best 50mm - leica,zeiss,Voigtlander??

The best is the Voigtländer.

Seriously: What for? They're completely different lenses, at different price points, with different focal lengths.

For speed: The best is the Voigtländer.
For price: The best is the Voigtländer. Ties with the Zeiss.
For wideangle pictures: The best is the Leica.
For having a Sonnar for portraits: The best is the Zeiss.
For having a Leica lens to show to all your photographer friends: The best is the Leica.

What do you want to do with it?
 
mistrzucieczki: welcome to the forum.

I think what the responses show is that it really depends. Could you be more clear about your needs? If you are student on a budget, that is one thing. If you are able to purchase any lens, regardless of price it is another. Do you want a lens for a specific project or will this be the only lens you have for the foreseeable future?

From the list you posted, if I had to have just one lens it would be the C/V 50 1.1, but I don't think that makes it the "best" lens. These are tools, What is the job?

Ben Marks
 
Because it's a Leica lens and those are always the best even if they're in a different focal length?
 
Best 50mm ever is the Nikon 50/1.4 Millennium edition. Need an adapter to use it on an M, but once you get a good one they work great. Less expensive than a new Leica and better.

B2 (;->
 
The "which is the best ..." question will always get you a different response, because "best" is subjective and in most cases is opinion.

I think the f/2.0 Summicron is an excellent lens, as is the f/2.0 Planar. I haven't used the Nokton, but I'm sure it's a fine lens too.

Closed down to f/8 or smaller, there should be very few differences in the results.

Where lenses tend to differ is when shot wide open at short to medium distances. And that's where it becomes mostly subjective.

I think it's a case where you check out as many photos as you can and then select the one that appeals to you the most.

And then you might find that you love the lens, but don't like the ergonomics. I am not a fan of tabbed lenses, although I have a couple of them. If I had my way, I would never use a tabbed lens. Some people feel just the opposite, and comments about ergnomics again is mostly subjective.
 
of course summilux-m 50/1.4 ASPH not 35mm
i need lens for street photos and portrait,
i prefer shot wide open, f/1 - f2
or mayby noctilux 50/1.0 from second hand ?
 
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My favourite is the 50/1.5 Zeiss C-Sonnar (fast, compact and with a nice 'look'). My wife's favourite is the 50/2.5 Summarit (super-sharp and very compact). If I could I'd supplement the C-Sonnar with a Noctilux.

But ask 10 photographers and you'll get 10 answers -- or maybe 20 if you ask the same question a few days later. As others have said, best for what? Wat do you like to photograph?

Cheers,

R.
 
mistrzucieczki said:
of course summilux-m 50/1.4 ASPH not 35mm
i need lens for street photos and portrait,
i prefer shot wide open, f/1 - f2
or mayby noctilux 50/1.0 from second hand ?
Click to expand...

Street, wide open, is a bit demanding: you're going to lose more sharpness to less-than-perfect focus and to camera shake than is likely to show up in objective differences between the lenses. Also, I find 50 a bit short for portraits, and I'm not sure that any lens is optimum for both.

Having said that, probably either the Sonnar or the Noctilux is the best compromise, unless you like cruelly sharp portraits.

EDIT: I think that Turtle's suggestion is a far better idea.

Cheers,

R.
 
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IMHO for street work, fast lenses have far less application than small slow ones.

If you want to shoot portraits and street, how about a 75 and 35? If you can afford a Noctilux ot 35 1.4 asph you can afford a pair of summarits or similar. IMHO 50mm does not solve every problem and a pair of lenses is likely to be a lot more useful if you do not already have lenses. 35 & 75 or 35 & 50 would make a nice start.
 
I agree Turtle, for street photography the smaller , the better...So I would suggest collapsible lenses of leica..voightlander is nice too..If you really want a fast lens, try Canon 50mm f1.2 LTM...it give pleasing results on BW...it is not a pricey lens.
 
Too easy, among the three, Leica is the winner.

The Summilux 35 asph (no matter u like asph or not) re-defined the standard in its domain.

C-sonnar is just a re-production with minor modern improve, nothing more than that. Zeiss Ikon is not the one it used to be.

Voigtlander is the star buy, just as as many star buy as u may find in Best shop. What's the typical u see in US? Samsung?
 
BillBingham2 said:
Best 50mm ever is the Nikon 50/1.4 Millennium edition. Need an adapter to use it on an M, but once you get a good one they work great. Less expensive than a new Leica and better.

B2 (;->
Click to expand...

The 50mm / 1.2 is the sharpest and fastest 35mm lens Nikon ever made. It was designed in the 70s and luckily is still in production. The price has doubled since I bought mine a few years ago. Adapting lenses aside, i'd go with the f1.1 voigt.
 
Take a look at the 50mm lenses comparisons which Roland and I put together recently. There are over twenty 50mm lenses included. See if you can identify your favorite lens.
 
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