Originally posted by pepperberry farm as much as you don't care for it, Paolo, I love my Porst 55mm f1.2.... the color and surprising sharpness of it...
It's not true that I don't care!
YOU, my friend from the Pepper Fields (seems like a name from a fairy tale, isn't it?) made me reconsider my judgement, and see why you are posting such nice pics shot with the same lens
In fact, I care so much that this time I brought it with me, leaving home the Pentax and the Revuenon.
Shooting with the Porst these days... and I found that it's pretty sharp stopped down, and that it has to be focused with great care, cause it's more 'dreamy' wide open, and that trusting the OVF is not the way to go. If such care is used, it fares much better than I though.
Well, let's see which could be my personal choice...
I decided to exclude AF zooms. I am quite satisfied with my Sigma HSM 2.8/28-70mm, Sigma HSM OS 120-400mm and Tokina 20-35mm, though I mostly use fast primes or old optics with "peculiar" rendering, so I will stick to them.
Tamron 2.5/180mm Anniversary (63B) [Adaptall-2 with PK/A ring] - sharp, fast, great bokeh, great build, beautiful lens
Sigma Macro MF 5.6/180mm - small, incredibly sharp, best bokeh for a macro
Revuenon/Tomioka 1.2/55mm - plenty of pixie dust, best OOF rendering (little LoCA) considering the focal, sharp enough for pixel peepers
Samyang 1.4/35mm - sharpest 35mm I ever tried, and better than the other Samyangs I own (24mm, 14mm, 85mm, in order of appreciation)
Tamron SP 2.8/70-150mm Soft Focus (51A) [Adaptall-2 with PK/A ring] - only SF zoom ever made, halation can be finely adjusted with diaphragm AND soft focus ring, beautiful build, rare (no examples currently on sale on Ebay, the last sale scored 735 USD!)
---------- Post added 21-09-18 at 09:10 PM ----------
Originally posted by BigMackCam In manual focus, I have a few that I rather like - but my favourites are both Soviet models... The VarioZenitar-K 25-45mm f/2.8-3.5 (a quirky but fantastic little zoom lens)
If you choose to do an M42 thread, I'll have to make a proper list. There are
many that I treasure
The M42 thread will come
I thought the VarioZenitar-K would never surface on this thread!
I didn't use very much this lens, but it was part of the standard kit of my late partner, together with a Super-A and a Pentax-A 3.5/35-105mm.
Despite the more "difficult" focal range, the little russian zoom gave pictures on par with the "stack of primes".
I should find it and give it a chance on digital FF.
It's not a common lens, I haven't seen many on sale... but I suppose you have other interesting soviet lenses