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What's your most used set of lenses?


BrorSvensson
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I think it also make sense when we call our camera/sensor size:
I film in Full Format (5d) and after testing a lot of lenses, especially primes, I came back again to the Canon 24-70mm/2,8 L MKI as my main lens!
In the end it has beaten all of my other lenses in case of "character" and color rendition!

But under special circumstances I love several Minolta lenses, (modified to EF mount):
Minolta Rokkor MD 45mm 1:2 - a 30,-€ lens with a beautiful color - and 3d performance!
Also the Minolta MC 35mm 1,8 HH (excellent sharpness, very 3d-ish, but colors not as good as the 24-70, too blue, too magenta).
The Minolta MD 24mm 1:2,8 (Collaboration with Leica) - a ultra sharp and clean 24mm wide angle lens on FF!
Nikkor 85mm f2 ai - simply a nice, sharp and affordable lens.

Nikkor ai/ai-s lenses always surprised me. They innately deliver a very special cinematic image!
I want to have more of it, so I am looking forward to further recommendations...

Here a quick test of the Minolta 45mm (f2 is very ordinary, but from 2,8 it shines:)

 


 

Hot damn, Volker, that is a great look you have struck upon. Definitely some 3D pop going on with that Minolta.

I always get torn with lenses, it's a tug of war in my kit bag between modern and vintage, head versus heart. My workhorse lens is the Oly 12-40mm. It's a veritable swiss army knife and delivers a clean and sharp image. On the same day of work I will use it and my Pana Leica 15mm alongside Nikon AI-S lenses and some days I'll fall in love with the images the Nikons deliver and other days I'll love the images the modern lenses deliver. It's my most internally debated kit choice, but when I find myself getting too hung up on it I reason with myself that I can get good shots with both so I close eBay and get on with some work =)

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I know you weren't asking me, but the MD 28mm f2 has been my go to lens lately. The bokeh isn't nearly as dramatic as the 35mm or the 50mm, but that's why I bought it... It's not as creamy, but perfect for rack focus in dialogue scenes. IMO. 

Other than a couple shots where I use the 24-35mm, the lion's share of this video is shot with the 28mm f2 on the NX500. With the 2.5x crop factor on the NX500, the 28mm has a FOV of a 70mm.

 

Looks really nice, might have to seek one out and buy it.

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Looks really nice, might have to seek one out and buy it.

Yeah, it's a great lens. One can be had on eBay for around $250. They also have an MD version of the 35mm 1.8, I think it's the same optical formula as the MC version, but probably with better coating. If you're looking for a dirt cheap Minolta, check out the MC 28mm f2.5. A real nice lens that can be easily had for less than a hundred, I bought my copy for $60. 

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But the 2.5 is a vivitar, isn't it? 

Vivitar did make a popular 28mm f2.5 lens, probably in the Minolta mount, but that's not the lens I am referring to. This one is a Minolta MC W Rokkor SI 28mm f2.5. Way better than the Vivitar, which isn't a bad lens either but not even in the same league as the Minolta. IMO. 

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CANON 50mm 1.2 L

i always seem to run back to  (him) 

The Canon 50mm L was the lens that convinced me to finally invest in high(er)-end glass. I had been shooting a vintage set of Pentax Super Takumars for years (the 50mm 1.4 Super Tak is my first love), but compared to the 50mm L on back-to-back shoot days it just couldn't deliver the sharpness and fall-off of the modern glass. That day and subsequent days shooting the L 50mm (and other L lenses) gave me so much confidence. 

After an exhaustive search I found that the Leica Rs give the right amount of sharpness and pop in the image, with a comparable amount of... "romance?"... character? that the vintage lenses often provide for my style of shooting and content.

If anyone else is thinking of jumping in to the Leica game, over the past year I've compiled this vimeo collection of stuff shot on them (none by me, sadly). You'll find that they're quite versatile.

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