Hello whispering Bob lens! Great to hear your calming voice again, three bargains I'll never forget: 1) Car boot sale Takumar 50mm F1.4 I'd heard all about his gem and was on the look out. When I spotted one out in the wild, it was at a car boot sale and was on a Pentax Spotmatic SLR, I calmly asked the seller if he would stash it while I went to the cash machine, he did and I got the whole kaboosh for £30!! 2) Immaculate Helios 44, in bakelite box plus a couple more lenses for £25 from a charity shop in Teddington. 3) Minolta MD 35-70 F3.5 (macro version) I had a bunch of 1970s zoom lenses and they weren't much cop but I'd heard that this particular one was sought after and very good "a zoom that is good as a prime" ...maybe several primes. Found one on fleabay for £25 advertied as "stuck on filter and fungus" ...fixed both and it was fun doing it. Lens turned out to be brilliant. I still have all three and use them. Thanks for your inspiration, thumbs up.

I have two of the late generation Jupiter 8. Yes, they are good. Better then the earlier versions in my opinion. The Industar 61 came in 50mm to 55mm. I like the 55mm ones the most.

I found a Konica 40mm f1.8 in an antique shop sometime ago. Really didn’t know much about it but it looked perfect. I forget what I paid for it but remember it was more than I wanted. What a great lens, just love it.

I have a N61 on my FED 2 it's really good.... I bought another FED 2 for spares kept the N26 leather case swopped backs cos no tripod bush and sold on second body.....and my customer was still very pleased!!!

I just purchased a non-functioning (surprise, surprise) black Nikon FE for 50DKR (6,7€). Attached to it was a near-mint Nikkor AIS 105mm f2.5..

I recently got a "newer" Helios lens and I share your feelings on it. Every time I try to give it another chance, it just makes me want to put one of my Zeiss lenses back on.

Still think that Konica 40mm f1.8 is one of the best lenses of all time.

I actually like my Konica AR 57mm F1.4. It's a dreamy lens. A bit like the Minolta 58mm 1.4 MD (second production) The popstars are the Konica 85mm f1.8 and the 50mm f1.4 (22 blades). If you want flawless 35mm f2.

I have the Konica 57mm &1.4 and really like it. Interesting colors, they glow some how. I also have the 40mm as well and agree with your evaluation.

Great video really enjoyable beautiful lenses.

My best bargain is a Nikkor 50 1.4 SC for $35. To my amazement no one bid on it. At the time they where going for 2-3× what i paid.

Hi Nigel, Very interesting video, I have a CZJ 1.8 50mm pancolar zebra this on is NOT radioactive serial no 8896330 I Believe that ones made after 889500 are not radioactive, I have checked my one with a Giger counter.

M.Zuiko 50mm f1.8 is my lottery winner

Great video Nigel! You mentioned briefly why the sub-genre of Soviet vintage lenses are so interesting. The optical designs are properly old Zeiss designs from before the Second World War but were made much later with better optical glass and coatings from the era of colour photography. Shooting with them today you get the best of both worlds. It's a bonus that they're also relatively cheap, especially the ones that were sold as kit lenses on Soviet cameras - Jupiter 8, Industar 61 L/D and various versions of the Helios 44. I'd really like to see a video that compares the m39 Helios 44 with the original Zeiss Biotar 58mm f2 to see what the real-world differences are.

I've got 2 - a 44-2 and a 77m4. I've tried to compare them as best as I can - and the performance is almost identical. When I can see a difference - the 44-2 seems to give me a hair more contrast in the details - though the sharpness, technically, is close to identical. That said, for simply walking around and shooting - I doubt I could tell the difference, and the modern style controls of the M77 work better for me. I have a feeling I got lucky twice - the images from both are just beautiful.

Hello Nigel, many thanks. Often overlooked lenses are the ones like Minolta MC/MD 5.6/100-200 mm and Canon FD 5.6/100-200 mm. They have a modest aperture but they deliver excellent image quality indeed! Highly recommended! Don't be afraid of 5.6. Best wishes Ralf

most of the pancolar zebras are not radioactive. the radioactive version is pretty rare and can easily be identified not only by yellowed glas but also by serialnumber lower than 8552600. the radioactive version is also shorter and has 8 blade aperture and costs 3 times as much

The lenses i dont regret getting were the Zeiss Tessar 50 2.8 (best infrared performance stopped down), the Schneider Componon S 80/4 (sharpest lens I own, bubble bokeh, sadly just f4), the El-Nikkor 50 2.8 (very different color reproduction than all of my other lenses, i use it if i want busy backgrounds), the Leitz Colorplan 90/2.5 (Cheapest Leica lens you can buy and possibly best price to performance portrait lens ever made). All for around 10-20€ each.

Hi Zen, it took me a long time, but i did an experiment yesterday,. I took a shot with me Canon 1200D and used the same settings on the K11O Pentax with a 28mm lens' that has no make on it, and i can't remember, it has a Photax UV Filter on it and the result was sharper, you are bang on,. All these other sites with due respect who bang on about modern cameras and lenses are wrong in that respect !

Its the man behind the camera that matters overall. Upgrade ones self. That's what I'm learning.

great video again

I used to have the Konica FS1 with the 40mm and loved it and loved the results. I gave it to one of my daughters when she was at uni, sadly I've no idea what happened to it. Cheers.... 👍

A note on the Konica 57mm f1.4 -- the advent of the SLR gave lens designers a problem they'd never faced before: they had to design lenses whose rear elements wouldn't run into the camera's mirror! The shorter the focal length the bigger problem this presented. & that's why you see so-called "normal" lenses with odd focal lengths like this 57mm. Or Topcon's 58mm f1.4. Or, for that matter, the early Nikkor f1.4 lenses, which were also 58mm. As well, none of these early SLR normal lenses had the resolving power of a 50mm Nikon, Canon, etc. for the companies' earlier rangefinder models. Later, as more computer power was brought to bear on lens design, companies were able to design 50mm objectives that would clear the mirror. -- & were sharper & more contrasty as well. Thus, the later Konica 50mm f1.4 Hexanon is an absolutely terrific objective -- as is the 50mm f1.7, which is thought to be one of the sharpest "normal" lenses ever designed. The 40mm f1.8 which you covered in today's episode is also a later design, & I agree it's outstanding.

Talking of lens bubbles I recently bought an Ensign Selfix 16-20 roll film camera from around 1950. I have printed of the instruction manual and inside is the following message. ' It should be noted that it is impossible to obtain the raw optical glass from which high end anastigmats are made absolutely free from small air bubbles. Such air bubbles have no unfavourable influence upon the working of the lens and complaints concerning their presence cannot ne considered'.

I managed to get a good Jupiter 8 with a Zorki 4 K. The camera was cheap and it was worth it for the lens which now lives on my FED 2.

Some of my favourite lenses I have ever found at a thrift store or on a classified are the Rollei 50mm f1.8 Planner ($17USD), Vivitar 28mm f1.9 Series 1 ($34USD), Nikkor 50mm f1.2 AI ($140usd), Nikkor 180mm f2.8 ED AIS ($200usd), Canon FD 55mm f1.2 Crome Nose with FTb body ($20usd).

At 12:00 in about 1979 I’ve purchased brand new Nikkor 1.2/50mm (or 55 or 58mm do not remember now) lens that had a two small bubbles in front element, I was sceptical about Nikon assurances that it does not affect image quality and ask for replacement.

Dear Nigel, I was wondering how would be a Nigel's video about best `Zenographic` lenses for portraits. Thank you for the video!

Nice video buddy ta muchly....

Your Helios 44 - 3 is certainly NOT made by the KMZ (judging by the logo on the front of the lens), which had the best quality and best sample variation, but rather by Lomo or Arsenal, and regarding Soviet lenses that's even more important than which model or whatever the lens might be...

Helios lenses have much sample variation especially later models

for years i was not able to find Helios-44 like this (silver/13 blade) for bargain price (for price it goes on ebay i'll rather go for Biotar), however then in last 3 months i got 2 - 29eur and 42eur (with fully working Zenit 3M camera).

And regarding radioactive lenses : I collect Burmese Glass, and "Depression Glass". Get over the paranoia, it only registers on a Geiger-counter if you have the probe practically touching the thoriated element.

Do you review vintage Voightlander cameras I have 3....... 2 Vito Bs the mk1 and mk 2 and the Vito 2....just wondering Nigel....ta...

My Konica 57 1.4 is also very disappointing. Probably the worse 50ish mm 1.4 I have owned . I think I currently have 7 or 8 different 50-58 mm 1.4s

Always like your videos but, have a request. Perhaps a little more information in the description or chapter segments in the video. Make it just a bit easier to go back and review.

What about wildlife photogaphy using 400-600mm

Have you tried a Xenon 50mm 1.9 in DKL mount?

I think you have too much 50mm lenses : ))) I'm an apsc user and I love 35mm lenses (which is equivalent to 23mm in apsc) so I always wondering 24mm vintage lenses : )

You don't necessarily need a lot of lenses, just learn how to use the lenses you do have.