We are spoilt for choice when it comes to vintage lenses that can be adapted to modern cameras. UsedLens is a good place to start looking for them.
I've just bought a Leica M9 — a camera first released in 2009 with a CCD sensor built in partnership with Kodak. I've paired it with a Nikkor H-C 50mm f/2, which I believe stopped being made sometime in the 1950s.
A note if you're buying an M9: in 2015 and 2016, Leica offered to replace all sensors for free due to corrosion issues with the adhesive used on the sensor cover glass. Leica no longer has replacement sensors available, so if you're buying an M9, it must have the newer sensor already fitted. Check before you buy.
This is my experimental camera — an attempt to achieve something different from what modern lenses and sensors produce. Something with character. The CCD sensor renders colour differently from modern CMOS sensors: more film-like, with a particular quality in the highlights that's hard to describe and easy to recognise.
The combination of a 70-year-old lens and a 15-year-old sensor shouldn't work as well as it does. The images attached are colour-untouched in processing — only tonal adjustments.
It didn't take long before I found myself looking at the Leica Noctilux 50mm f/1.0. Voigtlander are launching their own 50mm f/1.0 this year, which may be the more sensible choice.
