Picking a 50 for M2

[jsrockit]

You can't really go wrong with any of your Choices... ALL Stellar
really most 50's for that matter.

It really get down to what feels good in the hand ....

Agree completely...

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I’m as confused as ever!

The Planar & Summicron look like they render a very similar image to my very amateur and untrained eye. The Elmar looks quite different, more modern like my 35mm colour skopar.

The 50mm skopar is one that I know very little about.

I think the problem here is I might need all 4!!

Get 50 2.5 Skopar, it is most marvelous 50 lens ever made. And just neutral in rendering. If f2.5 is OK.

To be honest V3, V4 Crons "renders" just as Planar. No signature in the image. And Rigid is about the same. If you want rendering, it is f1.5, f1.4 lenses (doesn't need to be wide open) and Cron Collapsible and before it, Leitz LTM lenses.

Starting from Rigid all Crons are well corrected. Except flaring veil with v4.
And corrected means neutral, looks the same.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

I worry about people chosing lenses from posts on the internet. As I see it the negative is the original, the print is second-hand, the scan is third-hand, the post on a website is forth-hand, the link to RFF is fifth-hand and then your monitor makes it sixth-hand.

Just my 2d worth.

Regards, David

 

[helen.HH]

Hi,

I worry about people chosing lenses from posts on the internet. As I see it the negative is the original, the print is second-hand, the scan is third-hand, the post on a website is forth-hand, the link to RFF is fifth-hand and then your monitor makes it sixth-hand.

Just my 2d worth.

Regards, David

arghhh David, so Bloody serious 😉

Is it not in good fun ... plus I think if You look here or go to flickriver and look at a few hundred photos of a 'specific' lens
One gets a feel of the lens ...the way it renders
even under such diverse conditions / digital sensors, film -developer combos
It's all in the Eye and what it perceives

Bedt~ H

 

[Richard G]

Get 50 2.5 Skopar, it is most marvelous 50 lens ever made. And just neutral in rendering. If f2.5 is OK.

To be honest V3, V4 Crons "renders" just as Planar. No signature in the image. And Rigid is about the same. If you want rendering, it is f1.5, f1.4 lenses (doesn't need to be wide open) and Cron Collapsible and before it, Leitz LTM lenses.

Starting from Rigid all Crons are well corrected. Except flaring veil with v4.
And corrected means neutral, looks the same.

I think there is some deep truth here, unsurprisingly. Including the bit about not necessarily wide open: my C Sonnar at f5.6 is still magic.

 

[Shab]

I'm in the same situation, I'm thinking on getting a 50mm for my M5. But I had some 50mm in the past for using in the ZI that I had:

50mm C Sonnar 1.5:

50mm 2.0 Planar:

So... I think these are really good lenses. But they are different. And they feel different in my hand.

First I had the Sonnar and it was a joy to use it, but there was the focus shift problem... then I bought the Planar and all the pictures were OK. But there was the difference, sometimes with the Sonnar I got WOW!! from a picture...

One of the 50mm I'm looking for is the Voigtlander 50mm 1.5 VM Nokton... Nobody talks about it, but BLRCAT has great pictures with it...

 

[David Hughes]

arghhh David, so Bloody serious ... 😉

Is it not in good fun ... plus I think if You look here or go to flickriver and look at a few hundred photos of a 'specific' lens
One gets a feel of the lens ...the way it renders
even under such diverse conditions / digital sensors, film -developer combos
It's all in the Eye and what it perceives

Bedt~ H

? bisethylenedithiotetrathiafulvalene ?

Well, it's serious money they are thinking of spending. And it was only tu'pence worth of seriousness.

Regards, David

 

[aizan]

i recently sold my 35mm cron asph to get back to 50mm. my shopping notes basically went like this:

- 50mm collapsible and rigid for less contrast and decent bokeh (it’s harsher from the DR to the pre-asph, and i’m not rich enough for the apo-asph), but not very flare resistant
- 50mm zeiss planar for high contrast, good flare resistance, and decent bokeh, or the c-sonnar for better bokeh. silver chrome matches pretty well.
- 50mm voigtlander color-skopar for pretty nice bokeh, but with pincushion. looks really cool, but focusing tab on the silver version has soft paint. (turns out the aperture ring is quite wiggly, on mine at least.)
- 50mm f/2.5 leica summarit-m for high contrast and nice bokeh, but slightly thin focusing tab. get the f/2.4 for the standard focusing tab, but silver anodizing doesn’t quite match silver chrome. f/2.4 has a spiffy hood!
- 50mm f/1.5 voigtlander nokton for high contrast, decent bokeh, but no focusing tab or satin silver finish
- 50mm f/2 konica m-hexanon for nice bokeh, nicest aperture ring, but only comes in black

i ended up getting the planar and the color-skopar to try out.

 

[colker]

i recently sold my 35mm cron asph to get back to 50mm. my shopping notes basically went like this:

- 50mm collapsible and rigid for less contrast and decent bokeh (it’s harsher from the DR to the pre-asph, and i’m not rich enough for the apo-asph), but not very flare resistant
- 50mm zeiss planar for high contrast, good flare resistance, and decent bokeh, or the c-sonnar for better bokeh. silver chrome matches pretty well.
- 50mm voigtlander color-skopar for pretty nice bokeh, but with pincushion. looks really cool, but focusing tab on the silver version has soft paint. (turns out the aperture ring is quite wiggly, on mine at least.)
- 50mm f/2.5 leica summarit-m for high contrast and nice bokeh, but slightly thin focusing tab. get the f/2.4 for the standard focusing tab, but silver anodizing doesn’t quite match silver chrome. f/2.4 has a spiffy hood!
- 50mm f/1.5 voigtlander nokton for high contrast, decent bokeh, but no focusing tab or satin silver finish
- 50mm f/2 konica m-hexanon for nice bokeh, nicest aperture ring, but only comes in black

i ended up getting the planar and the color-skopar to try out.

I want the color skopar for the ergonomics.. i just wish it had no distortion... or maybe pick the heliar but wish it 2 more stops.🙂

 

[Erik van Straten]

I want the color skopar for the ergonomics.. i just wish it had no distortion

Here you see the distortion of the Color Skopar. Just look at the lowest step of the stairs.

Leica M2, Color Skopar 50mm f/2.5, 400-2TMY.

Erik.

 

[colker]

The Heliar at 3.5 has no distortion, i believe... but i want the focus tab.

 

[Rob-F]

I like the Planar, with its "focusing bump." And I like the collapsible Summicron on my M2. The f/2.8 Elmar goes nicely on the M2 as well, except that it rotates during focusing; the Summicron doesn't. Both the Elmar and the Summicron have a focusing tab--well, it's not exactly a tab, more of a button--but is easy to use.

 

[johnrt]

Well thank you all for the suggestions and examples, you all care very passionatley about your choices of 50's!

I have to stay I'm still undecided but there is a dual range Summicron on ebay (with no goggles) for under £700 that is looking very tempting.

 

[d_c]

I really like the v.4 Summicron with focussing tab - it's really lightweight and compact without a hood fitted, and the tab makes it a nice quick lens to use.

 

[ACullen]

I added the ZM 50 Planar to my M2 about 18 months ago. No regrets. I wanted a modern 50 to compliment my Nikkor 5cm 1.4 and Topcor 5cm f2. Each has its place. The Plnar is faultless at all apertures. Same filters as my Biogon 35mm and CV40 1.4

 

[giganova]

On a film M2, I would chose a period 50/2 Rigid. Fantastic rendering. On a more modern (digital) camera, I would chose a Zeiss or a modern Leica lens (budget permitting).

 

[giganova]

... there is a dual range Summicron on ebay (with no goggles) for under £700 that is looking very tempting.

I'd go with that one!