Your Top Five 50mm lenses (RF)

bluesun267

bluesun267

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As a lover of 50's I have a query: What are your top five 50mm lenses? (Rangefinder only please...any mount, or even fixed lens cameras).

Not necessarily what you own at the moment.

Rate them on a purely subjective, emotional level.

Here's mine:

1. Summicron Dual Range (M)
2. Nikkor SC 5cm f1.4 (ltm)
3. Zeiss Sonnar f2 (Contax)
4. Summitar (ltm)
5. Elmar Red-Scale (ltm)

Honorable mention: Schneider Retina-Xenon on a IIIc
 
I have quite a few excellent 50mm RF lenses, and I will only give my Nr. 1 here:
Rigid Summicron 50/2.

I also love using the Hexanon-M 50/2.4, Nikon Millenium 50/1.4, Summicron DR, Zeiss 5cm/1.5, Pentax-M 50/1.4 in M mount, Schneider Xenon 50/2.8 in M mount, Canon 50/1.5 50/1.4 50/1.2, J-3 50/1.5. CV 50/1.5, CV 50/1.1. Elmar 50/2.8.

There are so many superb 50mm RF lenses out there. I forgot to list my CV Heliar 50/3.5 and 50/2.
 
Huh, turns out I've only used four. But of the ones I've owned/used, these are my favorites.

1. Summilux ASPH
2. Millennium Nikkor
3. DR Summicron
4. Collapsible Summicron (this lens was actually terrible, but makes the list owing to the fact I have only used four RF 50s; also, it was terrible because it was beat to all hell.)
 
On color film - Rigid,
On bw film - J-3,
On color digital - Cron v4,
On bw digital - Nokton 50 1.5 VM.

Honorable mention: any 9$ 50mm FSU will do. :)
 
My favorite focal length and I've had quite a few but only on SLR's and faux rangefinders such as Fuji Pro2's...

except for a Voigtlander Color-Lanthar ... my one and only 50 on a real RF.
So, yeah, this one.
 
Summicron V4
Anastigmat from the 0 Serie.
Elmar-M (latest)
Summilux ASPH
Summitar

The humble Summicron V4 is a really remarkable lens. For something of this age to perform at such stunning quality on the M9 completely surprised me.

The Anastigmat on the 0 is a very close second, or a toss-up in my book. I really wanted to yank mine off the 0 and have it adapted to M, but better judgement won out. Someday perhaps. A very lovely rendering.

Elmar-M is my go to for shooting XX these days.

Summilux ASPH for low light and Ortho film.

The Summitar for high contrast situations or films (RPX 25)
 
Contax G 45/2 Planar...converted to M if necessary for eligibility :)
50/2 Zeiss Contax Sonnar
50/1.5 C Sonnar
50/2 Summicron v3
50/2 APO Summicron

In no particular order...
 
It's better if I just list what I have:

Voigtlander 50mm f1.1 Nokton VM lens
Voigtlander 50mm f3.5 Heliar Vintage Line VM lens
Voigtlander 50mm f2.0 Heliar Classic VM lens (Limited Edition)
Voigtlander 50mm f3.5 Heliar with LTM adaptor lens (Limited Edition)
Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f2 ZM lens

Of these the Voigtlander 50mm f1.1 Nokton VM lens is my favorite because of the wonderful things it does. The Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f2 ZM lens is my work horse 50mm. The 50mm f3.5 Heliar Vintage Line VM lens is special - sharp as can be, nice when wide open as well; never disapoints. My least favs are the other two Heliars because I'm not so fond of collapsable lenses; I mainly keep them because they're parts of limited edition camera sets that I own..
 
1. Leica Noctilux f0.95
2. Leica Summarit f1.5
3. Leica Summilux e46
4. Leica Summicron APO
5. Leica Summilux ASPH
 
OK, I'll play.

1: Summitar 50/2. Great character, fast enough for all-purpose use.
2: Elmar 50/3.5. Love the look, ergonomics less so, but oh so compact.
3: Canon 50/1.5. Glorious Sonnar goodness.
4: Canon 50/3.5. Optically very similar to the Elmar, but with better ergonomics.
5: Canon 50/1.9. Summar-like with better coating.

Totally subjective of course, but I prefer the look of vintage lenses, and these together give me a very wide range of options for almost any circumstance.
 
Hex M 50 2.0
Hex LTM 50 2.4
CV 50 3.5 LTM
CV 50 2.0 M

I love and use them all. Three of the four are collapsible. Would love to add the Leica Elmar M 2.8 so I would then have all the modern collapsible 50's.
 
Favourites are those that i have - in order of preference:

Zeiss f1.5 C Sonnar
Voigtlander f3.5 Heliar
Elmar f2.8 collapsible
7Artisans f1.1

Cheers, Peter.
 
5. Elmar Red-Scale (ltm)

I've only had one 50mm RF lens and it is the above. I got it in 1964 and used it until now.

But I didn't realize what a great lens it was until I started to use SLR 50s. Some of the greatness might have been the RF focusing and the IIIf's precise film placement. But I'm still loving the combination in 2018.
 
In no particular order: collapsible Summicron; Summicron 11817 (the version 3); Summicron DR. Although I don't have it at present, I will include the 50/2.8 Elmar, the earlier one; I haven't tried the Elmar-M yet, but would like to. And I have recently acquired the 50mm f/2 Zeiss Planar. I haven't used it enough yet to see if it goes on the favorites list.

The 11817 is one of my most-reached for 50mm lenses. It is small, lightweight, handy, and focuses nicely. The Zeiss may be in that category, too. I like that it has both a focusing ring and a tab (OK, a bump). Best of both worlds. The collapsible is both painterly used wide open, and sharp when stopped down.
 
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