Smitten with a 50mm Summicron (Is there a cure?)

[rich815]

How's that Jup-3? I'm thinking of getting one....

 

[Honus]

I guess admitting that I love using a 50 has me in good company. I think that, aside from the qualities of the lens, what I like about shooting with a 50 is the .72 viewfinder. The 35 pretty much fills the entire viewfinder. While I thought the 50 framelines were constricting at first, they have turned out to be quite helpful for composition. Seeing outside the frame makes anticipating the shot and composing the shot much easier. I really miss the space when I put on my 35.

I have not used an M3, but I think that I would miss the extra real estate that I get with my M2. Shooting my 90 Tele-Elmarit on an M3 would be cool, though.

 

[billwheeler]

1) Yes.
2) No.
3) Yes.
4) No.

Cure: Give away the lens. :-]>

 

[MelanieC]

The Summicron 50/2 is the only lens I own for my Leica. Glad to see it is so popular because it means that my only lens is a good one!

 

[back alley]

i'm starting to feel that way but about the 25...i think everbody should try one!!

🙂

 

[FrankS]

You can never have enough 50's! 🙂

 

[Magus]

Post deleted by posters request

 

[Rafael]

I think that, aside from the qualities of the lens, what I like about shooting with a 50 is the .72 viewfinder. The 35 pretty much fills the entire viewfinder. While I thought the 50 framelines were constricting at first, they have turned out to be quite helpful for composition. Seeing outside the frame makes anticipating the shot and composing the shot much easier.

I completely agree. I have always been most comfortable with the 50mm focal length, in large part because that was my first lens and I spent several years working exclusively with it when I first started out in photography (SLR world). But one of the things that has me the most excited about my new Leica is the space outside the 50mm framelines. I think that I compose images better through the 50mm 'cron on my M4 than I do through my SLR because the .72 viewfinder of the M4 makes me more aware of the ways in which I am composing a 50mm image out of a larger scene.

I have read a lot of posts from Leica users stating that 35mm is their "natural" focal length. For me (in the short 3 1/2 months that I have had my Leica), the "natural" focal length has definitely been 50mm. I hope that I am not hijacking this thread by asking this question, but I was wondering whether a few of you 35mm folks wouldn't mind sharing your thoughts on why you love your 35s so much.

 

[kbg32]

i'm starting to feel that way but about the 25...i think everbody should try one!!

🙂

50? 35? Nah, for me the 28 is a natural, followed by the 21, 15 , and the 12!

 

[35mmdelux]

use your 35mm cron for a month and then it will become your favorite lens🙂

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Nah. 50mm 'lux. And 45 RPM records, not the 33 1/3 RPM or CDs. Cars built only in the year 1999. And chocolate is the only sustenance that humans should strive to. Universal truths, flawless and inequivocal. 😉

 

[Honus]

Magus - my 50 'cron is the 5th version, which I believe to be optically the same as the current version, only without the built-in hood. It was made in Canada in 1985. My 4th ver. 35 'cron was made in Canada in 1988. If I am not mistaken, both lenses were designed by Walter Mandler. I find the two lenses to be very compatable with similar signatures. The main difference is the 50 has higher contrast and edge sharpness at 2.0 and 2.8.

Robert

 

[Biggles]

...the 50 has higher contrast and edge sharpness at 2.0 and 2.8.

I find it makes the most technically satisfactory wide-open pictures I've ever gotten, and can ever imagine getting. The photos simply have no induced shortcomings that I can detect. I want to eat them.

The bokeh plain freaks me out. Totally neutral. No doubling; no juddering; round lights stay round; just a gradual whooosh as the background recedes.

Damned thing's become my optical totem. May not have a lot of imposed character, but it seems supremely, almost brutally competent at sending light to the film. And I'm okay with that.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Biggles and Honus: are we talking about the same 50 'cron, the 1979 version? Mine is from the mid 80s (tabbed, from Germany --go figure). I find the bokeh a little bit funky under certain conditions, but in general it's "neutral" as you say. The main differences I've noted in that area in the various versions is just how it dissolves, and I have to admit that the collapsible, rigid and DR have the smoothest.

And I agree, shooting the 50 'cron wide open is a delight; I have a 0.9 ND filter for it too, so I won't have to stop it down any more than I have to when shooting outdoors.

 

[Biggles]

Mine's serial number says it was shipped in 1993. Fifth version, with a focus lever sorta like a pair of horns; without integral hood. German-made. Black.

Easily the best-performing lens I've ever owned. I think my 40mm Summicron may be even sharper, but it seems to give noisier pictures- less brush and more cymbal, if I can be permitted a 50s jazz analogy.

Tomorrow, though, I go to the post office to pick up a 1964 50mm Summilux.