New (to me) 50mm

[johnrt]

Hello!


Before Xmas I was procrastinating over the purchase of a 50mm lens for my M2 to have as a comparison for my CV 35mm Colour Skopar.


I asked for suggestions and got lots of very helpful comments and a range of suggestions that really just had me scratching my head even more.


I had my eye on a range of options including a rigid Summicron, Zeiss Planar and a few others. In the end my mind was made up for me. The Leica Store Manchester had a range of Elmar-M lens in stock ranging in condition from 6/10 up to 9/10 and priced from £495 up to £795 that I was contemplating. Over night they ammended the prices of all their stock to £495, so I snapped up the one that was rated 9/10, it arrived next day in perfect condition with case and original box.

Not had much of a chance to use it yet, but I did get a run out on New Years Eve to the Hayward Gallery in London, here is a couple of images on Ilford HP5, pushed to iso 1600 in Rodinal.
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[leicapixie]

Congrats and enjoy!
I prefer the 50mm to all lenses, esp on M cameras..
I mostly use a M3 and Collapsible-Summicron.
NIce start, these are classic lenses.

 

[retinax]

Looking stunning! Although I don't believe I can really make out much of a difference between lenses at these image sizes, I like to imagine that I can see something Tessar-ish, yet with modern contrast and clarity. The grain is much less than what I would have expected at 1600 in Rodinal, from samples I see online - do they all just suffer from bad grain aliasing? How do you scan?

 

[johnrt]

Thank you folks!


When I push the HP5 in Rodinal I use 1:50 at 20c for 25 minutes, agitating every 3 minutes. There is usually not too much grain for my taste. The negs are scanned using an Epson V500 and the Epson scan software.


I am really happy with my choice, a little different to focus than the skopar, but I do like the 50mm frame lines in the finder, 35mm is a little hit and miss for me.