Canon 50mm F1.2 Users reports and experience?

[fluffthecat]

Hi Guys,

I am going to buy a canon 50mm F1,2 screw-fit lens. It is reasonably priced, below the £200 mark so I think it is worth it! I's in excellent condition with a matching lens hood.

Does anyone have experience with this lens? I have read some people find it a bit soft at F1.2 but I guess most of the time, I will be using it well above this for outdoor daylight shots. Is the contrast and colour up to a good standard?

Grateful for any comments,

Cheers

Fluffthecat

All welcome to view my blog page: http://leica-m4-2.blogspot.com/

 

[Didier]

A nice, but big lens. Useful when you really need the extra speed. I have one and take it along for the situations where the available light is really low, like in clubs, theatres, concerts, and so on. But it is certainly not an all-day all-purpose 50mm lens (which in my case is a collapsible Summicron).

Pro's of the Canon 50/1.2:
Speed, very nice bokeh, typical 50ies signature. Did I mention: Speed?

Cons:
not very sharp even stopped down, flaring, vignetting, expensive hood (costs more than the lens usually), requests special flat filters, focusing is quite messy when used on a body with grip (because of the infinity lock - I have disabled mine).

If you learn how to handle the cons you'll have a lot of fun with that lens. The poor man's Noctilux...

You may see some Canon 50/1.2 samples here:
http://gallery.leica-users.org/Didier-various/bar_canon_wide_open
http://gallery.leica-users.org/Didier-various/Canon_50_at_f2_0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40833360@N00/94950652/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40833360@N00/94947403/in/photostream/

Didier

 

[fluffthecat]

Thanks deed!

Thanks deed!

Hi Deed,

Thanks for the info Didier. Most helpful.

 

[back alley]

do a search here, we have a member who did some example photos here.
i did a few shots in the bar with mone, seemed plenty sharp to me. check my gallery if you like.
joe

 

[Mackinaw]

The Canon 50/1.2 is, by far, my favorite 50mm lens and sees constant duty on my Leica. This lens has a much undeserved bad rap. Wide-open, the central 1/3rd of the picture area is surprisingly sharp with the edges and corners becomingg soft and creamy. You end up with a sort of "tunnel effect" that is truly unique. Stopped down to as little as F1.4 and the corners sharpen up nicely.

If I'm going to criticize anything about this lens I'll criticize Canon's poor quality control in the 1950's that allowed many of these lenses to leave the factory out of adjustment. When you get one that's on (as mine), the results can be excellent.

See the attached, all taken at about F1.4. See my gallery for more 50/1.2 pics.

Jim Bielecki

 

[back alley]

nice shots jim!

 

[back alley]

found some sample pics

 

[raid]

I use the Canon 50mm/1.2 once in a while with slow film. I tested it against about ten other 50mm lenses. Here is one of the test shots:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=24203&cat=500&ppuser=3565

It does very well from 2.0 and smaller apertures. It is an excellent lens overall.



Raid

 

[Kyle]

I've always wanted one of these and this thread just makes me want one more. If anyone has a good clean one they'd like to get rid of, please let me know!

 

[ChrisN]

Kyle - I still have the one discussed in this thread http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10143 .

If you wanted to take a risk on getting a lens element polished, shoot me a PM to discuss..

 

[Kyle]

Kyle - I still have the one discussed in this thread http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10143 .

If you wanted to take a risk on getting a lens element polished, shoot me a PM to discuss..

The last post in that thread was from you saying that Essex could fix it, did that not work out?

 

[Bill58]

For my two cents the 50/ 1.4 is a better choice-- smaller, lighter and sharper. What else would you want?

 

[fluffthecat]

Thanks to everyone who have contributed to this thread. I am really looking forward to receiving my lens and giving my own thoughts and report on how good it is. I have seen one before on a friends M2 body and he claims it is tack sharp. It looks very good on the camera...I will post photos on my web blog soon.
All welcome to read, go to: http://leica-m4-2.blogspot.com/

regards

Fluff!

 

[ChrisN]

The last post in that thread was from you saying that Essex could fix it, did that not work out?

No, it did not. There was a later thread about that. But basically I have that lens sitting here waiting for me to do something with it. I should send the element to Arax; they responded to an email saying they could polish and recoat for US$30, maybe more as they would probably have to separate then re-cement the elements. I'll get around to that one day.

In the meantime I bought another copy, which I used last Sunday for this shot.

 

[N.H.]

I would like to ask, how does one know exactly if the lens is out of alignment etc. and how does one repair such a defect / problem? I recently bought one and would like to know. I am mounting it on a RD-1 and R2M, would that affect this in any way? Thanks!

 

[Didier]

I would like to ask, how does one know exactly if the lens is out of alignment etc. and how does one repair such a defect / problem?

Select a prominent point as far as possible (at least one km). I use a church tower on the other side of the lake (by day) or very distant streetlights (by night). It is important to use a distant point, especially with lenses over 50mm. I have made the experience that with the 75mm, for instance, a point at 400m distance is not completely at infinity.

Then mount the lens and focus at infinity. Look if the rangefinder patch is horizontally congruent with the image. It is only the horizontal alignment that has influence on focus/sharpness. The vertical disalignment, if there is one, has no such influence (but is nevertheless disturbing).

If all lenses you have show the same disalignment, then it is probably the rangefinder's problem. If all lenses are well aligned except one (happened to me, once), then it's probably the lens which is off.

Rangefinder alignments are quite tricky to do and it strongly depends on your skills. I did it once for a vertical disalignemt in a Canon VT, but would not try it myself with a Leica or a Epson R-D1.

Didier

 

[ChrisN]

Hi NH, and welcome!

I guess the best way to test is the practical one, to mount the lens on the cameras you want to use, and shoot some test shots of the type you want to use it for. With the RD-1 that should be quick and easy! The most critical application is wide-open (f/1.2) and close-up; that is very demanding on your focussing and on the calibration of your whole lens/adapter ring/rangefinder/user system. If your cameras have passed this test with other lenses, they can be trusted for a test with the new lens. The depth-of-field is extremely narrow at f/1.2, so mount the camera on a tripod and focus very carefully on a subject that will betray any imprecision - many people use newsprint laid flat on the table in front of the camera as the test subject, and mark the particular line of print they focus on. That will indicate whether the focus is spot-on, in front, or behind the desired focus point.

M-mount adapter rings are critical in getting this right, so use a good-quality adapter from Leica or Voigtlander (there may be other trusted brands too).

Don't write the lens off if focusing is less than perfect - in real life only about 2% of my use is at F/1.2 - over that the resolution improves and depth-of-field covers minor focusing problems.

 

[fluffthecat]

I have received my Canon 50mm F1.2 lens. Over a week of use, I can say how delighted I am with the quality and sharpness it produces. You do have to focus carefully at F1.2 but that is normal. My best aperture range seems to be from F4 to F11, for best edge sharpness. When buying though, you must check carefully the condition of the lens, quite a few from this age suffer from haze and fungus inside the lens. They are all metal construction and need gentle lubrication if not used regularly. Focus ring can get a bit heavy to turn. The adaptor mount should also be of good quality, stick to Leica or Voigtlander (affordable).

Good luck,

Fluff

 

[N.H.]

Thanks everyone for the feedback! I've shot with Nikon SLR stuff since early 90's but am completely new to RF and "vintage" lenses and was a bit worried. Thanks a bunch and have posted some images quickly converted from EPSON Raw from my RD-1. The first image is the 35 and the last two are from the 50 if I remember right. The shutter speed for all was about 1/10 to 1/7 and 1600 ASA.

P.S. So far, on initial tests, the older 35 / 1.4 'lux vs the 50 /1.2 is weighted to the 'lux in terms of sharpness and contrast but there is something about the 50 / 1.2 I cannot explain in the image that makes it seem very "creamy" / "classic".

 

[Sonnar2]

Didn't you say the shade is rare??
I don't have the lens, but yesterday a 50/1.2 shade went for 36 GBP, which sounds OK to me compared to 220 USD for a 0.95/50 so called shade... 110040275471