Currently Most Undervalued Lens? Your Thoughts, Please

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Benjamin Marks

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I was recently looking at a used Pentax 55/2 lens for use on an E-P2 with an adapter. It cost $27, and I thought to myself, "these Pentax thread-mount lenses must be the greatest value in terms of optical and mechanical build quality for the dollar that there are today . . ." Then I saw a used Konica 40/1.8 AR lens for about $30 and I thought, "I'll bet there are any number of superb lenses that are being given away for a song these days."

Any thoughts from the assembly on other currently undervalued gems?

Ben Marks
 
Well a lens and camera really: The Rolleicord V. I bought mine for £100 a few years back and foolishly sold it.
 
First and foremost Fujica X and Konica AR mount lenses - both were high quality, reasonably young, hard to adapt elsewhere and each mount was superseded without ever having brought forward a collectible body.

Most other brands and mounts (with reasonable optical quality) have some sort of collectors appeal that pushes the prices. And lenses with the "majority mounts" (Exakta/M42/PK in their age respectively) have recently found new fans among the EOS and MFT adapter crowd, to the point that the most outstanding lenses have grown seriously expensive.
 
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Turtle said:
Well a lens and camera really: The Rolleicord V. I bought mine for £100 a few years back and foolishly sold it.
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The V was the last of the right-hand focus knob models, and best of the entire Rolleicord line. Keeping mine, at least until the Neopan 400 stash runs out.
 
I'm with Sevo on the Fujica lenses. I had a set of Fujinon EBC coated lenses given to me, used them for quite some time and eventually invested the profits in a Nikon AID 50/1.4 lens, but in the end I saw no difference between those EBC coated lenses and the Nikkor.

Other good lens that is 'forgotten' is the Helios 44-M and 44-M2. Russian made, an optical copy of the Zeiss Biotar, and a brilliant portrait lens with great bokeh. Can be had for 15 bucks/quid/euros and in a good condition too. Bought mine as-new in Canterbury UK last year, with a Zenit body for a tenner.
 
Are the Helios 44 and the Kiev-mount Helios lenses of the same design, or is it just a brand name thing? I thought the Fujica lenses were M49 (Pentax screw-mount) thread -- Is this incorrect?

[Edit: meant M42 - thx Buzzardkid]

Ben
 
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Kowa 12.5mm F1.4 lens, C-Mount. Dirt Cheap, junk bin.

I'll post a thread once the C-Mount adapter gets here for my EP2.

A lot of prices for manual lenses are up these days, because of the M9, Nikon Full-frame, 4/3 and u4/3 cameras.
 
Benjamin Marks said:
Are the Helios 44 and the Kiev-mount Helios lenses of the same design, or is it just a brand name thing? I thought the Fujica lenses were M49 (Pentax screw-mount) thread -- Is this incorrect?

Ben
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Not sure about the Helios for Zenit vs Helios for Kiev thing. The earlier Fujica lenses were M42, the later ones were Fujica X-Bayonet. That mount was shortlived and there are no adapters to use those lenses on other cameras. The M42 EBC lenses are much more expensive nowadays, because they can be adapter to other mounts.
 
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:)
 
Pentacon 50/1.8 I use this one on my EOS 500d. Definitely one of the sharpest lenses I have tried on a DSLR - on par with my 90mm Tamron. As far as I recall, I paid app. 20£ for it...
 
So it's not RF, but I'll add the Mamiya f/2.8 80mm MF lens for the 645 cameras. Brutally sharp, often sold in excellent condition for $50-70. I believe they can be adapted to Canon DSLRs.
 
konicaman said:
Pentacon 50/1.8 I use this one on my EOS 500d. Definitely one of the sharpest lenses I have tried on a DSLR - on par with my 90mm Tamron. As far as I recall, I paid app. 20£ for it...
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Yup, I'll second that. Very sharp optics and a close focus too. The build quality is a bit marginal however.
 
Almost any lens made by Konica for their SLR's from the late 60's onwards. The 50/1.4, 28/3.5, and 24/2.8 come to mind. Also the Nikkor 50mm F2 H-C - great value, super sharp, and inexpensive $40-$60.

As far as rangefinder lenses, there are not any undervalued ones - one pays dearly to be in this part of the photo hobby! The Voigtlander 15/4.5, 35/2.5, 35/1.7, and 50/2.5 in LTM are about as close to bargains as one can get in the rangefinder world.
 
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Many of the Vivitar and Tamron tele primes circa 1970s, . For
example, I have a T4 Vivitar 135/2.8 serial # 37... which is really a
honey.
 
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