Paragon 35mm f2.8

Marking a turning point.

Picture the scene, a family holiday back to my ancestral home of what is now Telford and we decide to visit the Ideal Home Exhibition with family in Birmingham. Things start out bad with my daughter being sick on the way up and needing a wheelchair to proceed around the exhibits. We happened to stroll past a photography stand and there was some cheap kit.

Now this was long before digital cameras but well into the heyday of capable electronic SLRs. M42 threaded manual lenses, especially with preset apertures were just seen as junk. So I bought this and a Vivitar zoom for next to nothing.

Paragon was a name assosiated with aftermarket lenses usually sold through Dixons. Although it can be had with different names and a slightly different build. Nothing startling.

But roll forward to the third dacade of the new century and the craze for old glass on digital cameras. This fully manual, no electronics lens is absolutely perfect. Better, the 35mm focal length would equate to near a 50mm prime on a DX sensor. Perfect!