Recently I've become quite obsessive about old vintage glass. The latest piece I've acquired being a Carl Zeiss Ultron 50mm 1.8 (Pictured far right). The other two lenses pictured are both Pentax lenses and ones that my Dad used on his old camera when he was taking photos. I've shown quite an interest in old lenses but it never clicked to him that he had some until quite recently. I've got them now and have used them in a few projects and I'm extremely happy with the results.
Old glass is great for many reasons the first being price. Buying the best new glass these days can run you thousands of dollars, thats quite a lot to splash out on, but old glass like these you can find for under $100. The Zeiss lens being an exception to this rule but I was lucky enough to have been given it by friend of my Dad's. The optical quality of these lenses is amazing as well, super sharp and with great contrast.
The only downside to these lenses are that they are fully manual. For photographers, having autofocus is super helpful, especially in action sports where the subject is moving so fast. However for me as a videographer I never use autofocus and everything is manual, therefore I don't have any issues. Perfect! All you have to do is buy an adapter ring so you can use the lenses on your modern cameras, for me that's Canons DSLR's and your all set and ready to shoot.
When my adapter ring for the Zeiss arrives il be sure to take some sample images and test out this beauty of a lens!