[RioRico]

Old Bedrocks and Festool will deplete funding quickly as well.

So will guitars and lutes, Navaho rugs, knee surgery (self-insured), kitchen mania, most motor vehicles, orbital tourism, ostrich ranches, gem shows, horses, all boats, backyard astronomical observatories, gambling, birding, unlawful drugs, round-the-world cruises, and theme parks. Vintage lenses are NOTHING in comparison to these.

[/me calculates that one Maria Martinez olla could pay for all the Limiteds, plus a complete 645D system]

[Pioneer]

Vintage lenses are NOTHING in comparison to these.

Yep, I've done the 4x4 thing. Even still have a Jeep...or two....or three (they are a bit like lenses) lying around the house. I prefer my old two wheel drive Dodge now. When I get stuck with that one it is a WHOLE heap easier to get it out then a jacked up Jeep J10.

I have also done the woodworking/cabinetmaking thing...Veritas is child's play. Let's go for Lie Nielsen...old English planes...collectible Disston saws, those can start to add up. Or better yet...anything made by Powermatic!!

Yeahh, you're right RioRico, vintage lenses are easy...as long as they aren't made by Leica!

[RioRico]

Yeahh, you're right RioRico, vintage lenses are easy...as long as they aren't made by Leica!

Actually, I've had a few and still have one, not too pricey but mostly unusable on my PK gear. Now, if I had a Nex, or a GXR + M-mountor, I'd be doomed...

My Leica history:

* Varob 50/3.5 enlarger lens (L39, paid US$19.50 shipped)
* Elmar 90/4 (LTM, paid US$108 shipped, sold for US$152)
* Hektor 135/4.5 (M, paid US$67 shipped, sold for US$100)

[DaveHolmes]

LBA just struck me again today... FA35mm f2 en-route from Korea £250 delivered...

May consider selling the FA28 now and go for an FA20...

SEE WHAT IT DOES>>> SEE WHAT IT DOES!!!

[Tom Woj]

"Look at what they make you give!"

[DaveHolmes]

LOL Standard Brit Humour!

Happy St. George's Tom!

[Tom Woj]

Happy St. George's Tom!

Same to you too.

[junototoro]

I also don't have guts to tell my husband my wishes/plans for new lenses.

[DaveHolmes]

I also don't have guts to tell my husband my wishes/plans for new lenses.

Although the fact there's a woman with LBA could be twisted and used as amunition... For the rest of us... Thanks for that!

[Giklab]

Although the fact there's a woman with LBA could be twisted and used as amunition... For the rest of us... Thanks for that!

I'm still a looong way from getting married, but I memorize anything I can use in my favor. And use it I WILL [maniacal laughter].

[PPPPPP42]

After a PM from a person in which I made a huge mess of trying to explain things I feel I should add the best way to plan your lens purchases.

1. Identify which bodies you are buying for, do you shoot old film cameras? Do you plan to buy a full frame pentax if it ever comes out? or do you only do APSC sized newer digital stuff. As I said because I don't want stuff that only works on some of my bodies everything of mine is full frame and has an aperture ring with an A setting.

2. Decide how committed you and your wallet are to photography, my Nikon D80 friend has a single tamron lens that goes from 18-300 or some such thing, and he is happy with just that one. For me I need better faster stuff since not only would the quality suffer some with that huge a range, but its variable aperture is painfully slow on the 300mm end.

3. Pick where to start so that you can do the most shooting without buying everything at once, but don't have a lens you never use when you get more specialized later. Your kit lens may be enough for you to start if you have one, (mine was an A50 1.4) I bought my Pentax A35-105 F3.5 first because it was very very fast for a fixed aperture zoom, has a genuine macro setting at all zoom ranges and with a range of 35-105 covers most pictures, that one lens can do a ton, especially on a film camera where 35 is nice and wide.

4. Pick where to go next based on what shots you keep missing because of the wrong lenses. I already had a fast lens since the super programs kit lens was the A50 1.4, but I found 105mm to be a bit short, and the 70-210 F4 sells really cheap on ebay so I picked one of those up. With APSC a 35mm (lens not film) wide end was way too narrow all of a sudden so I had to snag a 24-50mm zoom which is just a perfect range for cities in my opinion and at F4 its acceptably fast. I still want some faster wider A or FA primes for APSC in lower light but they are costly so I am patient.

5. Targets of opportunity. My only autofocus lens is the tamron in my signature (for some reason I can't recall what it is) I needed that because 210mm is not enough for things that like to run away that you want good detail on. Normally I would avoid a cheaper slower variable aperture since most of the time I would be using this lens on its slower top end, but I got it anyways because it was less than $100 from a friend and it was slightly older so it met my full frame with aperture ring criteria. It has turned out to be pretty damn useful and the quality is just fine. At first I started to get lazy and really like the autofocus ability, but after the Nth time it buggered the focus up and blew the shot that quickly passed.

Which sorta brings me to a footnote of accessories. I had to get a katzeye with my K20D and these lenses, it was my most valuable addition for proper photos so far since even a good lens with the shit stock focusing screen only produces fuzzy pics. My tripod was also critical, too much to get into but there was just a thread on it. It has a quick release that stays on the camera and I put a $5 rifle sling on it so I could shoulder carry it at all times and keep my hands free (even with legs extended if I want). There's tons of lens accessories like hoods and filters that you'll need to research and decide if and what you need. Hell even the right camera case is critical so you can carry all the extra crap around comfortably since it doesn't do much good locked in your car.

[v5planet]

if you guys are upset about spending money of lenses, buy a land rover and modify for offroad use. This will curb your camera funding and give you the transportation to get some incredible wilderness shots.

This is sound advice. I think we get caught up on STUFF and forget about the photos, occasionally. Oh, it all starts with good intentions, of course. I haven't bought anything for my camera in a year, because money is tight. There's plenty of stuff I want, but if I had the funds it would go straight into a car -- so I could go and shoot with the equipment I have beyond the limits of the Seattle bus system.

(Then as soon as that was taken care of I'd start saving my lunch money for a couple more lenses, a new body, filters, flashes, oh wait.)

[subeeds]

This advice is about 35 years too late for me-but I sure have fun with all my toys. It all started with a K-1000.

[alstauffer]

Story of my life right now for sure.. I ended up getting a 'free' ME Super film body with a lens for my DSLR(s) I bought from someone here (thanks! ), and what a gateway drug that was.. Two weeks later, I now have 6 film bodies and a cupboard full of manual focus lenses. Whoops. Good thing they're so cheap.

[Jimfear]

Hmm, this is very true... Could I ever have guessed this when I started out borrowing my dad's P30 over ten years ago? No... But at least I took it slow in the beginning, until I discovered that you can find stuff for sale online.

Now the latest threat to my economy is that I have gotten interested in another system. Change?.. no, keep them both obviously! But I'm only planning to get three lenses for the other system, I promise!

Fortunately I have been blessed with a Mrs that is ok with me buying into another system... little did she know the system in question is Fuji GX. Let's see how well that goes down when she sees the camera...