Why Use A Vintage Lens On Your Digital Camera?
The ‘Film Look’
Everyone is chasing the ‘film look’ but what is it about film that everyone likes so much? There’s no doubt about it, 35mm film has a certain nostalgic feeling that’s so hard to pin down and it’s this dreamy, filmy, grainy look that is so popular right now.
The best way to get the ‘film look’ is by shooting film, but not everyone has the patience, time or resources to do so. That being said, replicating the look of 35mm film with a digital camera is tricky. Film is a physical medium (celluloid and silver halide crystals) where as modern cameras are digital (pixels, zeros and ones).
For me there are three main ways to get close to the ‘film look’…
01. Film like colours through editing or in-camera JPEGs
02. Film grain
03. Shooting with vintage lenses
Chasing Character
Something I have been experimenting with (and also got quite addicted to) is buying vintage photography lenses off eBay, finding an adapter, and attaching them to my digital camera body. After all of my research I believe there are two main things a vintage lens can be praised for - either its sharpness or its character. It’s the latter of these two that I am most interested in.
In basic terms, a vintage lens with character means it has one or more of these… blury edges, vignetting, flaring, ghosting, softness etc. Shooting through a lens with character, gives your images personality and masks the digital sharpness that can be present with modern cameras.
What Lenses To Buy?
There are literally hundred of thousands of vintage lenses floating around online, so where do you start? My advice would be to pick a brand you already know like Canon, Nikon or Fuji and start looking into vintage lenses from these companies. The first vintage lens I tried was one that I already had in the house. It was a Canon FD mount lens from one of their SLR cameras. I bought an adapter from Urth, attached it to my Fujifilm X-Pro3, and off I went. Check out the video below…
After trying out this Canon FD, I went on to buy three Minolta Rokkor lenses which were awesome. Check out the results in this video below…
APS-C vs. Full Frame
In the two example videos above I was shooting with either my Fujifilm X-Pro3 or my X-T4, both of which are APS-C sized sensors. That meant when using full frame vintage lenses (like the Canon FD or Minolta Rokkors) I was losing some character from the edges of the lens. Character that I wanted in my shots!
After buying the full frame LUMIX S5IIX, one of the first things I did was buy a Minolta adapter and attach my Rokkors. Check out the results below…
Tips For Shooting
Most vintage lenses out there are manual focus with manual aperture rings. If you’re not used to shooting like this, it can be a little tricky to get used to. My advice to anyone setting out on their vintage lens journey would be to turn on focus peaking (if your camera has it). This can really help you get your images in focus and get the best results.
When shooting photography with a lens with an aperture ring on the front, I generally shoot on ‘AV’ aka Aperture Priority mode. If I’m shooting outdoors I’ll generally set my ISO to something like 800 and then all I have to do is change the aperture on the lens and the camera will automatically choose the shutter speed for me. This is the method that I have found speeds up my shooting experience with one of these lenses.
Let me know if you have any other techniques which might be better…
Tips for Buying
You want to be careful when buying a vintage lens online. Because of their age there can be a whole load of things wrong with the lenses (in a negative way) that you definitely don’t want. Sticky aperture blades, scratches, dents, fungus etc. Usually the good sellers on eBay will have loads of info on the lenses they are selling. Read descriptions carefully, inspect the images closely, message the sellers if necessary.
Usually I am willing to spend a little more on a vintage lens if I trust the seller. If you spend a bit more and get a top quality lens but you don’t like using it, don’t worry it will hold it’s value when you go to sell it on eBay for yourself. If you take a risk and buy an untested, cheaper lens and it isn’t up to scratch, it’s going to be hard to make your money back when you go to sell it. Something to think about…
(Some lenses I sold recently on eBay)
Ross’s Vintage Lenses 2025
I sold my Minolta Rokkors and started collecting M42 (or screw-mount) lenses. There are sooo many M42 lenses to choose from - some cheap, some not so much. After a lot of research I discovered that that some of the M42 mount lenes have the most character… and that’s what I’m always on the hunt for.
Check out this video below from the time I attached some of my favourite M42 lenses to my LUMIX S9 to capture winter…
Example Photographs
Check out a few example images of recent photographs I’ve shot with my digital camera and a with a vintage lens attached…
Conclusion
Shooting with vintage lenses is so fun. Vintage lenses add back in those imperfections that digital cameras and sensor lack, ultimately making your work more ‘human’. That nostalgic, film-like feeling is hard to get but shooting with vintage lenses helps get you close!
In this post I’ve mainly talked about using vintage lenses for photography, but something I’ve enjoyed a lot is also shooting video with them. Vintage lenses are a perfect (and cheap) way to get texture into the things you capture and I believe using can make you a better photographer.
Get in touch if you also use vintage lenses and your reasons for doing so…
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