50mm Lens for M8 Around $350-$450?

[jsrockit]

Elmar-M? Very nice and cheap.

 

[jsrockit]

The most likely suspects have already been listed, but just wanted to throw in the Summicron 40/2 or the Minolta Rokkor 40/2 in your price range. I recently picked up the Cron for $450, and KEH has a Rokkor listed right now for $415, a reputable lens.
I list the 40mm b/c you have an M8, so with the crop factor, I think this would work out to be a little over 50mm.
But, this is only your first 50mm, and.........you.....will.....want......more.....50s................
good luck

I'd love to use one of these lenses, but what framelines do you use?

 

[ferider]

The Hexanon used to be much cheaper than the Summicron - not so anymore. A Summicron v3 is in your price range, KEH has a BGN one for 569, currently. A great lens.

My personal 50/2 pick is the DR Summicron, same optics as the chrome rigid in post #20. Best built and bokeh of all Leica lenses, period. Very high center resolution, lower contrast. For the M8 you probably want to pick the rigid variant.

For around US 400 you can also get a Nikkor 50/1.4. Very nice, classic Sonnar signature. Check Naruto's M8 pictures with the Nikkor.

Other than that, all lenses mentioned above are good, just make sure you get a clean one, and possibly factor in a CLA, to clean out haze, for instance.

 

[ferider]

Thought again about this, and I don't think we are helping .... A picture says more than thousand words, this is my personal and completely subjective assessment of the 50mm lenses that I tried (except the Planar, that from all I've seen, behaves like the Hexanon that I used). Say, all at f2:

There are other criteria, of course, like flare, close-up vs. infinity performance, built quality, filter size, price, etc., that the picture says nothing about ....

Not sure about Heliar 50/2, and Color Skopar 50/2.5, so I'm leaving them off the list. Canon 50/1.8 and Nikkor 50/2 behave similarly to Canon 50/1.4, and Nikkor 50/1.4, respectively, they are just slower and cost less in my mind.

🙂 Cheers,

Roland.

 

[ROOOO]

I'd love to use one of these lenses, but what framelines do you use?

I have the Summicron-C already. I want something with a longer throw that will be accurate with the 50mm frame lines. The 40mm brings up the 50mm framelines. However, you can file it slightly to make it bring up the 35mm lines. I've found that those are fairly accurate on the M8 with the 40mm lens.

 

[hiromu]

With $500, you can probably find Zeiss Planar, which I liked very much. Also, I like Voigtlander Color Skopar 50mm, which is a bit slow, but very small lens with LTM.

 

[helen.HH]

Bang for the Buck ...I would recommend the 1.5 Nokton
speed, crispness, & Character