Rigid 50mm II or ZM 50mm Planar?

[karlin]

I'm in the same situation . I own the Nokton ltm and i've just ordered the planar.
I thinks it comes down to ergonomics and general feel. since i own the 35/2 biogon and i like it very much , the planar will be a good companion .
imo the planar is sharper and contrast and microcontrast is higher.
the nokton reminds me slr lenses , and its not a good analogy for me.

 

[siracusa]

I'm not even going to guess which is which - this despite having previously owned a Nokton, and currently owning a ZM Planar. I guess the point is this: if you sell the Nokton you gain a comparable lens but lose almost a stop of light. If you keep the Nokton and go for the Summicron, you get something that is quite different.
FWIW, although the Planar and Nokton are both comparable as modern 50mm lenses, I found the Nokton and the Planar somewhat different, though the differences probably only visible under certain kinds of circumstances. I feel the Planar handles flare better, and is higher contrast (which I'm not so keen on). I sold the Nokton because it felt a tad large. In hindsight, I sold it hastily. The Nokton is sharp, I found mine (an LTM Nokton) to be an even and very balanced performer, and very pleasant. More pleasant to my eyes than the Planar, which does everything I'd want from a modern lens but less lovably to my eyes than the Nokton. And the Nokton is almost a stop faster, which is useful under some conditions.
Either way, your test proves that in real world conditions it is very very difficult to tell lenses apart. I think on balance keeping the Nokton and getting the Summicron is the better option than dumping the Nokton for the Planar. Good luck!

 

[taemo]

Good guesses everyone, f16sunshine and Ko.Fe nailed it with 1st and 4th being the Planar at f/2.
Yes I did use a tripod to keep the framing consistent, good eye on picking up the Planar's slightly wider FoV and Nokton's stepped down bokeh ring on the 3rd pic.
You can see some flare (I think) on the 4th pic not present on the 3rd pic as I had the hood on the Nokton

I found it hard focusing with the Planar, I guess I'm not used to the small focusing bulge and found the Nokton's body easy to hold and focus with.

I'll be keeping my eyes on a Rigid 50 for the M3, just like a 35 cron IV for the M6 which means not a top priority for me.

I'll just keep enjoy shooting with the Nokton for now.

Earl

 

[f16sunshine]

Hi Earl

Having used all these lenses...I would like to recommend you try a different lens than those discussed here.
Recently I became a convert to the CV Color Skopar 50mm f2.5. here is the image thread.

It's such a tiny well built little gem of a lens. I have the silver brass version.
Contrast is a bit higher than the classic "Rigid Cron". Given that... The drawing for B+W seems perfect to me.
You only give up one stop of speed over the rigid but, it's sharp at wide open and that stop is not missed in regard to creating separation with shallow DOF as this lens is superb in close range.
According to some it shows a little bit of pincushion distortion but I never saw this do anything destructive to an image.
Check out the thread above. It's a lens many overlooked as it used to be cheap and thought of as entry level lens. I made the mistake of believing this as well but now am a adamant convert to this tiny inexpensive ball of brass and glass 😀
A perfect compact companion to the Nokton asph f1.5/50mm IMO.

Cheers!

 

[Brian Legge]

It may be worth checking out the comparison here:

http://lavidaleica.com/content/lens-shoot-out-50mm

Of the lenses discussed in this thread, it only covers Planar and the 50mm 2.5 but there may still be some value in the seeing differences between how they render.

 

[raid]

I did this test in 2008:

1. Canon 50/1.4 ..........................(Raid)
2. J-3 LTM .................................(Raid)
3. Nokton Prominent 50/1.5 ...........(Raid)
4. Zeiss Opton 50/1.5 Contax mount (Raid)
5. Nokton 50/1.5 CV .................(Michael)
6. Canon 50/1.5 ...........................(Fred)
7. Uncoated old Zeiss Sonnar 50/1.5 (Fred)
8. Nikkor 50/1.4 ............................(Mark)
9. Canon 50/1.4 ............................(Mark)
10. CZJ 50/1.5 LTM ........................(Mark)
11. Summarit ................................. (John
12. J-3 ......................................... (William)
13. "transitional" CZJ Sonnar in LTM..... (John)
14. "Tokyo" Nikkor SC f1.4 .................. (John)
15. Olympus Zuiko 50/1.5 .................... (Roland)
16. ZK 50/1.5 ................................... (Roland)
17. J-3 ............................................ (Robin)
18. J-3 KMZ........................................ (John)
19. Summilux 50/1.4M third version ........ (Fred)
20. 2000 Millenium 50mm/1.4 ................ (Fred)
21. 2008 Zeiss Sonnar 50/1.5 S mount .... (Fred)
22. Zeiss ZM C 50/1.4 ......................... (Fred)
23. M-mount Leica 50mm/f1.4 Summilux .... (John)
24. LTM Jupiter-3 5cm/f1.5, ZOMZ .......... (John)

 

[raid]

This was a more recent test (saved at Roland's site)

http://ferider.smugmug.com/Technical/Raids-50mm-Tests