What is the best cheap but beautiful 50mm there is?

I have an Industar-22 made by FED and an Elmar f3.5. The Leitz lens is infinitesimally sharper and the I-22 has an excellent coating and more contrast. For $19 the I-22 is really hard to beat.
 
I LOVE my J-3, I had a J-8 that was GREAT and yes, the summitar has an amazing quality to it.

the i-61 is a great lens but at 2.8 in a different class.

best money spent is on the J-8, plentiful, cheap and great optical characteristics.
 
I concur on the i-22 as well as the collapsible i-50

slow, but really fantastic optically.



peter_n said:
I have an Industar-22 made by FED and an Elmar f3.5. The Leitz lens is infinitesimally sharper and the I-22 has an excellent coating and more contrast. For $19 the I-22 is really hard to beat.
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The 7 element 5 group f1.4 on the Yashica Lynx 14e IC (45mm, tad wider than 50)
The 1.7/45mm on the Yashica GSN.

Best lenses for the money in town. And they come with a pretty darned good camera attached.
 
I do not have experience with the Canon or Russian lenses, but here's what I've used:

50/2 Summicron (latest)
50/2.8 Elmar (v. 1)
50/2 M-Hexanon
50/1.4 Summilux pre-asph

Of these, the best value lens, and the one that will never require "upgrading," is the M-Hexanon.
 
Oops, how could I forget, Nikon 50/1.4 in LTM, a lens with a lot of character! If you are patient, you might even find one for under $300 on e-bay.
 
Well, maybe I'll chip in from the non Leica owning guys, to try to keep things real.

Get a modern Leica lens, with multicoating. The Leica glass is the best reason to own a Leica camera, IMO. There's no good reason to spend money on more than one 50mm lens, if there are other lenses you don't have. (just my humble opinion)
 
Thanks Frank! That's a part of rangefinders I haven't ventured into yet, but I look forward to trying!

I just thought the name was funny. I am always Polishifying words much to my Polish fiancee's dismay! 😛
 
Jeremy Z said:
Well, maybe I'll chip in from the non Leica owning guys, to try to keep things real.

Get a modern Leica lens, with multicoating. The Leica glass is the best reason to own a Leica camera, IMO. There's no good reason to spend money on more than one 50mm lens, if there are other lenses you don't have. (just my humble opinion)
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OMG, I'm feeling dizzy, and there's a tightness in my chest! I....



🙂

We are clearly at a odds, Jeremy!
 
Summitar would be my choice of lens if good quality onesit were available and relatively cheap, they are not, when cheap they have fogging, fungus, miserable mechanics.... when good overall quality they are as expensive as a top class Summicron.
You can get a crummy one and have it cla'd but this probably might not resolve all the optical problems and the purchase price of the lens together with the cla.... well it would be expensive too.
One thing however, I see where the Russian and Japanese advice comes from, some of them are good lenses, few are very good lenses, none however match Leica glass in my experience anyway.
Get a first version Elmar in good condition when on a budget and in want of a good lens.
Otherwise go for a summicron, nothing wrong with that, define your styles and go with the version that meets your style.

In my (limited) optics, you buy a Leica for the glass, this makes it all worth it. Have to ask yourself too what you are going to shoot, B&W, Colour or slide .... and then the amount of contrast wanted/needed/liked and do you like your images sharp? Do you want to shoot with limited DOF etc. once you answer these questions for yourself you can choose the appropriate (leica) lens.

Member x might find lens Y an excellent choice, but also might have a totally different shooting style than you have .... In this case the lens will be a terrific lens, for him/her ... but in this case not for you....
 
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another vote for the canon 1.2, and I'll also second the voightlander 2.5 skopar- until it was stolen, this was my favourite walk around-lens.
 
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