1 minute ago, cadabri said:

Ah, I meant to say I AM looking for a cheap 20 dollar adapter

Depending on what you get it may or may not have a MASSIVE impact on image quality.

[cadabri]

2 minutes ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

Depending on what you get it may or may not have a MASSIVE impact on image quality.

Well I cant spend 300 on a metabones, I will probably just get a Fotodiox 

[Hans Christian | Teri]

3 minutes ago, cadabri said:

Well I cant spend 300 on a metabones, I will probably just get a Fotodiox 

To be fair the Metabones is only $100, and you can usually get a 50mm f/1.4 in decent condition for around $50.

[ALwin]

4 hours ago, cadabri said:

snip

The "best" lens to get depends on what you want to do with the lens.  A 50mm on a FF camera is sort of like a de facto normal focal length that comes from film days and is widely considered the focal length that matches that of our eyes.

 

But if you want a prime lens for portraits, many professionals prefer something between 80mm to 150mm.  Macro photographers choose the focal length they need depending on the type of macro photography they do and the close focusing distance they require.

[cadabri]

3 minutes ago, ALwin said:

The "best" lens to get depends on what you want to do with the lens.  A 50mm on a FF camera is sort of like a de facto normal focal length that comes from film days and is widely considered the focal length that matches that of our eyes.

 

But if you want a prime lens for portraits, many professionals prefer something between 80mm to 150mm.  Macro photographers choose the focal length they need depending on the type of macro photography they do and the close focusing distance they require.

I understand that much, but I was more looking to see if anyone on here had recommendations for specific old lenses that are good but cheap 

[ALwin]

4 hours ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

Depending on what you get it may or may not have a MASSIVE impact on image quality.

Adapters without any corrective elements should not affect image quality as all they do is adjust the flange distance.  Badly designed adapters may break after a number of uses or their flange distance correction is not precise hence will not offer correct infinity focus.

[ALwin]

5 minutes ago, cadabri said:

I understand that much, but I was more looking to see if anyone on here had recommendations for specific old lenses that are good but cheap 

I know a lot of cheap, second hand prime lenses.  What do you want to do, what sort of focal length do you need?

[cadabri]

1 minute ago, ALwin said:

I know a lot of cheap, second hand prime lenses.  What do you want to do, what sort of focal length do you need?

For now I just want a lens for tourism, as I am going on a trip semi soon, so I would prefer a fast, sharp, and one that does not color fringe. I know that is like the perfect trifecta of lenses, so if you have a suggestion for each pair of two that would be good, but I think I would prefer above all correct colors and sharpness

[cadabri]

1 hour ago, ALwin said:

I know a lot of cheap, second hand prime lenses.  What do you want to do, what sort of focal length do you need?

So pretty much stuff like street shots, and I am planning on going to a few abandoned places.

[ALwin]

18 minutes ago, cadabri said:

So pretty much stuff like street shots, and I am planning on going to a few abandoned places.

In this case you may not want a prime lens, how about a constant aperture zoom?

 

If you want to buy prime lenses, and will use them with an adapter (the only smart adapter that works with the Sony E-mount, as far as commercially available and as far as I am certain, are the expensive Metabones Canon EF to Sony E adapters, which can be buggy sometimes) then old Nikon prime lenses are a good option.  With a cheap Fotodiox dumb adapter the lenses will always be manual, so look for lenses with a manual aperture ring.  Some examples of Nikon prime lenses are listed below, though I can't say that all of them have a stellar performance.

• 50 1.8D
• 85 1.8D
• 20 2.8D
• 28 2.8D
• 24 2.8D
• 105 something D
• etc.

[cadabri]

1 minute ago, ALwin said:

In this case you may not want a prime lens, how about a constant aperture zoom?

 

If you want to buy prime lenses, and will use them with an adapter (the only smart adapter that works with the Sony E-mount, as far as commercially available and as far as I am certain, are the expensive Metabones Canon EF to Sony E adapters, which can be buggy sometimes) then old Nikon prime lenses are a good option.  With a cheap Fotodiox dumb adapter the lenses will always be manual, so look for lenses with a manual aperture ring.  Some examples of Nikon prime lenses are listed below, though I can't say that all of them have a stellar performance.

• 50 1.8D
• 85 1.8D
• 20 2.8D
• 28 2.8D
• 24 2.8D
• 105 something D
• etc.

I already have the sony 24-240, so I dont want a zoom lens, and I dont really need auto focus. I just want a sharp, fast, and color fringe free lens

[ShadowCaptain]

7 hours ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

Depending on what you get it may or may not have a MASSIVE impact on image quality.

Not really, since you dont need any corrective optics or electronics for FD lenses

its basically a metal ring that adapts the mounts to each other and corrects the flange distance
 

i have taken beautiful photos on my £13 FD-E mount adpater and £30 Canon 50mm f1.8

[Hans Christian | Teri]

2 hours ago, ShadowCaptain said:

Not really, since you dont need any corrective optics or electronics for FD lenses

its basically a metal ring that adapts the mounts to each other and corrects the flange distance
 

i have taken beautiful photos on my £13 FD-E mount adpater and £30 Canon 50mm f1.8

Aha, of course this is different for mirror-less cameras, I should have known. What I said holds true for FD to EF mount, but this is irrelevant to the thread I see. FD lenses are for sure fantastic bang for the buck.

[ShadowCaptain]

1 minute ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

Aha, of course this is different for mirror-less cameras, I should have known. What I said holds true for FD to EF mount, but this is irrelevant to the thread I see. FD lenses are for sure fantastic bang for the buck.

yeah he has an A7R2  so all is good 

[Hans Christian | Teri]

1 minute ago, ShadowCaptain said:

yeah he has an A7R2  so all is good 

Wonderful camera, personally thinking about switching my 5D2 out for one to use the vast array of FD lenses I have from back in the film days.

[ShadowCaptain]

6 minutes ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

Wonderful camera, personally thinking about switching my 5D2 out for one to use the vast array of FD lenses I have from back in the film days.

Yeah IMO its the best camera on the market, dxo and dpreview back me up too

Everything is perfect for me, not a great sports camera, and sony support isnt up there with nikon pro support - but that doesnt effect me at all and wont effect most normal people

[cadabri]

3 minutes ago, ShadowCaptain said:

Yeah IMO its the best camera on the market, dxo and dpreview back me up too

Everything is perfect for me, not a great sports camera, and sony support isnt up there with nikon pro support - but that doesnt effect me at all and wont effect most normal people

Great camera, though I made the mistake of only having enough money left over to get a single lens  Huge mistake.