Thanks for the info Mark.
I haven't had a chance to try out the Rokinon 85mm with my MultiRig yet, but am now encouraged that it will work alright with it. I tried it out with my Bogen fluid base monopod and didn't like the results too much, as I have never been the most proficient with a monopod, and there was still too much movement for my taste for a lens with no IS.

I do love flying a DSLR on the MultiRig though as it truly is effortless. I find it funny that so many are spending a fortune on DSLR rigs when this works so easily with a DSLR. I am even running it with a follow focus and loving it even more so.

135mm recommendation
 

Thanks to all who have posted helpful info in this thread. It's been very helpful to me.

This is my first post on this forum.

I have a question regarding 135mm vintage lenses. I would love to buy a prime 135mm at f2 or faster. The Canon 135mm f2 at nearly $1k seems high for the limited times I will be using this lens.

Can anyone make a recommendation about a solid lense I should look for that is easily adaptable to a DSLR?

Thanks!
Brett

Well for starters, the Canon 135mm f2 is not an old lens but part of Canon's "L" Series. Which are very highly regarded.

If you would like vintage old manual primes then there are plenty to chose from, although f2 or faster might make it harder to find. You will need an EOS to whatever the mount is on the lens itself to use it with a modern DSLR but most will work. The only exception might be of all things, a Canon FD mount which will require glass on the adapter to sue it for infinity focus.

You won't have exposure control or auto focus feature on the camera, but you will have aperture control on the manual lens itself, which for me is actually preferable and more natural.

As for lenses you could look into:
Vivitar 135mm f/2.5
Pentax Takumar 135mm f/2.5

There are lots of 2.8 manuals out there:
Konica Soligor 135mm f/2.8
Vivitar 135MM f2.8
Item image
Soligor 135mm f/2.8
HELIOS 135mm f/2.8
Tair-11 133mm f/2.8

jupiter11 135mm f/4.0

All said you can find lots of 135mm vintage manual lenses out there. But it might take some research and digging. The nice thing about all of these lenses is that they all have different characteristics (brokeh, flare, color etc.) to them and all can give you a totally unique look form each other.

These focal lengths depend if your DSLR is full frame or crop 1.6. An 85mm on a 7D or T2i has about the equivalent focal length as a 135mm lens on a 5Dm2, yet you can find 85mm manual focus lenses in the f1.4 range for little money, eg. Rokinon 85mm. On a crop sensor, the 135mm f2.0 is equivalent to a 200mm f2.0. A Canon 200mm f2.0 sells for $6000+ dollars. The savings on a 135mm lens cropped is enormous. 135mm to 200mm at f2.0 are rare in the vintage world just because today's modern lenses are sophisticated pieces of engineering and the lens arrays are designed by computers.

If you do find vintage lens in f2.0, they will be pricey, so it might be better just to go Canon because their color balance are uniform across their L line. That's one of the advantages of going all Canon. No funky color rendering issues.

Thanks for the feedback.

My hope was to avoid paying $1k for the current Canon 135mm f2 lense by purchasing a vintage lens I can adapt. It is important that it be 135mm at f2 or faster.

This discussion of old lenses made me wonder if I could save by purchasing something old, but it sounds like vintage may not be the best option for a fast 135mm.

Other ideas are certainly welcome! Thanks!

Bret are you wanting to shoot with a focal length of 135mm, or use a 135mm lens to obtain a 200mm focal length.
As was just said, if you are looking for a 135mm focal length then you can look for glass that's 85mm (which is 135mm on the Canons cropped sensor). If you are looking for the later, then you can find fast glass in the 85mm range. An example is the new Rokinin (Samyang, Vivitar, etc.) that's 85mm at a fast 1.4. the glass is pretty good, and build is nice, and it only goes for $250 New.

if you're wanting a 135mm lens to obtain 200mm focal length, then as suggested your choices will be more limiting, but they are out there if you want to look hard enough.

Thanks Michael,
I have an 85mm. I'm looking for a 135mm.

What would be your budget? I found a few Nikon AI lenses in the $400 range that should suit your needs. There are lots of folks on here who swear by them. I'll PM you a few.

Thanks Chris. We all appreciate the time you have invested in this & your willingness to share.

Thanks for providing the article- very informative. I've purchased a Vivitar Series 1 70-210 but now I'm unsure what kind of adapter to buy... (I'm completely new to the world of lenses) A store here in Amsterdam only had 130 euro adapters- almost 3x the price of the lens.

What adapter do I need from Fotodiox? (Chris said he bought his for $20 but I can't find these on the website)

TIA,

Jeroen

Check out this site. SLR Lens Mount Identification Guide. It should answer your question in terms of what adapter your new lens needs. My guess is that you may be looking at the "pro" version of the adapters. I only use the "consumer grade" and they are just fine. I got them from the Fotodiox Ebay store.

I noticed I bought the Vivitar Series 1 3.5 70-210 FD(!) and just read that Mark von Lanken mentioned the FD mount is the one mount that's hard to adapt. I guess I was too eager. I can return it if it's not the right one... Or is there a way to mount this lens anyway?

I recently purchased an old Vivitar 28mm f/2.5 (KIRON) from eBay. A tad rarer than the 2.8 so I paid a little more, but the lens is in fantastic condition. I'm only fairly new to photography so my photo's will probably scream 'newby' but I am loving it for video and it's definitely my go-to lens at the moment.

Plus, I love how badass it looks on my 550D ;)

I read your info on the mount matters, Chris, and got my answer there. (From now on I will read first and then buy...;-)

Sorry for not responding sooner. Had a two day shoot and am just now getting back to things. Yeah the Canon FD can be adapted but depending on the adapter you can have a softer picture, difficulty with infinity focus, or loss of light. I think Canon sold an FD>EOS adapter years ago with excellent optics but it was prohibitively expensive.

There's also the option of sending the lens to someone who could convert the lens to the EOS mount by putting the lens elements in a new barrell or something like that. For a rare FD or Minolta this might be worth it but for a pretty common lens like the Vivitar 70-210, it's best (and cheapest) to just get an Olympus or Nikon mount version.

The Canon FD>EOS adapter was only for a couple of the longest telephoto FD lenses which at the time were probably prohibitively expensive too.

It is a great shame that Canon declared "Year Zero" when they introduced the EF mount. Last year I bought for next to nothing a beautiful 35-105mm F3.5 telephoto that is absolutely pristine. Sadly with a cheapo FD>EOS adapter from eBay (which is all that is available) the picture is too soft. It's an enormous shame as otherwise the lens is perfect for video use with a lovely wide focus ring & big zoom ring

Super Takumar 50mm
 

I shot this with an old Lens I got off ebay for $100. Super Takumar 50mm 1.4

Just a clip By Clayton Moore On ExposureRoom

Someone posted about this lens here

Organgrinder010: Manual Lenses on EOS Body Part 2 - Super-Takumar 50mm f1.4

Hi Mark!

Samyang's main goal is to make their lenses affordable, so I'd guess it will be in the $250-350 range:

From Interview with Mr. Lee - Director of Sales & Marekting Samyang Optics - Interview with Mr. Lee - Director of Sales & Marekting Samyang Optics - Lenstip.com

"LensTip.com: There are rumors, that the next lens released will be 35mm f/1.2 or 35 mm f/1.4. Could you tell us about it?
Mr. Lee: 35 mm f/1.4 will be released in the second half of 2010."

Hi Brett,

It took patient and diligent scanning of the used lens websites and ebay but after two months I landed a Porst 135mm f1.8. I've used it at two events and its very sharp and has good contrast and color. Its really heavy, which is fine though because I have it on a tripod or monopod. After shipping from Greece the total was about $250. Very satisfied with the purchase. In the picture the lens is compared to the much smaller Pentax 135mm f2.5.

Nice telephoto lens. I went to a yard sale a few weeks ago, the lady had a Nikon 35mm film camera with a 135mm tele lens and some other stuff. I got the whole deal for $20. One lens mount adapter later and I was in business.

CM

Why can't I find those yard sales :)? The ones I go to just have old baby stuff and VHS tapes. Anyway, great find there! Just a little jealous :)

Chris
 

Also look in your Friday Paper for Estate Sales for the weekend. The people that run those sales don't normally see much value in old film cameras. I've gotten some good odds and ends there, like table top tripods and other things.
Try being a pack rat in reverse.

CM

1968 Mamiya Sekor 55 mm 1.4 screw mount lens came of the Mamiya Sekor 1000DTL camera. It is little bit heavy for 55mm lens.
I'm now selling Mamiya Sekor 1000DTL (body only).