Lens Talk

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Geek Post. If you follow this blog, you'll find that I collect lots of random Canon and Nikon Replica Lens Mugs. Some for myself and some I keep around for last minute gift ideas to other geek friends. I mainly use it as Pen Holders on my desk. Some of these Replica lens Mugs / Thermos are designed to scale with very accurate details.

The latest replica lens mugs (actually thermos) is two new Nikon 70-200mm. As far as I know, there isn't a good Canon Thermos like these Nikon versions. Both versions have a Stainless Steel insert, and one is designed with it's own plastic cup that's actually part of the Nikon Thermos Lens Replica. The other Replica Lens Thermos looks like it has some very accurate detailing of the Nikon 70-200mm F/2.8G.

Nikon Lens Mug ThermosNikon Mug Lens Replica Thermos 70-200mmNikon Thermos Lens Mug Replica
Nikon 2.8G Lens Thermos ReplicaNikon Mug Replica Thermos G LensNikon Thermos Lens Repiica G

find-price-button Nikon 70-200mm F/2.8G Lens Mug Replica Thermos

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The Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 is surely a nice lens to have in your kit - especially nice when there's a discount available. Normally about $500 dollars, today it's part of Amazon's Lightning Deals which is usually the best price you'll find anywhere. The deal was so good last time (just $350), I ended up buying a couple for my friends who missed the sale. They also only run a limited quantity during these sales so be swift. Check it out at the Lightning Deals page (Click here).

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find-price-button Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 Lens

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There's practically an adapter to mount any lens to any camera these days, and here YouTube member videotestground talks about the Pentax M42 Super Takumar 50mm F/1.4 [Thanks Vedran]. These M42 lenses are older manual lenses for Pentax film cameras that can be mounted to your Canon DSLR through a cheap adapter. A Canon 50mm F/1.4 will run you close to $400 dollars, so you could save quite a bit adapting older manual film lenses. He also goes into showing a small step up filter adapter, and examples with a static ND filter to shoot at the wide aperture in the bright day.

You can find these old lenses for your Canon DSLR on eBay (click here).
Super Takumar M42 Pentax F1.4
find-price-button Pentax Asahi Super Takumar 50mm F1/.4

And you can find the adapters needed to mount M42 lenses to Canon cameras (click here)

m42 adapter
find-price-button M42 to Canon EOS Lens Adapters

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Sigma-NEX-30mm (4 of 5)

Just got this in today so we'll see how it performs. Seems to be a fairly popular lens due to it's backorder status on most websites. Part of the appeal when shooting with the Sony NEX-7 is it's compact size. I wanted an autofocus prime lens and decided to go with the Sigma 30mm F/2.8. Smaller and shorter profile than using an older lens with an adapter in between, and much more lightweight to make the Sony NEX-7 more pocketable for my casual use.

Sigma-NEX-30mm (5 of 5)

Sigma also offers this tiny lens for a Micro Four Thirds mount and might be easier to pull focus on than some of those Panasonic lenses that seem to rotate forever. It's a decent prime autofocus F/2.8 lens for about $199, check it out at B&H.

Sigma-30mm-F2.8 Sigma-NEX-30mm (1 of 5)
find-price-button Sigma 30mm F/2.8 Prime for Sony E-Mount

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If you're looking for more range in your lenses, there's a minor instant rebate discount available for Sigma's 70-200mm F/2.8 lens with OS (optical stabilization). I'm not going to dive into hyperfocal distance lingo, but there's a certain look that you get when zoomed out to 200mm and opened up to F/2.8, over a 24mm lens at f/2.8.

Image stabilization is fairly important on these long lenses and if you wanted to check out Canon's 70-200mm version, that will run you about $2300 dollars. Sigma's 70-200mm F/2.8 with OS is a nice alternative lens option and will only run you $1299 right now

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find-price-button Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 via Amazon

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find-price-button Sigma 70-200mm F/2.8 via BHPhotoVideo

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Thanks to LJ for pointing this interesting little product that brings ENG style zooming to standard DSLR lenses. Most people might be familiar with these controls from consumer camcorders, but for some high end ENG video cameras, you can purchase various focal length lenses that come with built in zoom controls (as seen here).

Viztool Handizoom

Looks like it connects via USB to control some of the Canon functions like start / stop video recording, and zoom in/out to magnify the video. These are the same functions already found in those USB Follow Focus devices (as seen here on eBay). No word on pricing and availability yet. The finish of the product in the video looks like an early prototype. I can see benefits to having smooth zooms, but price will determine if it's a Go or No-Go. [Thanks LJ]

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I just had a back and forth comment conversation about adapting Nikon Manual lenses, and here's a video from Caleb Pike of DSLRVIDEOSHOOTER.com that might help break down some of those questions. As far as adapting random lenses to smaller sensor cameras, Nikon's manual aperture ring makes them one of the favorites. The fact that you can still buy some of these Nikon AIS lenses 'new' as opposed to taking chances on 50 year old lenses is another plus. [Thanks Caleb].

It doesn't stop there. These Nikon lenses of course can also be used on Canon DSLRs without a large adapter, just a very thin shim-like adapter (check out Nikon to Canon EOS adapters). Caleb mentions a few great places you can grab these Nikon lenses, but you can also find some 'new' and 'used' lenses at B&H Photo Video. (Click here to find New and Used Nikon Manual Aperture Lenses).

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Panasonic 14mm Lenses

Ray writes in and shares an interesting link to some very cheap Panasonic 14mm Lenses. [Thanks Ray] These lenses are found for over $300 dollars on Amazon (seen here) and B&H (seen here), but at the listing it sells for just $164. Seller has excellent ratings and checking the feedback shows the seller has sold several of these lenses in the last month. Everything seems to check out fine and it's a hell of a deal. (click here for listings)

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find-price-button Panasonic Lumix G 14mm F/2.5

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Constantly poking around for a good set of lenses for the Sony NEX-7, this eBay seller takes old vintage lenses and modifies them to fit (without adapter) to most Micro Four Thirds, Sony NEX (e-mount), and Leica cameras. That's right, no adapters needed. He seems to always have some interesting modifications for these small sensor cameras including modifying a Canon 50mm F/0.95 and a 55mm F/1.0 lens for the Sony NEX. If you're looking for a good set of cheap portrait lenses for your small sensor cameras, check out his constantly updated auctions (click here).

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find-price-button Jieying Modded Lens Sony GH2 Leica