If you could only afford one lens...

superamazing

superamazing

If you could only afford one lens, which one would you choose? What if your lens budget was $1000?

I'm not just speaking hypothetically, of course. I'm in the process of saving up for a t3i, and I am sick and tired of just sticking to those unfortunate stock lenses. My primary use will be filmmaking, but I'm interested in photography as well. I'd rather not buy an aps-c size-lens, either, since I see myself upgrading to a full frame sensor (5d mk III, anyone?!!) in the future.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I have to admit that this Zeiss glass is damn sexy. But then, the immediate problem is, I'd be stuck with a 80mm equivalent lens (and the stock lens), which is a bit limiting.

Another possibility (which I'm proud to have thought up) is to buy a wide angle lens, like this 17-40mm. That way, I can spam the x3 1080p digital zoom feature of the t3i, to get a practical zoom range of 27mm-192mm. But then, this lens is a f/4, which is hardly fast enough for run-and-gun shooting.

I'm curious if you guys can think of any better options than this! What would you buy, if I gave you $1000?
 
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escher said:
Gonzo, do you have any lens recommendations along with a good adapter mount for the Canon? I think that would be great info for everyone here in this thread.
Click to expand...

The most popular (for a reason) is M42 screw mount. The adapters are cheap (like $7 cheap) and don't have any optics so you can just mount one on every lens, stick a canon back on it, and forget about it.

Zeiss, Helios, Yashica, Pentax, etc... all were making M42 mount lenses in the late 1960's and early 1970's. It was referred to as the "universal screw mount". Most of those lenses are in the $50 to $100 range, and some real gems in that price range. Some focal lengths are more rare (especially 85mm) so they can cost as much as a modern lens, about $300.

They are all metal construction generally (my Pentax 135mm 2.5 must weigh 2 lbs, you could beat someone to death with it). They have a very long focus throw, often as much at 270 degrees (almost a full revolution) from close to infinity which is a good thing for manually pulling focus. In many cases the optics rival anything you can buy today. Because of their age they frequently have a little internal dust, but that very very slight softening is often a good thing for video (the above mentioned aliasing and moire). Generally the coating on the lens is primitive. They were JUST starting to experiment with coated lenses when they were produced, so flare can be an issue. There can also be color cast issues from the coating changing color as it ages, but there are mechanical ways to fix that, or toy can just tweak it in post.

If you saw my newest film 109 it was shot on all vintage glass.
 
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