Leica 50 Summicron (options)

[Doug]

50 Summicron apo at f/2.8 on M-D

 

[DanskDynamit]

get a planar or any of the voigtlander modern options, for old farts you could try a Canon 50 ltm (with adapter) I love the 1.4 version.

 

[Erik van Straten]

The only lens which impressed me on BW was Cron Collapsible. Elmar-M 50 2.8 was great on darkroom prints as well.

50mm lenses for use on Leicas.

I both have the Collapsible (with perfect front lens) and the Elmar-M.

I like them both optically, but I do not like the collapsibility of lenses in general: when you want to take a picture, the lens is collapsed, so you have to pull it out first. Meanwhile the subject is gone.
However, I have more collapsible lenses: Elmar 50mm f/3.5 (many different versions), Hektor 50mm f/2.5 and Summar 50 f/2 (three different versions).
I also have the Summicron rigid (two versions: chrome and black paint) and the Summicron v4 (chrome rigid tabbed). I also have two copies of the Color-Skopar 50mm f/2.5 in black wich is very close to the rigid, but has a flatter field and about a 0.5% (or less) barrel distortion.

I also have both versions of the Summilux 50mm f/1.4 v1 and v2, I very much prefer the v1. The v2 has barrel distortion, quite a lot. The v1 was probably too expensive in production so they came up with the v2.

Then I have some big Voigtländer lenses: 50mm f/1.5 M mount (chrome) and the 50mm f/1.1, great lenses, but too big for general use.

My favorites are the Summicron rigid 50mm f/2 black paint and the Color-Skopar. These are the perfect b+w lenses on film in my opinion.

Erik.