50mm comparison

[bakemono]

Here is my super scientific normal lens comparison on A7ii
All lenses at f2.8, equalized white/black points to roughly have the same range.

The results were somewhat a surprise to me as in what was the most pleasing image overall (subjectively of course)

Here they are in no particular order:

Helios 44-2 58mm F2 M42

Industar-61 52mm f2.8

Canon 50mm f1.4 LTM

Nikkor-S Pre-Ai 50mm F2

Nikkor-H Pre-Ai 50mm F2

Elmar-M 50mm f2.8

Chiyoko 5cm f2.8

Summitar 5cm F2 coated, 10 blades

 

[Larry H-L]

They look more similiar than different to me, I guess all "50s" are quite decent.

The Helios stands out somewhat, perhaps due to the longer FL, and the Summitar has a distinct OOF look. The Nikkor-S has a nice glow, but maybe I am reacting to slight exposure variations.

Bottom line, I could live with any of them.

 

[x-ray]

Looking on my iPhone they all look very good. Most of the difference is due to the aperture they were shot at. They may however look different on a calibrated monitor it I'm guessing not by much.

 

[Contarama]

Summitar appears to be transmitting more light. Look at her left shoulder and the yellow container on the right. To my eye the Helios wins because of better skin.

Clean wholesome beautiful girl btw.

 

[bakemono]

Yes, they all look surprisingly similar. But then again, these are all pretty decent lenses imho

When pixel peeping full res images, the sharpest of them all is Canon 1.4, closely followed by the youngest lens - Elmar-M and Helios 44-2, but none of the others are unacceptably soft, they are all good performers.

There are subtle color differences, but those don't matter much to me, as they are easily adjustable. None of the lenses has very strong color casts or shifts.

Elmar-M has the strongest native contrast, for me it's too much almost. I find it's often the case with this lens, it's insane in harsh sunlight.

There are subtle differences in the way background is rendered. Interesting to note the difference in the oof highlights in the lower left corner. Most of the tested lenses have distorted highlights, while Canon 1.4 and Nikkor-H have round ones. I'm guessing this is the field curvature? Notice how the Nikkor-S has similar look to that of rangefinder lenses.

Canon also has the smoothest rendering of background, if that's your thing. Notice how the green blob on lower left is rendered.

Seems that technically, Canon is the best by modern standards.
Helios takes the prize for bang-for-the-buck
But for some reason my favorite of all is Summitar... It just seems magical compared to others. I guess its unicorn to fairy dust ratio is higher as I can't point out a specific reason for my preference, but to me it stands out. It's not the models expression either, as I have few more shots and in all of them prefer Summitar.

 

[aizan]

goes to show that stopping down two stops really helps smoothen out bokeh for most lenses when focused closeup. 🙂