you can never have enough 50's

Depite the Lies to JD/2 to talk him out of selling his M3 (which he did to me), I always regretted selling my Prominent with Nokton. Another one will be coming in. I can feel it's presence. AND THAT ONE will not go out on the Bay. My first one, I sold almost 15 years ago to help finance a Nikon F2AS.
 
The one that I had my eye on had a stuck shutter and needed a CLA...but the glass (of all three lenses!) looked fine. I'm still curious as to what that one went for. It was in a case and everything with the three lenses and something else...
 
Frank: Let us know how/when you will do your testing of these lenses. Sounds like plenty of fun. I will do another test with nine different 50mm lenses soon. I don't have some of your lenses though.
 
Frank I'm new but what about the Noctilux?

Frank I'm new but what about the Noctilux?

Frank, (and everyone)
This is my first post. I'm glad you have such a large group of 50mm to choose from. I have only five between three differeent camera systems, good luck with yours. As for me I'm curious about the Noctilux. I like the idea of a narrow depth of field and also the ability to make the background blur away-when I want it to. Lastly fast shutter speed in low light I think is useful. I don't have the cash for this lens-yet, but I'm working on it.
I don't want you to get the wrong idea so I better say that as of now I only have SLR's. Two old Ricoh's and a new Canon Elan 7 and a new "old" Nikon FM2, and a couple of Canon DSLR's. But I'm researching rangefinder cameras and lenses. My reasons are several, first no mirror slap noise, second size and weight, and then I don't want to leave out - smallish lenses. The major to unknown is the actual "rangefinder" mechanism in the camera. But the unknown has never stopped me before. Two months ago I got an old Crown Graphic and I think I now have her ready to take some photographs. The rails were out of alignment and the lens was sticking. It has a "Kalart" rangefinder, but I don't think it's anything like the 35mm rangefinder cameras.
I've been reading from this forum for two months and so last week I joined up.
I wish I had joined eirlier becase there were a lot of interesting posts.

My best idea of what 35mm rangefinder I would /could get is the Voightlander
Bessa R3A Camera body and a Nokton 40mm f/1.4 lens. No 50mm yet.
B&W film is one of my loves.
 
Peter55 said:
Frank, (and everyone)
This is my first post. I'm glad you have such a large group of 50mm to choose from. I have only five between three differeent camera systems, good luck with yours. As for me I'm curious about the Noctilux. I like the idea of a narrow depth of field and also the ability to make the background blur away-when I want it to. Lastly fast shutter speed in low light I think is useful. I don't have the cash for this lens-yet, but I'm working on it.
I don't want you to get the wrong idea so I better say that as of now I only have SLR's. Two old Ricoh's and a new Canon Elan 7 and a new "old" Nikon FM2, and a couple of Canon DSLR's. But I'm researching rangefinder cameras and lenses. My reasons are several, first no mirror slap noise, second size and weight, and then I don't want to leave out - smallish lenses. The major to unknown is the actual "rangefinder" mechanism in the camera. But the unknown has never stopped me before. Two months ago I got an old Crown Graphic and I think I now have her ready to take some photographs. The rails were out of alignment and the lens was sticking. It has a "Kalart" rangefinder, but I don't think it's anything like the 35mm rangefinder cameras.
I've been reading from this forum for two months and so last week I joined up.
I wish I had joined eirlier becase there were a lot of interesting posts.

My best idea of what 35mm rangefinder I would /could get is the Voightlander
Bessa R3A Camera body and a Nokton 40mm f/1.4 lens. No 50mm yet.
B&W film is one of my loves.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum Peter. I was just thinking of taunting Frank a little by suggesting he mortgage the house for a Noctilux instead of hocking the car for a Summilux ASPH. 😉

The Nocti is a dreadfully heavy lens to carry around so do not get one and think you are going the easy route when comes to carrying it around. The throw on the focus is long but I like it that way. To my perceptions it allows me to fine tune the focus in low light without overshooting. If you want to primarily shoot in low light situations then this is the lens for you. When you first lay hands on one I recommend using from about 2 meters minimum focusing distance to infinity. Below 2 meters the depth of field is very unforgiving. If you can swing the Nocti then definitely consider getting the Summilux 50 ASPH instead. I like this lens allot but there is something about it I think you should consider. Mainly the build quality/feel of the Summilux 50 ASPH. I do not consider this lens up to snuff in that area. To my hands it feels less then the older Summicrons/Summiluxs. Definitely consider trying the older glass first. Hope I did not get too wordy for ya!

PS. Frank, those are beautiful ladies you have there. I am jealous. Especially for your collasible Summicron. 😉
 
egpj,
I want the Noctilux for low light and for bokeh. My Canon 85mm f/1.2L is good at both of these tasks. So I believe the Noctilux will be better in low light and I 'm not sure about the bokeh. I want to shoot at min focus distance as much as possible. The 85 is a big group of optical glass, very heavy. The Noctilux must be lighter which is a plus.
I know my Canon 20D can be set to ISO3200 (I'm not convinced that it's the equal to ISO3200 film speed) that and the 85 at f/1.2 allows me to take photographs in very low light. I have heard that users of the Leica Noctilux can take photographs in "available darkness". That phrase has me interested.
 
Frank, my 40mm 'cron will be for sale at the end of this month.
 
I'm not quite sure that I know how it happened, but my PayPal account does show that I paid for them all... I have only 1 Zorki-4 at the moment, but an I-22 (collapsible), a J-8 (black), an I-50 (rigid silver), and an I-61L/D (panda). I had actually hoped that Frank would have a little more details about his testing since I clearly need to consider doing the same... I can't see needing or keeping them all, and if I had to choose today, I would keep the I-22 for portability (drop it in the old briefcase...) and the I-61L/D. But then without testing I would never know if I made the right choices. Maybe I need a J-12 to mix it up...
 
wclavey, keep the J-8!
What else would you like to know about testing lenses?
You can never have too many 50's!
The J-12 would be good too.
 
You have a very interesting group going there Frank. Everyone will love to see your comparo.
I am slowly getting my own collection started and find it a lot of fun. Have film at the developers too. Cheers. 🙂 🙂
 
You guys have it all wrong.
All you really need is a single good zoom lens.
 
Inspired by this thread I decided to round up my 50's and I must respectfully disagree: when you find lenses you forgot you had there's a good chance you have too many 😀. I'll probably offer some of the duplicates for sale here after things settle down a little -- Contax and Alpa 50's if anyone is in need.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Did Nikon really blow Leitz and Zeiss out of the water in 1950? Not quite, but....
Replies
9
Views
2K
aoresteen
aoresteen
J
  • Article Article
Who invented the Leica M3 and IIIg? Two great men at Leitz Wetzlar! Both projects were team efforts led by innovative engineering geniuses.
Replies
13
Views
786
Ljós
L
J
  • Article Article
Camera Collecting, The Incurable Passion, How to know if you’re a camera collector and what you can do about it.
3 4 5
Replies
88
Views
12K
AlexMogens
A
J
  • Article Article
Camera Collecting, The Incurable Passion, Part 2: Tales of RegretGreat vintage cameras I never bought, and others I foolishly sold.
2
Replies
37
Views
5K
ranger9
R
J
  • Article Article
The Voigtlander Vitessa: Most elegant rangefinder folder 35 of all timeThe “Mercedes 300SL” of cameras it was doomed by its brilliant design!
4 5 6
Replies
114
Views
14K
Jonathan R
Jonathan R
Back
Top Bottom