[butangmucat]

Just realized that I need a wide-angle glass which yields about 28mm of equivalent focal length on an APS-C sensor. It seems that German and Japanese glass at my desired focal length is pretty expensive.

Went to https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/122-lens-clubs/31430-soviet-lenses-club.html and was surprised by the quality of some old Soviet glass. However I am already confused by the numerous models and variations of these glass. Any recommendations on these glass? Probably won't buy immediately but I think I should better starting to find them on eBay/Taobao as they might be hard to find. I try to limit my investment below 250 USD and want a lens with a descent (doesn't matter if not the best) quality stopped down and a usable quality wide-open. It doesn't have to be the fastest, but not too slow.

Sincerely

[npc]

Mir-20m and Mir-47K are both 20mm so they would be around ~30mm on APS-C
Then there is the Zenitar 16mm fisheye wich if defished may give you something around 28mm.
I think these are the only K-mount compatible ones that are roughly around that focal length.

[LensBeginner]

It wasn't so easy to design good ultrawides before CAD... normal yes, that's why there is a lot of cheap 50s around, tele yes to an extent, and you also get plenty of fast 100-135, bu UW not at all, and they are generally more expensive and quality is worse (take into account a more than double element count, 12-13 as opposed to 4-lens Tessar or 2-to-6 double Gauss schemes.

I'd also consider something like the Zeiss Flektogon 20/4 but those are very old lenses and there's a very real possibility of getting a lemon, a lens in which coatings are completely gone, a banged up one etc. so one should be extra-wary, and should probably go for the Pentax instead.

I personally would not buy a Russian, at any rate, not for the UWA segment, and I'd stick to modern lenses.

[pepperberry farm]

"how wide are you wanting to go/how much do you want to spend?"

my current dilemma - while a DA15 Limited is the ultimate goal for me, I'm also keeping an eye out for a Tamron Adaptall-2 17mm, or even the Samyang 10/14/16mm option....

[tvdtvdtvd]

Why not the DA21? It's in your price range (used), AF, will yield ~30mm equivalent field of view and probably perform better than
any of those older lenses.

That said, I do like the character of older glass but do not have experience with any Russian UWA to give advice.

[reh321]

Like many others here, I am convinced that new glass will work much better than old glass.

For many years I had wants similar to what I hear you saying your wants are;
things just got worse when I switched from film to APS-C digital.

Finally, I got a Sigma 10-20mm {I was using an old Canon Rebel at the time}
and finally I was able to get a shot that had been a target of mine for some time.



Shortly later, I switched to a Pentax K-30 ,,, and that Sigma lens was the one thing I missed.
Fortunately, it turned out that lens also comes in a KAF mount, so I purchased one at the PF Market Place.

It works even better on Pentax {with IBIS} than it did on Canon.

[butangmucat]

Why not the DA21? It's in your price range (used), AF, will yield ~30mm equivalent field of view and probably perform better than
any of those older lenses.

That said, I do like the character of older glass but do not have experience with any Russian UWA to give advice.

The DA21 seems to be a lens without aperture ring? I plan to use the lens on a Ricoh 135 film SLR body and a Sony digital body via a dumb adapter, which can be a bit tricky in both cases if w/o aperture ring. Anyway thanks, I am putting this (or older iterations of this lens) on my watch list.

---------- Post added 07-19-16 at 08:44 AM ----------

Mir-20m and Mir-47K are both 20mm so they would be around ~30mm on APS-C
Then there is the Zenitar 16mm fisheye wich if defished may give you something around 28mm.
I think these are the only K-mount compatible ones that are roughly around that focal length.

Googled the Mir-20M but I wonder how to use it safely as an everyday glass (if I happened to get used to the FOV of that lens)?

Edit: It seems that the lens has several variations, some of them have a threaded front which I guess means filters i.e. Haze-1 (which I use to suppress PF) but some has a front element which seems to disallow any usage of filters. Any more info on this? Thanks.

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Last edited by butangmucat; 07-19-2016 at 08:58 AM.

[reh321]

The DA21 seems to be a lens without aperture ring? I plan to use the lens on a Ricoh 135 film SLR body and a Sony digital body via a dumb adapter, which can be a bit tricky in both cases if w/o aperture ring

I don't remember your having mentioned aperture ring as a requirement; that does eliminate most modern lenses, and their wonderful modern coatings.

You might consider a Tamron AdaptAll #51B
Tamron SP Adaptall-2 17mm F/3.5 Model 51B

{one of them is for sale right now at the PF Marketplace}
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/24-photographic-equipment-sale/312958-sal...-adapters.html