Best Vintage Lenses for Video – Top 5 Selection for 2023
Things end, but memories last forever. Life is a collection of more and more memories. We all love to keep our memories in many different ways. All of them taking photos or videos are the best way to keep them lifelong.
If you are doing good photography, you may want to control your lens manually. Vintage lenses allow you to set the aperture and control the camera focus. The best thing about vintage lenses is their cheap price.
Many different lenses are in the Market. But It is a little tricky to choose a best vintage lenses for video. Do not be fret! A detail of some best vintage lens is described in the following article that will assist you to find a suitable vintage lens for you. Check it!
Best vintage lenses for video review
Multiple options are in the following list. However, we specify the specialty of all products along with the description, So, Chose the product which suitable most for you.
1. Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm F1.8 Lens
If you looking for any easy bearable lens that is suitable for video shoot then this article will help you. This vintage lens for video is very small and light. You need to appreciate the tiny built and the small footprint.
The weight of this lens is 116gm only. It does not take much space to carry. Anyone can carry it with a little camera bag.
A rounded seven-blade diaphragm that contributes to ensuring the best bokeh quality constructs it. It gives the blurriest background. It has one single moving element in the lens. It enables blazing-fast autofocus with very high accuracy.
This sharp vintage lens gives you an impressive much-optimized image output. It can also be appropriate in dim light conditions. If you face any lighting condition, which is, less than favorable then M.Zuiko Digital 45mm F1.8 is suitable for you.
The Olympus 45mm f1.8 being a medium telephoto lens can virtually take any photographs without any visible distortion. The straight lines will remain perfectly straight. It is a long lens and it takes less background in the framing.
Key Features
- Very small and light
- Constructed by a rounded seven-blade diaphragm
- Fast autofocus with accuracy
- Appropriate in dim light condition
- No visible distortion
2. 7artisans 25mm F1.8 APS-C Manual Focus Fixed Lens
7artisans 25mm F1.8 vintage lens is cheap, fast, and fully manual. Therefore, if you want to have a low-budget lens for your camera then it is for you. 7artisans lens is as cheap as no lens can beat it at this cheap price.
The building quality of these best cheap vintage lenses for video is an all-metal construction. There have no plastic components. Its body is made of Aluminium and the core is made of Copper.
Glass is coated with a purple tint. However, it is small, light, and compact. The weight is not more than 143g.
It is really super sharp lens even in the wide open. The plane of focus is very shallow so, It is little difficult to nail the focus on shots. It is easier for videos than photos due to the nature of it. However, once you nail the focus on a photo it would really super sharp.
Bright f/1.8 allowed to work in less light or light less than favorable. Maintaining color accuracy and diminish flare there have a multi-layer coating. For ensuring the best bokeh quality, the 7artisans vintage lens contains a rounded 12-blade diaphragm.
Key Features
- cheap, fast, and fully manual
- Light and compact
- Aluminum Body and Copper Core
- Super sharp lens
- Constructed by a rounded seven-blade diaphragm
3. Meike 35mm f1.7 Large Aperture Manual Focus APSC Lens
A small lens is really cool to see and carry with. Although the Meike 35mm f1.7 is not so fast but sometimes it produces more accurate quality of photo than some other faster lenses. This lens is constructed by all-metal elements so it is more durable.
The focus ring is very nice and smooth. It offers the right amount of dampness when you are trying to focus on a particular subject.
However, this is a standard manual prime lens. It is necessary to set up the focus and aperture of the users.
This lens is perfect for both portrait and landscape photography. A maximum aperture of f1.7 works to allow shooting at the low light condition or at night time and dark. Besides, it has the benefit of wide-angle photography.
Meike 35mm f1.7 is a small and compact size. It provides a sharp center and good corners. A rounded eight-blade diaphragm contributes to ensuring the best bokeh quality. The maximum aperture is f1.7, this small lens produces more corrected photos than some modern expensive lenses.
Key Features
- Small lens
- Constructed by a rounded eight-blade diaphragm
- Nice and smooth focus ring
- sharp center and good corners
- More corrected image
4. Helios 44M-4 58mm F2 Russian Lens M42 Mount
Helios 44M-4 58mm F2 is a reliable, cheap, and very robust lens that has an interesting personality and optical performance in shooting photo or video full-frame or crop frame. This fantastic lens brings a lot of value to work especially at the price point.
Helios, the best vintage lenses for video build quality is incredibly solid in both feel and construction. It is made up mostly of metal with some hard plastic components.
The coolest part of this lens is its most distinct bokeh quality. It is very clear, sharp, and soft.
Helios 44M-4 58mm F2 lens you can use on your daily basis and it can take heavy-duty. The lens has two rings on it. One is the focus ring other is the aperture. It has a minimum focusing distance of 0.55 feet and an aperture range between F2 and F 16 with a half-stop click between f-stop markers.
If you want to use this with a Nikon, Canon, or Sony you can easily use it with those cameras just need to match the mount. The natural color rendition on the Helios has a bit of a color-muted palette. The natural contrast is softer as well.
Key features
- Reliable, cheap, and very robust lens
- Made up mostly of metal with some hardened plastic
- distinct bokeh quality
- minimum focusing distance of 0.55 feet
- aperture range between f2 and f16
5. Russian Soviet Helios-40-2 85mm f/1.5 Best portrait manual lens
The Russian Soviet Helios-40-2 85mm f/1.5 is produced in the Russian Federation directly. This lens has a historical past. 58mm f/2.0 and 85mm f/1.5 of Helios have become legendary for their distinct bokeh. This Helios-40-2 contains the characteristic of 85mm f/1.5,
This lens is famous with extremely sweetly bokeh, shallow depth of field, tones of character, difficulty to handling, and center sharpness at wide open.
However, in skillful hands, it is capable of delivering stunning results.
It brings 85 millimeters focal length, aperture range between f1.5 and f 22, 67 millimeters filters. This Russian Soviet Helios is designed for portrait photos, Full-frame photography, and street shooting, including in dim light or low light. It is also suitable for fast-moving objects.
This lens is heavy. The weight is 1.98 pounds. However, this new version is less heavy than the previous version. It is a clear advantage. It has a better coating that rendering color more natural.
Key features
- Centre sharpness at wide open
- 85 millimeters focal length
- Aperture range between f1.5 and f 22
- 67 millimeters filters
- Weight is 1.98 pounds
Things to Consider Before Buying Vintage Lenses for Video
Every product has some pros and cons respectively based on its many different features. When you need to purchase any product, first you have to check which things need to consider before buying then try to make sure, as if your selected product has all features as consideration.
We sort out some crucial points that you have to consider before buying the best cheap vintage lenses for video and listed them in the following part. Check it out to find your vintage lens for video according to your desire.
Weight size and Budget
The lens is a thing that needs to carry with you anywhere anytime. Therefore, you need to handle this consideration carefully.
Budget is also a big consideration as lenses are expensive. You can buy a small quality lens at a reasonable price. Vintage lenses are fairly small and compact and their price is bearable. Additionally, you can check our review on m42 lenses.
Photography style
Different people like different types of photography like as portrait or landscape or so on. You need to know which type of photo you love most or what you need. It will help you to choose the lenses.
Light and color rendition
A big consideration is the lighting effect. With a minimum f-stop of f1.8, f2, f2.8 or even f3.5 Lenses are completely suitable for photos and videos. F-stops of f1.2 or f1.4 are also suitable if you want a more expensive lens. We recommend you trying to make sure if your lens has a minimum of f1.7 f-stop.
The vintage lens provides a more natural-looking color rendition than modern lenses. Vintage lenses were worked with film stocks that have a more dynamic range than modern lenses. Therefore, for better photography, you need a vintage lens with a natural-looking color rendition. Besides, you can choose some vintage macro lens.
Hardware mount
Different cameras use different hardware mouths. Like, Micro four-thirds mount is for Panasonic and Olympus, EF or EF-S mounts for Canon, F mount for Nikon. Make sure your lens mount is matched with your camera mouth. However, you can use an adaptor to use lenses but it is not possible for all lenses.
Image stabilization
Image stabilization is not a big consideration but it might help you if you want to shoot photos or videos in less light circumstances. This helps to
Sharpness
Most of the vintage lenses provide good quality videos. However, sometimes it happens that these lenses are softer than their synchronous. Due to some constructive issues like an extreme use of spherical elements or fewer anti-reflective coating layers in lens construction these unexpected problems occur.
We recommend checking the construction material and the design of the lens. Try to avoid exclusive spherical elements, several anti-reflective coating layers, or fewer low-dispersion optics that use in lens construction.
FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions & Answers
1. Where the vintage lens is suitable most? Image or video.
Vintage lenses are suitable for video shooting.
2. Does these lenses produce good quality of bokeh?
Yeah! These lenses produce good quality of bokeh. Every best lens produces via many blade diaphragm that contributes to ensuring the best bokeh quality. It gives the blurriest background of any photo.
3. Is it possible to use any vintage lens on any camera?
No! Not in every lens. Because the design and optical measurements of lens and cameras are completely different and adapters also unavailable there. If you can use an adapter or your camera has the same lens mount then you can use any vintage lens on any camera.
4. How I find the right adapter for my camera and lens?
It actually depends on just two main factors. First, the mount of the camera you have and then the mount of the lens you want to use.
5. What are the benefits of best cheap vintage lenses for video? Why should I use it?
The awesome quality of the classic vintage lens is quite unmatched with modern lenses. The small and compact size of these old lenses makes them really cool and they are light.
To become a better photographer you need to use classic vintage lenses. As you know these lenses are manually useable. Therefore, you have to set the aperture and focus manually. You can obtain better knowledge about lighting, time, and focusing by these vintage lenses.
Final Words
Photography or videography is really an art. However, for better results, you need a good quality of output. A better Camera with a lens must make your effort easy.
We hope this article will help you to choose the best vintage lenses for video. If you get a suitable product that would be our pleasure.
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