28mm on a Crop Sensor - The 40mm Experience

Canon EOS 30D with an old Soligor C/D 28mm Wide-Auto f/2.8 lens via an M42 adapter. Like Vivitar, Soligor did not manufacture lenses. Instead they specified the optical configuration they wanted and invited bids from Japanese lens makers. This particular lens was to the premium C/D ('computer designed') standard and was made by Sun in 1980 (you can tell this by its serial number). Within a few years the market for M42 screw thread lenses had declined as third party suppliers like Soligor followed the bayonet lens standard.

Canon EOS 40D + Soligor C/D 28mm Wide-Auto f/2.8 lens. The field of view of a 28mm wide-angle lens on a Canon crop sensor camera is 45mm. You get a standard lens experience but with the depth-of-field advantages a wide-angle lens provides.

Canon EOS 30D with an old Soligor C/D 28mm Wide-Auto f/2.8 lens via an M42 adapter.

Canon EOS 40D and M42 lens: Soligor C/D Wide-Auto f/2.8 28mm.

River Avon at Chippenham, Wiltshire. The old Nestles factory on the opposite bank - Wiltshire United Dairies pre-Nestle. Canon EOS 40D + Soligor C/D Wide-Auto f/2.8 28mm M42 lens on an adapter.

Canon EOS 30D with a Soligor C/D Wide-Auto f/2.8 28mm M42 screw thread lens, via an adapter.

Fujifilm X-E1 with a 28mm Soligor C/D Wide-Auto f/2.8 lens.

We measured time. We divided it. We made revisions. We engineered instruments of time. We commodified time. Time was bought and sold. We believe time is immutable. Yet we are fascinated by the possibility that it may be elastic. Nikon D2Xs + Vivitar 28mm f/2.8 Close Focus Wide Angle lens. There are several versions of this lens; the serial number of this one is 28430xxx with a filter size of 49mm and marked 'Made in Japan'. That reveals it was made by Komine (Vivitar never actually manufactured any lenses - all the work was contracted out). It was an OK lens, nothing stellar, and I got rid of it. The Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 AI, although slower, is in my opinion much better, but it costs quite a bit more. And better still, I recommend the Nikkor 28mm f/2 AI. Manual of course, but plenty of depth-of-field to work with when using a wide-angle.

Still life - not set up, it's just a bowl of fruit - photographed using the little lightweight Nikkor 28mm f/3.5 lens (perversely on an elderly Canon EOS 30D camera). This lens has the silkiest focussing I have ever experienced. A scratch on the front element made it a cheap secondhand buy, but the damage has never been apparent in use. A few things endear me to the Canon camera. The size fits my hand perfectly. The menu is splendidly simple to use. It too was cheap on eBay (the megapixel motorway left it on the hard shoulder) and its colours turn out nicely.