The Prettiest CV Lens? the Nickel 50/2 Heliar

Please don't throw rocks but I like my Nokton 1.5 50 on my IIIa. I'm from the era that loved big SLR's and that lens on my tiny Leica just blows my mind......and it works really really well.
Oh BTW mine is in silver.
 
Last edited:
Most modern lenses should be pretty comparable at f/4 and especially beyond (e.g. 2/50 Planar which is sharp from the get-go at f/2).

Yeah, I know what you mean...but this lens is just different even compared to the Zeiss sharpness. I don;t know how to explain it. If you come to the July meet-up, I'll ask Cal to bring them.

@ leicashot... I'm sorry, but I only did a very small test of the bokeh. It was not offensive, but I cannot elaborate further.

Here's one from the 3.5 wide open (please forgive the noise):

5777434366_ae52352b08_b.jpg
 
I have too many 50mm lenses already (Elmar red scale, Summar and Summicron DR). What I really want is something with the sharpness and bokeh og the Summar but without the flare. A coated six-element double Gauss with little attention paid to spherical aberration?
 
Yeah, I know what you mean...but this lens is just different even compared to the Zeiss sharpness. I don;t know how to explain it. If you come to the July meet-up, I'll ask Cal to bring them.

@ leicashot... I'm sorry, but I only did a very small test of the bokeh. It was not offensive, but I cannot elaborate further.

Here's one from the 3.5 wide open (please forgive the noise):

5777434366_ae52352b08_b.jpg

Very sweet rendering but 3.5 is just too slow for the way I like to use my 50mm. Even f/2 is slow compared to using my previously owned 50/0.95.

I also don't like collapsible lenses because I'm too rough with my cameras. The 50/2 Nickel looks very appealing, even with softness wide open.
 
Yes, I've seen that article before. There's not much out there regarding these lenses review wise.
 
this lens is very pretty and i would be tempted even though i have 50mm covered pretty well but not having the distance scale in feet makes my brain have to work too hard and is kind of a deal breaker for me (i know the 3.5 has it but the f2 looks better to me)
 
Back
Top Bottom