Testing FED 50/2

[Jagdtiger]

Hi everybody and greetings from rangefinder.ru 🙂
Several month ago I got one nice example of FED 50/2 lens. It really was my great desire, but unfortunately it has also a great price. Anyway, I have got it (about 75$). And here I would like to tell something about this shrouded in mystery lens.
First of all, I asked my friend for his Canon 40D. Then we took two adapters (m39-m42 and m42-EOS) and several ltm lenses(Jupiter-8, I-26, I-61, I-22, I-50, I-10). My idea was this: to compare FED with other popular 50mm lenses.
So we started. As a shooting object we took a bank note(200 hryvnas) with a nice portrait.

Here you can see the results(comparing with 3 J-8)
Wide open aperture:

Closed to f2.8:

So, FED 50/2 is not so bad as you can think. Firstly, it has really more resolution than any Jupiter-8 at wide open. Secondly, it gives more contrast picture(yes, it is a test, but...). And I remind you: it has not any coating! And another thing: in some soviet books you can see some description of this FED. There is usually written that it has very low contrast, very low resolution (20/"low" center/corners) and, actually, it is a worst lens from a prewar line of FED lenses. It is real funny 🙂 Thirdly...Lets see our FED in action. Here some pictures from 40D:

Wide open

Crop:

Crop:

Crop:

It is my mistake of focusing: real sharpen gone slightly forward.
Crop2:

 

[Jagdtiger]

At f3.5

Crop:

Crop:

And as a dessert - some pictures from KODAK 14n(wide open):

 

[Sid836]

Ha! My Fed 2 with its Fed 50/2 awaits for me at the post office! I knew it I was not wrong! Excellent!

 

[Jagdtiger]

The main problem is the non-standard adjustment of this FED(it has not 28.8mm, but something like this). So you must adjust only one camera just for this FED.
And another one. All these FED 50/2 also have a non-standart thread entry.

 

[Jagdtiger]

Another interesting test from kamrad yohho.ho(rangefinder.ru).

FED 50/2 and Co - Industar-61L/D (1980), Jupiter-8 (1954) and standard zoom lens Samsung 20-50 II. Camera - Samsung NX 1000. Without any post-processing, all the pictures exported from Lightroom, ISO 100, auto WB.

http://www.studio.kh.ua/fedtest/index.html

In the first row FED 50: f2, f2.6, f3.5, f9
Jupiter-8 is in the second: f2, f2.8, f4, f8
In the third row Industar 61: f2.8, f4, f8 and Samsung 50mm f5.6
In the fourth row Samsung 50mm: f8

For your convenience, you can see the name of pictures - they describe the lenses and aperture.

 

[goamules]

Thanks for starting this tread. I had a 50/2 Fed but sold it before I shot it much because I have a similar Leica lens. But it was a neat lens, just watch out for flare. Here is the one I briefly owned, and a shot through the lens on a G1 (I increased the contrast):

The yohho test shows what I expected and have experienced; The Fed 50/2 is the most "old fashioned" look (low contrast and some spherical aberration), and the Industar 61 is very sharp and contrasty, it's the most modern looking. The Jupiter 8 is somewhere in the middle. I did like the warmer color rendering of the Fed lens than the J-8, which is surprising; usually sonnars are warm. I'm assuming he didn't adjust any colors.

All three can be used to take good pictures.

 

[lam]

That's a pretty great performing lens. Thanks for sharing your findings!!

 

[Jagdtiger]

Jpeg from EOS 40D:

 

[cameosis]

wonderful, thanks for sharing!
i was tempted a few times, but ultimately decided against it, because of the non-standard focal distance.

 

[Jagdtiger]

But with NEX it would be a great portrait lens. And with DSLR - nice macro. It's so lovely 🙂

 

[Jagdtiger]

And another "test" (flaring and contrast).
Our heroes: Porst Color Reflex 50/1.8, FED 50/2 and Leitz Summar 50/2.

All at wide open(Porst at f2). So...Summar is a piece of junk 🙁

 

[johannielscom]

Not a piece of junk, but very prone to flare, if it has light haze and is uncoated even more so!

I bet that when you shoot it well hooded and without a light source in the frame, it will perform pretty good!

The FED 2.0/50mm actually is a very close copy of the Summar, I owned them both at one time and compared them on an M8 that I had, and could not find ANY differences between the two lenses. My FED had just been cleaned by Fedka, the Summar was clean to begin with. Only difference was about 3mm in barrel length, and the focusing action of course, the FED wasn't standardized and certainly not in Leica specs.

Or, you can sell the Summar to me, I'll pay junk price 😎

😀

 

[Jagdtiger]

Maybe Summar is not so bad, but I prefer my FED 🙂

By the way, FED is not a close copy of Summar. The were not needed sorts of glass to make a clean copy of Summar in 30s. So it is more like a variant of Biotar or Xenon from 20s, and Summar also is a variant or "copy" of that lens 🙂 ).

I'll pay junk price

I bought it 4 months ago for 60 bucks 😀