Originally posted by PGillin So, what are some good non-Pentax m42 lenses?
Everything that's not Asahi is off-brand? Excellent! Start with Vivitar because they're ubiquitous, and often the same lenses are badged as Lentar, Albinar, Soligor, Sears, etc. Mamiya-Sekor and Fujica/Fujinon and Yashica/Yashinon have good reputations, with rising prices to match. The Russians are usually a good deal, in M42 or M39 -- Helios, Industar, Jupiter, Tair, Mir, etc. Many of those are Zeiss clones. Ah yes, Zeiss, and the other Germans: Meyer, Enna, Isco, etc. The world is filled with good screwmounts.
Some cheap-ish winners:
* Any pre-1990 Vivitar Series 1 (some costly)
* Tokina (Vivitar, Lentar, Soligor etc) 21/3.8
* Various Vivitars in 24, 28 and 35mm
* Isco Westron 35/2.8, fairy-dusted
* Mir-1 37/2.8, renowned for sharpness
* Meyer Oreston 50/1.8, fairy-dusted
-- BUT AVOID the Domiplan 50/2.8!
* Industar-50 f/3.5, the mighty mite
* Mamiya, Yashinon, Fujinon 50-55/1.7-1.8
* Helios-44 58/2, much-beloved
* Helios-40 85/1.5 or Jupiter-9 85/2
* Meyer Trioplan 100/2.8 and Telemegor 180/5.5
* Enna Tele-Ennalyt 135/3.5 and 240/4.5
* Jupiter-11 135/4 and Jupiter-21 200/4
* Tele-Takumar 200/5.6 (an overlooked gem)
OK, I cheated with that last, but it's too good (and cheap) to omit. The Super-Tak 55/2 is similarly neglected. If I were assembling an M42 kit of my small, cheap, overlooked lenses, it would likely include: Lentar 25/3.5, Mir-1 37/2.8, SuperTak 55/2, Enna 135/3.5, Tele-Tak 200/5.6. Alas, "small, cheap, overlooked" are rare in the 85-105 range. I'll cheat again and put my Meyer Trioplan 100/2.8 there.
So many lenses, so little time...