Your Top 3 Lenses of All Time (with Pictures Please!)

Jdsegra

Jdsegra

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I stumbled across jsrocket's thread regarding your top 5 cameras... Cameras are nice, but it's all 'bout that glass.

What are your top 3 lenses? Preferably lenses you've actually owned, and bonus points for including a favorite pic from each.

I'll go first:

Leica 35 Summicron v IV
My first Leica lens. It's small, it's light, it's fast, and it's glued on my camera. Sure it's soft wide open, but 2.8 and up is killer.

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Fuji 18-55 f2.8-4 OIS
This thing is a kit lens?! Seriously?! 28-80mm equ, can close focus, beautiful color, tack sharp. It's a little bigger than I'd prefer, and it's digital only, but it's tiny for what it is and smaller than a bag full of primes.

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Fujion 23mm f2 from the x100
Not the best technical lens, but its got the good where it counts. Small, light, versatile, beautiful color, macro is clutch. I love my Leica 35 'cron, but I've got a lot of ground to cover before I catch up with the keepers from this gem.

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This will be an interesting thread and I look forward to its development!

I've never really gotten into lens testing, myself. I have used cameras of certain brands, simply adding lenses of the same brand in the desired focal lengths and being happy with the results. Even so, I find this kind of information of most interesting.

- Murray
 
Regarding "all about glass"... My top image is the one I took with Canon 70-200 F4 L lens. It was one of the nominated in international contest with real jori (not FB votes). Received some prizes for it and picture was published. If I remember correct, I don't own rights to publish it anymore.
To match OP, here is the one with this lens:


With Leica I have no money even for half of the top of the top Leica lens. :)
 
Summicron 50mm version IV with bear claw tab. Compact, supreme ergonomics with the reversible vented hood and cap. My staple for decades. Sharp and straight, not too contrasty.


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The tiny Elmarit ASPH 28. Very compact, very sharp, maybe too contrasty, but not here in the late afternoon in May in the northern hemisphere.


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And the ZM C Sonnar 50. Such character. Much smaller and lighter than a Summilux.


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I love the colours with Zeiss lenses.
 
I'm agreeing with Richard on C Sonnar 50/1.5. Full of character like this old bike.
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Sony A7S C Sonnar 50 at f1.5
 
And my newest top three lens is the Elmar-M 24/3.8, in use at Dubrovnik old city.
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Sony A7S Elmar-M 24/3.8 at f8
 
I've binged on a bunch of lenses and cameras over the last few years. In hindsight, the only lenses that really stood out to me were on all medium format cameras. There are lots of fantastic lenses out there but the results with these ones felt magical at times.

I'll probably have a separate post later with 35mm lenses once I think through those a bit more. ;)


Planar 75mm 3.5 (on Rolleiflex 3.5F):








100mm Ektar 3.5 (Kodak Medalist II)





38mm 4.5 (Hasselblad SWC)




 

Top 3 F-mount zooms by Narsuitus, on Flickr

My Top Three Nikon zoom lenses (also known as the Three Digital Kings, the Holy Trinity, or the Magic Three)

Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 AFS (wide-angle)
Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 AFS (standard mid-range zoom)
Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 AFS (telephoto)
 
There are many good lenses, but there are 3 that gave me special feeling over the years:
The original 1950’s Voigtlander Ultron 2.0 50mm
The Rokkor 2.0 40mm for Minolta cle (and leica m of course)
And last but not least the Zeiss Sonnar 1.5 50mm for the Contax rangefinders, mentioned here before as the zm sonnar, which seems to be exactly the same lens.
Pictures are imho useless as a 1200x800 pixel jpeg from a scan can never show the real qualities of those lenses let alone give you the same feeling.
Regards,
Frank
 
I would have to nominate the highly-dependable Elmar-M 50/2.8 for my third choice.
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Sony A7S Elmar-M 50/2.8 at f8 1/250 ISO 125
 
My 3 favourites would be a 35 summicron, 75mm Tessar on my Rolleiflex T, & the 8 1/2" golden Dagor on my 5x7. (I'm away from my home computer, so no photo access)
 
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