Seven LONG Vintage Lenses - FOR PEANUTS! 

There were actually a few mirror lenses with a variable aperture, in fact one was a different Ohnar 300mm, f5.6-16! With a large iris around the central mirror, so closed down there's a thin ring open.

In the US the courts have ruled that if someone or something is visible by the public then they can have no expectation of privacy when in public view.

I generally hesitate doing street photography because I don't want to bother people. Maybe also a lack of self confidence 🤔

I still use film with a 200mm f4 Pentax lens. Nice for candid photos.

I’ve been using the Canon FL 135 f/2.5 I bought in 1967, along with a Canon FX camera, at a PX in Vietnam while I was serving their. It is a great lens, but what a heavy beast. It is about all I can handle manually focusing handheld on my Fuji mirrorless cameras. I also still have a Canon FD 300mm f/5.6, I can handhold it, but it’s much better focusing it on a monopod or tripod.

in my oppinion you cant really expect privacy in a public place..

I love my Bronica 200mm F4.5 that I got for $100 mint in box. I use it on FF digital all the time, because wide open it's tack sharp across the frame and it doesn't vignette😊 It's also my 2nd most-used film lens, since it's about 125mm FF equivalent on 6x4.5. It's weird, there's absolutely no upcharge vs 35mm when looking at MF telephoto lenses.

One of my favorite 200mm f/4 is the Nikkor. It is quite compact compared to Olympus and Canon. I recommend it.

Great video Nigel. I have the Canon (n)FD 200mm f4, Canon & Oly 135’s, an FD 100mm f2.8 and a recently purchased (practically mint) Miranda 75-200. Considering how expensive Sony FE long zooms are (beyond my pocket) they will all be very useful.

I, too, have the OM Zuiko 200mm f/4, S/N 195749, which I purchased in Feb 2016 for $41 USD; in the neighborhood of £30 at the time, I would guess. Very sharp and great rendition on my EM-5ii MFT body.

The Nikon 200mm f4 AI/AIS is a VERY sharp lens. Amazingly so. It has the old school film era look to it of course, which like all vintage lenses, is you like it or don't, but talk about sharp, holy smokes. It runs with the (superior) 180 AF 2.8 in sharpness for about a quarter the cost! Since I also got the 180 2.8, I did let the 1977 lens go.......but man, for under $100 US it was worth every penny. I only sold it a couple months ago, and though I didn't use it much at all, I knew I'd miss it and kinda still do. You've got to try one if you never have. Optically, the AI is the same as the AIS and some people are silly enough to spend more for the AIS for no optical gain.... Don't do that. AI/AIS are 5 in 5 groups, 9 blades and built in hoods. Very small lens for 200mm too! Makes my 180 AF feel like a monster. Defiantly not as handy. It was one of the best vintage Nikkor lenses I've tried. You really have to give one a go, if you never have. It's super, super sharp! Razor sharp. Amazingly so for a 1977 lens!

I picked up a Panagor 200mm f/3.5 M42 mount in a job lot a couple of years back. It had a few little spots of fungus, but nothing a UV treatment couldn't deal with. It is a surprisingly decent lens, has a built in hood and, in an emergency, can allegedly be used as a defensive weapon due to it's considerable weight and excellent build quality.

Asahi tele-takumar 200mm/5.6 super sharp and dirt cheap.. Great lens..

The Vivitar 70-210mm f3.5 Series1 lenses do have an enthusiast following. Various versions were outsourced to other lens manufacturers. Vivitar never manufactured but marketed its own branded lenses. The legendary Kiron manufactured version 1 is still much sought after. Street photography is a genre which has never appealed to me personally. Although if people provide incidental scale to my architectural musings so be it. On that note, l was recently astounded when l was approached by a local council employee, allegedly photographing ‘council buildings’. In fact l was photographing mural art on council building walls. The CCTV operative obviously had little to do. Post-Covid security paranoia stretching its legs?

I've had the Canon 70-210 f4 for decades now, and it's still one of my favorites. Very nice general purpose lens. I also have a similar Vivitar, not quite as good as the Canon, but close. I also have 500mm mirror lenses, mostly Tokina, in different mounts (FD, AI-S, K and M42) and while they are kind of quirky and not for everyone, I do like them. When I go out for some general photography, I carry a 28-70, a 70-210, and a 500mm mirror lens. (Varies depending on system). I find that works well for me. Of course, YMMV. As to photographing people, I ask first if I want a pic of an individual. Of course, that doesn't apply at an event, such as a festival, where people are expecting photography.

Vivitar 100-300 close focus function, for me one of the best !

Don't expect privacy even in the woods here in Montana, the number of people that put out game cams/trail cams is more than you might expect. 6:40

I recently purchased the Takumar (earliest version, not “Super Takumar”, just “Takumar”) 200mm 3.5. It has an 18-bladed aperture and renders outstanding bokeh!

I have bought a few longer vintage lenses this year. A Hoya 135mm f2.8 - £8.50, a Pentax Takumar 200mm f4 - £25.00, a Canon 300 f4 FD - £87.00 and a Vivitar 400mm f5.6 - £49.00. All from eBay.

I have the Olympus 200 (picked up for a fiver!) a Vivitar Series 1 70 - 210 and just recently a Tamron 300mm SP F5.6 for only £70. I've also got a Tokina 500mm mirror which is taking a bit of getting used to. All lovely lenses. I use them all on Film SLRs and Mirrorless M4/3. I think there were far more 500mm mirror than 300/350 so the shorter ones, oddly, seem to me more expensive.

I love using my Jupiter-21M 200mm f/4, with my R6. It is a ridiculous heffalump of a lens though! Was happy using it wandering around the countryside of Lincolnshire, but would feel pretty self-conscious in a town. Also seems a bit overpriced for some reason, though I didn't pay that much for mine.

Hi Nigel. The street photo shots can be a bit of a minefield . I wandered round my city of Sheffield recently with my camera and I did find people looking at me with quite a bit of suspicion which I must say annoyed me somewhat as I was innocently walking around photographing changes to the city and not purposely capturing images of individuals. Obviously, if you are in an area near children, the camera needs to be out of sight as even an image taken in all innocence in the vicinity of minors is a no-no. Keep up the videos. I love using classic Nikkor lenses on my Nikon DSLR’s and via an adapter on my Fuji XT-1. Lovely stuff, keep it going. Can I ask how you have come to live in the London area as you clearly don’t originate from there ? Thanks, Lee.

Hello Nigel, many many thanks!! Once I purchased a Minolta MD 4.0/200 mm and used it with the Minolta 300-S teleconverter. This gives 400 mm - lots of reach. I use it in conjunction with the Novoflex shoulder pod. Most images are very sharp at aperture 5.6 - highly recommended! I could send you some sample images if you wish! By the way: Yesterday I developped my first black and white reversal film and the results are amazing. Last time I developed a film was back in school in spring 1986. It was a blast! Very happy with the results! Best wishes, Ralf

Thanks!

grate vid I have a 200mm F4 super takumar which I use for asto work

Hi Nigel and thx for this video. I am not a big fan of 200 f4. They are not very suitable for portraits (I am not doing street photo and true that people don’t t like to be shot in the street with telephoto.. me first) and I do prefer the 135 f2.8 for this. If you plan a video on it it should be interesting too. They are smaller, lighter and usually faster and I think all the brands do at least one. Finally they are easy to build so you can find very cheap one. For the mirror lenses, my favorite is the 500mm and you can find cheap ones if they are dirty and you can negotiate. They are in fact very easy to clean (only 8 screws permit to dismount and clean them) and you just need to be careful. The Tamron gives the advantage of having a small minimum focus distancée and I got mine for 50€.with a canon t70 ;).

Thanks

Hello Nigel, I love your videos and the passion and details you put in the content you share. I'm a new subscriber and recently bought a Helios 44 (13-blade) after watching one of your videos. I have a question for you. I'm in between buying a vintage Olympus 55mm f1.2 or a Carl Zeiss Pancolar 50mm f1.8. You speak highly about both in your videos, but what would you recommend someone to buy first? Looking forward to new videos. Cheers!

People cannot have an expectation of privacy in public! When you think about it, when you see something you ARE in fact creating a photograph/video in your brain. The very notion that someone can demand I delete a photo/video is absurd. I simply refuse. That being said I try to be discreet when shooting to avoid confrontations.

Minolta 100-200 F4.5 70-210 F4 'Beercan' & 100-300 F4.5/5.6 'Big Beercan' All AF, can be driven by Sony L-EA etc adapter. All have the same colour response as do most of the original Minolta AF lenses. The 100-200 is often over looked for no good reason. ;-)

Made a half hearted bid on a Pentax A* 300mm F4 the other day, the winner got it for a steal at £114, it's worth 3 times that.

I have a Vivitar MC MACRO FOCUSING ZOOM 75-300mm 1:4.5-5.6 Camera Lens, on the back of the lens are letters R/K,been trying to find which camera brand model this lens fits. It does not look like a PK although it's a bayonet looking mount.

In regards to street photography, if you see something in a public place, e.g. on the street, fire at will, period. In regards to lenses, it's a mixed bag. Years ago I got a Hanimex (Tokina) 70-200mm f4 with OM mount lens for a cheap. But I was surprised when I found out that was one of the worst telephoto lenses if not the WORST that I had EVER used IQ wise. But last year I bought the OM Zuiko 200mm f/4, and couldn't be more pleased. Yes, I had paid €120 for it, some might say too much, maybe, but it was in mint condition, so...

Think you may be inferring re street photography that we are constantly on CCTV so where the difference??

I like people in my photos - blurred :) hence the need for nice bokeh. Jokes aside, I have quite few lenses long telephotos which I almost never used, but i think the best bang for the bucks is Meyer Optik Gorlitz Orestegor 200mm f4 (and it's later Pentacon versions), I keep finding them for less than 20eur.

Note!: Mirror lenses are not "just mirrors". There are usually more refractive lens elements than there are mirrors [in the central core of the assembly]. Also the big clear "plate" in the front of the lens is in fact a refractive lens, too. Depending on the design, they are frequently called corrector plates. All of these elements are required to correct-out the spherical and chromic aberrations that are inherent in the mirror lens designs [if they had no refractive lenses]. They rarely use parabolically or hyperbolically ground mirrors; spherically ground mirrors are much, much cheaper. /|\ Gofian

Not exactly in the category you're talking about, but a fine bargain these days--Nikon Series E 75-150. On an APSC that's c. 115-225; on M43 150-300. A sweet, sharp lens. Only caveat is the sloppy zoom ring.

I really want to get into street photography featuring people but I always feel a bit uncomfortable about doing it. It’s weird because I’m very affable and I will talk to anyone. Put a camera in my hand though and I get nervous!

This comment section is a bit odd Just look like you’re doing birds or architecture and grab the human street photos in between…people are not paying that much attention to know exactly where a camera was or wasn’t. And one belligerent construction worker pitching a fit a year or so is a foundational experience if you want to grow as a photographer-

Just pick a adsptall 2,80x210tamron om f3.5f4for £14,vgc so read description. No fungus no oil on 8 blades etc