About

We started LegacyLens at the beginning of 2014, eager to explore the potential of vintage lenses in both photography and film production. Since then, we have tested dozens and dozens of vintage lenses, with many more to come, as this project is a work in progress.

We mainly use M42 lenses adapted to digital cameras and sometimes photograph in 35mm film using various cameras, such as Praktica, Zenit, Asahi Pentax, Olympus, Minolta and Mamiya.

Our photos are all taken with vintage lenses and in order to provide a clear picture about how these lenses perform, we do not apply any correction or effects. In addition to that and because information about vintage lenses is still scarce online, we’re building a vintage lens database which will contain as many lenses as we find in our quest.

Based on our experience of using and trading vintage lenses, we also provide useful content regarding prices, performance and value of legacy lenses. Reality Frames, our sister site, will provide a handful of videos shot with vintage lenses, so you’ll also get the chance to find out how they perform on solid video cameras such as the E mount Sony FS7.