The Pentax Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 Asahi is another amazing example of a really well built M42 Manual Focus lens which Pentax is famous for. If you don’t mind manual focus then this little lens is great for even today’s digital cameras with M42 adapters.
Want an extremely sharp manual focus 50mm f/1.4? The Nikon Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 Ai-s is an absolutely fantastic well built lens with great optics for almost any situation including low light.
This Pentax SMC Takumar 55mm f/2.0 Asahi is a great little M42 Mount lens with great build and optics. Producing really nice bokeh, this lens is a bargain and are not too hard to find.
Now this Pentax Takumar 135mm f/3.5 SMC is a great M42 mount lens with really sharp optics and sturdy mechanics. The has a fair bit of aberrations but is really good for it’s age.
This Canon 135mm f/2.0 L EF USM is hands down the best 135mm portrait lens for Canon and one of the best portrait lenses ever made. This lens is amazing as long as you have lots of room to shoot it in.
This Tamron SP 24-48mm f/3.5-3.8 lens is a really great lens in every way and can even be adapted to almost any SLR camera mount with the use of their Adaptall 2 mounts. The most trouble you will have with this lens is finding one with the original front lens cap and the front element not all scratched up.
Super sharp, great color, amazing contrast and built like a tank, this Nikon 60mm f/2.8 Micro D lens is definitely worth looking for if you don’t mind the short 60mm focal length.
This Nikon Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 Ai is a lens definitely worth looking for! With a cheap Ebay adapter it can be put on many DSLR’s. The lens produces amazingly sharp images. Most people want the Ai-s version but miss out on the optics of this amazing lens making it a very cheap 28mm 2.8! The focus is absolutely amazing and everything works great.
There are a few versions of this lens but the 6/6 element Pentax Takumar 135mm f/2.5 SMC is an outstanding portrait lens and built like a tank. Look around and you might find one!
There are thousands of lenses out there in many different mounts and variations that are still compatible for digital cameras.
As far as 3rd party lenses, many of them are not very good. However there are a few gems out there that are optically equivalent or even superior to pro modern lenses today. There are many that simply have not been reviewed before or discovered. My goal is to hunt a few of them down, review them and make these gems known.
There are also some lenses that we know are good but when we investigate a side by side comparison there are no actual photos displaying an optical comparison. My hope is to compare a couple of them side by side. A VS comparison which we all love!
