Test of Twelve 50mm Lenses

[raid]

Here is my ad on PN:

I have a nice Canon 50mm/1.8 lens for any Leica LTM body or M body when using an adapter (readily available at cameraquest.com). This lens is well- known for its sharpness and excellent contrast. It is a great lens to have for your Canon rangefinder camera. It can also be used on any Leica screwmount camera or M body when you use with it an adapter. The aperture goes from 1.8 to 22 with minium focus distance 3.5 feet. There is no oil on the aperture blades, and this would not have mattered anyways for a rangefinder lens and camera.
Warranty: There is a seven day warranty to use the lens and if found defective to return it for full refund except shipping. I just had the lens inspecte by a camera repairman. he found everything fine with this lens. I have two such lenses and therefore I can this one let go. Here are three photos of the lens.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=587113

If you need additional specific close-ups, just email me:

ramin at uwf dot edu

Price: $150 plus shipping cost. Thanks for your interest.

 

[raid]

Sorry, my bad memory. When are the B+W shots coming, Raid?

If I hadn't had to be at the university until now, I would have driven downtown to the photo lab to pick up the negatives which were ready since Monday. I will do this hopefully on Monday or Wednesday.

 

[raid]

Try again, Raid. This site is back to normal now.

I get it, Frank. You just asked me to "try again" and you are not implying I am joking because of April 1! 😀

 

[FrankS]

That's right. Totally sincere. No joke.

 

[raid]

I tried again, but I get an error when trying to plac an ad. This time, I just gave up and placed the ad in the Discussion Forum.

 

[raid]

I now have the B&W results in. I scanned the first 24 negatives. The first twelve were taken at 2.0 when possible. The first photo on the negative is very soft because of me, so I am excluding the 50/1.2 from the first batch.

I have here four photos taken with these lenses (in no particular order):

Rigid Summicron (first version)
I61-L 50mm/2.8
Nikon 50/2
Canon 50/1.8

Guess which photo was taken with which lens. Film is ASA 125 Orwo (which is Ilford FP4)



[edited]

the key:
1. I61L
2. Nikon
3. Rigid Summicron
4. Canon 50/1.8

 

[raid]

The second batch of photos were taken with these lenses (in no particular order):


Canon 50/2.8
J-3 50mm/1.5
Zeiss Sonnar
J-8 50mm/2.0

[edited]]

the key :
5. J8
6. Canon 50/2.8
7. J3
8. Zeiss

 

[raid]

The last group include these lenses (in no particular order):

Elmar 50mm/3.5
I61 (no L)
Collapsible Summicron

[edited} the key

9. Collapsible Summicron
10. Elmar
11. I61

 

[raid]

Next, I have twelve comparisons at f 4.0. The first batch includes these lenses (in no particular order).

I61-L 50/2.8
Canon 50/1.2
J-8 50/2.0
Nikon 50/2

[edited]

The key is

1. Nikon
2. Canon 50/1.2
3. J-8
4. I61L

 

[raid]

Here are four more photos taken by these lenses (in no particular order).


Elmar 50/3.5
Canon 50/1.8
J-3 50/1.5
Collapsible Summicron

{edited]

The key is

5. Collapsible Summicron
6. Elmar
7. Canon 50/1.8
8. J-3

 

[raid]

These are the last four photos, taken by these lenses (in no particular order).

Canon 50/2.8
I61 50/2.8
Rigid Summicron
Zeiss

[edited]

The key is:
09 Zeiss
10. Canon 50/2.8
11. Rigid Summicron
12. I61

 

[raid]

I realize that the light is flat and that no bokeh can be seen. Maybe this can be my next test assignment. It was fun trying out the twelve 50mm lenses. The only bad one is the messed I61 (no L), but this was expected. It gives you a soft-focus effect. In other tests of lenses shown by some people recently in thr RFF it is seen that bokeh is the main difference in addition to the different max apertures. This tells me that for "average" photography there are many choices of relatively inexpensive 50mm lenses in LTM out there.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

The Bokeh gives me the hints for selecting lenses. It is a "macroscopic" feature that can be seen on the monitors. All the pictures, but the messed up I61, are good.

I think your model needs an ice-cream cone for the next test. Always works for me.

 

[raid]

Brian: Would you pay a large sum of money just for the bokeh, if it were the only factor? As for the ice cream, she already got ice cream.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I have paid large sums of money just because I did not own a lens. How about getting a mint Prominent I V3 for the Nokton 50/1.5. Or the S3-2000 for the sharpest Nikkor 50/1.4 ever.

The Bokeh provides a good "signature" of a lens. It helps me "cheat" in these blind tests. A 5cm F1.5 is easy to tell from the 5cm F1.4 Nikkor by the out-of-focus areas. Now, shoot a Canon 50/1.5 or J-3 next to the Sonnar, a bit harder.

 

[raid]

I may have another shoot-out of 50mm lenses, but this time the only factor will be the bokeh, or the out of focus points.

 

[John]

My guesstimates chronologically matching your post, 1 to 11 at F2, 1 to 12 at F4

1. Nikon 50/2 2. Rigid Summicron 3. Canon 2.8 4. I61L 5. Canon 1.8 6. Zeiss 7. J3 8. J8 9. Collapsible Summicron 10. Elmar 11. I61


1. Nikon 50/2 2. Canon 50 1.2 3. I61L 4. J8 5. Collapsible Summicron 6. Elmar 7. J3 8. Canon 1.8 9. Rigid Summicron 10. Zeiss 11. Canon 2.8 12. I61

Nice job Raid, thank you. I bet I got some wrong, right?

 

[raid]

My guesstimates chronologically matching your post, 1 to 11 at F2, 1 to 12 at F4

1. Nikon 50/2 2. Rigid Summicron 3. Canon 2.8 4. I61L 5. Canon 1.8 6. Zeiss 7. J3 8. J8 9. Collapsible Summicron 10. Elmar 11. I61


1. Nikon 50/2 2. Canon 50 1.2 3. I61L 4. J8 5. Collapsible Summicron 6. Elmar 7. J3 8. Canon 1.8 9. Rigid Summicron 10. Zeiss 11. Canon 2.8 12. I61

Nice job Raid, thank you. I bet I got some wrong, right?

Hi John,
I don't want to spoil all the fun here for others, so I am sending you a pm for the first four photos. You don't have any correct guess in your first four. Sorry 🙂
I sent you another pm with the key for the first eleven photos. You have four guesses correct out of eleven.

 

[raid]

Maybe it is easier to focus only on the first eleven photos. Frank suggested to me last time that it is more manageable to have four photos per group, with the names of the lenses given in random order. The first group includes most of the sharper lenses [in my opinion], and this makes it harder to separate them from each other. I can slowly, but surely, see the signature of most of my50mm lenses.

 

[wlewisiii]

Your just trying to drive us nuts aren't you??? 😀

Ok, just because I like to :bang: here's my guesses...
from left to right as posted:
Group 1: I-61L/D, Nikon 50/2, Summicron, Canon 50/1.8
Group 2: J3, Zeiss Sonnar, Canon 50/2.8, J8
Group 3: Elmar, Collapsable Summicron, I-61

Fun & informative as always. Lacking Bokeh, I was trying to do a comparison of the face detail with the detailing of the wood paneling. Doubt that did me much good 😱 🙂

William