Lenses don’t always have to be expensive because there are plenty of bargains you can snag. The following points will tell you what you should know before making a purchase.
Current bargains on Amazon
There are currently 3 lenses on the market on Amazon that you can get for less than 100€. And the lenses are:
- Tamron AF017NII-700 AF 70-300mm 4-5,6
- Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1,8D Objektiv
- Yongnuo YN 50mm F/1.8 AF/MF
M42 lenses and the requirements for your camera
Before you can use the old lenses, you need a so-called M42 adapter. These are usually inexpensive and easy to screw onto your camera. You can find the adapters either on Ebay or Amazon, depending on which system you have, the price can vary. For Canon, such an adapter is already available for less than 10€.
Look around at flea markets or Ebay and test the old objetkive
A few months ago I managed to get quite a bargain on Ebay. I bought an old Nikon camera including a Helios m42 lens for less than 30€. So take a look around on Ebay. You can also find these old lenses at flea markets. Just ask the retailer if you can test it on your camera and then see if the glass fits in terms of photo quality. It is possible that mold has settled in the lens. But you can see that in your test images.
Only manual focus is possible here
Here we come to perhaps the biggest disadvantage of the m42 lenses. You have to focus manually. For you, this means that fast movements, such as in animal photography or sports photography, are almost not sharp when photographed.
Which M42 lenses are recommended?
The Helios-44-2 lens is perhaps one of the most popular lenses with a great price-performance ratio. And yes, with this lens you get a great swirly bokeh and all that for a price of around 60€.
The Pentax TAKUMAR 50mm f1.4 is arguably the cheapest 50mm lens with an aperture of 1.4. For this price a real buy recommendation.
5. The biggest advantage
As you may have noticed from the pictures above, these lenses conjure up a super great bokeh. So use these lenses from time to time for a portrait or macro shoot. But I am 100% sure that you will have a lot of fun with the lenses and achieve great results with them.