Favorite Vintage Cinema Lenses

[Illya Friedman]

Hello all,

As we all know vintage cinema lenses are all the rage right at the moment. I'm going to create a surveymonkey poll to vote for a favorite, but before I do I'd like to make sure I'm barking up the right tree. Please reinforce your favorite by voting here +1, or by nominating a favorites I've forgotten, if there's enough popularity I'll also include them in the list.

I'm also going to include a few select groups of vintage sir lenses that were converted for cinema use and are preferred by some. Here's what I've got so far.

Please only vote/nominate a favorite kind of lens(es) that you have actually used.

- Zeiss Standard Speeds/Zeiss Super Speeds (all Mk versions)
- Canon K35
- B&L Super Baltars
- Cooke S2/S3
- Schneider Kreuznach (all- Cinegon, Xeon, Xenon, Tele-Xenar)
- Leica R (converted)
- Zeiss Contax (converted)
- Olympus OM (converted)
- Angeniuex Primes / Zooms
- Lomo Primes (all versions)
- Kowa Cine Prominars

Thanks!

I.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Super Speeds
Standards
Contax
Leica R

 

[Dan Kanes]

Regretting I never purchased the PL mounted Olympus rehouses I used probably 6 years ago... very cool lenses.

 

[Mark M]

Leica R +1

 

[jordan levy]

hi Illya!
i dont think you missed anything, my preferences for professional productions start with zeiss standards/speeds with the safest look, then i can move on to cooke S2's, then for a real look i always defer to the kowas.
for personal, low cost and most versatile lenses i stick with full frame modded contax zeiss, small, easy to use on my own, inexpensive, most match extremely well with other modern lenses like sigma or canon and they can go from camera to camera to camera.

1. standard/speed zeiss
2. cooke S2
3. kowas

 

[Nick Gardner]

K-35s
Lomo anamorphics

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

I have owned a few vintage lenses...

Cooke panchros prime set
cooke 20-100
cooke 25-250
Kowa Cine Prominar Prime set
Lomo prime set
and now I have a leica R set..

(Leica R is my only current set)

I love my leicas.. they remind me of my favorite lenses ever (primo)

they have a very nice character that you really only find with vintage glass, but are still very sharp in a smooth way (if that makes any sense), and creamy.

 

[M Angel]

- Super Speeds
- Schneider Kreuznach Cine Xenon Vintage

Have a good day.

 

[Ignacio Aguilar]

Some favourites:

Cooke S2/S3
Mitchell Hi Speed (AKA Super Speed Baltar) Lenses
Zeiss Standard Primes

 

[Kirby Hamilton]

Use and currently own:
Canon K-35's
Cooke 20-100
Cooke 25-250

I own Cooke Primes, Zeiss primes, the RED Zooms, Tokinas and Canon & Nikon still lenses but the K-35s are the best looking lenses I have ever used.

 

[Nick Gardner]

Not exactly vintage, but definitely character lenses, the Illumina S-35 MkIIs are magical when shot wide open. They are very pleasant when shot at normal stops, but at 1.3 they do amazing, beautiful things. This was shot screaming wide open on them. https://vimeo.com/135711130

Nick

 

[Bill Totolo]

Canon FD, there, I said it.

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

Super Speeds: good sharpness from 2.8 to 8, beautiful flares, consistent colour when original matching set, silky and skin tone friendly in 2 - 1.4 range. Spherical abberation is neclectable and comparable to good modern PL glass, build with very high quality and high precision, in this regard comparable to good modern PL glass. Evergreen, won't lose value.

Cooke 20-100 (18-100): second to none in dimensionality. Ok-ish sharp, clear colour, ok-ish contrast, nice flares. Prone to fungus, needs constant maintainance to keep back focus in tune, good quality but the 70ies quality standards are telling. Pretty cheap today, good 18-100s are preferable and pretty rare, not so cheap.

Canon 8-16, classic S-16 vintage lens: great range, very prone to diffraction, colour fringing all over the place, works beautiful at 2.5K on the Dragon and delivers in this combination a true S-16 gritty vintage look. Well constructed and build.


Hans

 

[Björn Benckert]

Last project we shot with a large K35 zoom on one camera and then our little FD´s on the other. Love the combo. Long ago I had all the K35´s in BNC'r and to me the FD´s are very close. And you for sure can built a quite impressive FD set for the price of the k35´s

Sure the FD´s are a bit flimsy in the mount and they are stil lenses with barrel spinning on some, and some is a bit loose etc. But to me they shine in a way I do not see in the new canon lenses which looks ugly and dead to me. (but that I think about most new lenses only new lens I like is the sumicrons).

This is the FD 20mm, I think I bought it for 150 bucks and sent it to Duclos to get a gear ring. Possibly one of my favourite lenses.

PastedGraphic-20 by Björn Benckert, on Flickr

 

[Steve Smith]

I like the flare character of the Zeiss Super Speeds (especially the 18mm).

Steve Smith

 

[Illya Friedman]

Thanks for all the replies and additional nominations! Some good ones in their too be sure.

Vote for your favorite, or propose something else!

I.