Marco Aries

 Amongst vintage lenses, Takumar is one of the iconic names, but are they really that good or is it just internet hype? I’ve been meaning to try them for years, but they are a bit rare here in Italy and due to their reputation prices are often inflated. Last year I was finally able to buy three of them and I’ve been using them on and off since then. Today’s subject is the 35mm 3.5, built sometime between 1971 and 1980 The lens is made of metal, it weights around 150g, it is 34 to 37mm long and it has an external diameter of 58mm, with a 49mm front thread. The iris has 5 blades, the aperture is clicked and it goes from f3.5 to f16. On the side there’s the auto-manual selector for compatible camera bodies. The focusing ring is textured, it turns 150 degrees and minimum focusing distance is 45cm. As we can see on the front element, this was the first series of lenses produced by Asahi with multicoating. The M42 mount has a flange distance of 45,46mm. Get your adapter: Global: https://...

 Let me get this straight right away: no, you can't use this lens on your reflex and it doesn't cover full frame.  The Fujian 35mm f1.7 is a CCTV C-mount lens, meaning that is made to be used on security cameras. Chances are, in fact, that you might have seen a lens like this at your bank or something like that.  But here comes the beauty of APS-C mirrorless cameras: you can adapt basically anything.  The C mount is a type of lens mount found on 16mm movie cameras, microscopes and security cameras and lenses for this mount are build to cover 8 and 16mm film and small sensors, mostly under 1 inch. The flange distance is 17.526mm, shorter than Fuji X, Canon EF-M, Sony E and micro four thirds, but they can easily be used with and adapter. So, what about the lens itself?  Well, first of all, it's actually made of nothing but metal and glass, making it quite hefty for the size, with a weight of roughly 150 grams and a length of 50mm; surprisingly for such a cheap len...