Originally posted by jawats Hello all!
I'm looking for an inexpensive prime lens (or lenses, perhaps) for portrait work. Looking at the FF to crop conversion (I have a K-3), it looks like a 35mm, a 50 / 55mm, and a 70 - 90mm are all good prime ranges for portraits.
I have two Takumars - 50 and 55 - which are excellent. So, I need to round out with a wider lens and one that's the equivalent of 135mm (which is apparently a good focal range for prime portraits). Any thoughts / advice? I think I'm looking under $100 here.
good and under $100 might be mutually exclusive. since you are considering portraits, many people want to have as fast a lens as possible, and this is what drives the price up.
as an example, i have an SMC Takumar 35/2 which i got for a steal at $70 about 8 years ago, 35mm lenses are relatively inexpensive, but look at the other side, i paid again what i considered a bargain ($200) for a super tak 85/1.9. if you want a really good and really fast 85mm the best bet is the samyang 85/14 which new when i got it in 2011 was about $350 US. it is in some ways better than the 1960's-1970's takumars because of the modern coatings.
the only thing i have that is close in the 85mm range that i got cheap is a 90mm tamron adaptall F2.5 macro, but there is something loose int he mount / lens barrel connection that causes a 1 stop aperture change when i change the direction of the focusing ring, i just have not bothered to fix it