I picked up one of these ancient, and apparently uncoated prime lenses at a used camera shop in Mexico last year for about twenty bucks. This one was made in 1962. Because it's too old to be used on the "modern" (hee hee) Nikon FM2s I prefer, I had it shipped off to John White in Michigan, for a twenty-dollar AI conversion. He did a great job and I'm damned happy I went to the trouble. This is a great lens. Now, with the help of a 20-dollar adapter, I can use it on my Sony NEX-5.
Disadvantages (get the bad news out of the way first, eh?):
It's all manual. If you want to use it on your DSLR it will probably suck unless you're doing studio work, in which case almost any kit lens will do just as good of a job. Also, the glass is uncoated on early models, such as mine, so flare can be an issue.
Advantages:
35mm is a bad-ass focal length. Old-schoolers like Henri Cartier-Bresson loved them on his Leica. I loved mine on my Leica. And getting back to the glare, this one produces a nice, classic hectagon when the sun hits it just right. It's also razor sharp, at least at f5.6, which was the setting I used for the photograph at the top (made with film). If you like film, shoot Nikons, and don't mind going to the trouble to get the AI conversion done, this lens is as good as anything made for you today, barring the recently released Zeiss lens with the same focal length (hah, but the Zeiss lens, besides costing thirty times as much, is also longer, so for my money and compact needs, the Nikkor wins). Again, if you shoot digital, you can use this on most Nikon DSLRs but have to get them machined into the right shape to work.
This guy shoots his with film.
As far as construction goes, nobody makes lenses this durable anymore. Hell, nobody makes anything this durable anymore. It's pretty much all metal and will function longer than you or your children are around.
Conclusion: I'm very happy I picked this up and will let it more or less live on my FM2 until film no longer exists.
Technical stuff: Seven elements in six groups; aperture scale from f2.8 to f16; six iris blades.