Hidden Gems: 10 Ultra Low Budget Lenses That Will Blow Your Mind

ADAPTERS FOR LENS 1 (You need the lens above, plus the adapter for your mount below)

[LENS 2 - 35mm f1.4 - affiliate]

[LENS 3 - 17mm f1.4 - affiliate]

[LENS 4 - 50mm f1.2 - affiliate]

[LENS 5 - 27mm f2.8 - affiliate]

[LENS 6 - 35mm - f0.95 - affiliate]

[LENS 7 - 12mm f2 - affiliate]

[LENS 8 - 23mm f1.4 - affiliate]

[LENS 9 - 30mm f1.4 - affiliate]

[LENS 10 - 18-50mm f2.8 - affiliate]

If you're looking for a way to improve your photography without spending a fortune, then you should check out these ultra low budget lenses. These lenses are perfect if you're budget constrained, and they'll help you take better photos!

In this video, I'll show you some of the best features of these lenses and how they can help you improve your photography.

00:00 - The Gear and the Skill
00:36 - Lens 1
02:05 - Lens 2
03:15 - Lens 3
04:25 - Lens 4
05:37 - Lens 5
06:45 - Lens 6
07:53 - Lens 7
08:58 - Lens 8
10:00 - Lens 9
11:46 - Lens 10
14:23 - Watch This

[markwiemels]

* LINKS TO ALL THE LENSES IN THE DESCRIPTION *

[awakeningrecordscuracao]

Finally someone who knows what budget means... jesus christ... everyone puts like $500 lenses at the lowest and calls them budget

[aquss]

"If you don't know what kind of camera you've got, you've got a crop sensor camera" Yeah, sounds about right, from experience of course, but most often I find that people who don't even know that generally have bridge cameras so no lenses for them either way

[MickeyGrant]

I graduated from film school at SMU in 1971 and later got a Master's in film criticism while I was making a feature length film in China in 1984. I made my first Western when I was 29 with 2 Panaflex cameras. Your reviews are really excellent. I wish you'd do more in depth interviews using various camera charts. Still, I find your reviews refreshing, especially for beginners. Even with over 50 years as a feature Director/DOP, I always consider myself a beginner. That might be why I'm still working at 74 today (yes, my birthday is today!). No matter what, keep up the good work. You've got a great eye and great understanding. So many vloggers have no idea of why any of this is important. Well, I should go out on a limb, and say 99% of them are full fledged idiots.

[la]

The TTartisan 35mm is really good. It's my go to lens for its size and vesatility. However, my favorite TTartisan lens is the 40mm 2.8. Image quality is just superv and it has the added bonus that it's a macro lens as well

[andrewwhiten]

I agree that your skill level is most important, but also, using "budget" lenses like ttartisan that still provide good quality have helped my skills grow enormously. There is much more to learn on a classic manual lens than a super expensive point and shoot lens. Lenses like these have made my journey so fun.

[mobbinator]

I would absolutely LOVE if you could do a video on astrophotography, especially tips on photographing the milky way. Either way, your videos are always so helpful. Thanks Mark!

[leonarddumas]

the crop sensor joke at the beginning, instant follow!

[studioraleigh]

"If you don't know what kind of camera you've got, you've got a crop sensor camera" ... CLASSIC!
Love your vids, Man, great stuff, very useful as I dive back in after a Loooong break.
Many Thanks!

[MarioCastillion]

Man, how I love your channel and the way you explain things.
You have an extraordinary gift and this episode shows it clearly.
Thanks, Mark....never change!

[stianlarsson]

Old video, so nobody will likely see this, but I really liked this video and it's made me want to get into photography again. Low light capabilities have come far since my Nikon d200, but I expect I could pick up a sufficient new or used Canon body for an affordable price as well.

Thanks for not making another 'lets compare a cheap lens to an expensive one' video. This feels much more positive.

[Ahnii]

0:45, Lens 1: Holga 60mm f/8
2:05, Lens 2: TTArtisans 35mm f1.4
3:10, Lens 3: TTArtisans 17mm f1.4
4:30, Lens 4: TTArtisans 50mm f1.2
5:37, Lens 5: TTArtisans 27mm f2.8
6:45, Lens 6: TTArtisans 35mm - f0.95
7:53, Lens 7: Rokinon/Samyang 12mm f2
8:58, Lens 8: Viltrox 23mm f1.4
10:00, Lens 9: Sigma 30mm f1.4
10:46, Lens 10: Sigma 10 - 18-50mm f2.8


Although your video includes some interesting information, the lack of chapters and the way you deliberately hide the lens names, to the point where you don't even name the companies in the description but instead link to your own videos and a bunch of amazon affiliate links, makes searching for these lenses unnecessarily hard and is simply annoying...

[anarchisttutor]

Watch out! I checked out some of these lenses and if you're using a Canon RF camera, you have to crop to about 7MP to avoid the vignette. Watch out for "APS-C ... for Canon RF" lenses!

[rinusborg]

In addition to the Imagon history, I used to shoot even in the eighties with it. The lens is a simple anastigmat! They get sharper with a small aperture so a box camera with an f16 lens had a reasonably good image. An improvement from a single element lens. Also linear distortion was way better. The spherical aberrations from the edge were really a bad side effect until Rodenstock found a use for it. It was trade marked so could not be copied. B&W made the duto sheibe (spelling may be wrong) a filter with concentric etched lines in it. It created a similar effect except a smaller aperture used the Center of the filter more so it bypassed these etched rings at the edge and created a less diffused. The benefit was that the variable softness required no changing of lenses or its aperture discs.
This Chinese lens at this price is a great way to do all this.
I may just get one for my portraits. What a great way to make people get excited about this.😊

[dan.allen.digital]

Great video Mark. You may also want to consider the Viltrox 13mm 1.4. Its about $425 and blows the samyang 12mm out of the water. I have both lenses and have not touched the samyang 12 since getting the viltrox 13.

[rinusborg]

Hi Mark,
Your reviews are much appreciated. The Chinese inexpensive lenses are indeed a very good value. Brand names do not always make what we want and attachments or editing needs to modify the results to what we had in mind. As a product photographer my lenses did not need speed but corner to corner sharpness was important. With film, color rendition needed to be uniform from lens to lens.
Now for these lenses that may not be its primary goal. For creative photography the result can be whatever you want and the equipment here has some great new choices. You can nearly buy all of these in one swoop and spend less than a single brand lens.
My most important point I want to make is the cheapest lens.
The lens opening value is the total light passing the multiple irises. the 30ties and up to the 60ties this type was made to blend spherical aberrations from the lens edge with a sharper image from the center aperture. The center aperture cut off the spherical aberrations from the edge of the lens but in portraits or other creative images the edge aperture created an overlay over the sharp image with spherical (flared) images. It created not only the fuzzy overlay but it added some depth of field due to the individual much smaller apertures.
The best known lens was the Imagon lens. It came with a number of discs that had a larger to smaller center hole surrounded by smaller holes like this one.
Due to the fact that the aperture did not have blades it allowed you to pick an aperture that suited your lighting. Modern Imagon types are generally relatively expensive. Every brand medium format had them available and was used mostly for in studio portraits. Have a look here for some help with this type lens.

[neilmontgomery]

I have the TT Artisans 27mm f2 8 af. I really like it. It has a vintage style rendering, is sharp and does not require an adaptor and has auto focus which is fast and quiet.

[Whenadumbpersonfallsandshovesa]

Wow, I am on a budget, I have 2 dslrs, and I plan on getting a a5000 (thanks to ur guide (: ), I am thinking of getting the first (since it has the retro/filmlike look) and I would probably get the second one two. THANKS, finally somebody who knows what budget means😀

[elementiro]

Should be called "10 Ultra Low Budget Lenses That Will Blur Your Background"

[DebzLife]

Thank you buddy. Mark. For the 17mm f1.4 recommendation. I have been using it from a long time and i personally had no issues with it.

I watched your original sigma v ttartisan video btw