50mm lenses

agnosticnikon

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I've always been a fan of the Nikon 50mm f2. It's always given me great results regardless of its price. I have both the early single coated and the later multi-coated versions, and see little difference depending on the shooting situation, or film used. That said, my favorite Nikon 50mm is the 1.8 ais. It's about the size of the E series, but gives the sharpest pics of any Nikon lens I've used. A lot of users don't like that it's so much smaller than the larger ai version, and they believe that it isn't as good. I have never found this to be the case, in fact I think it might be a smidge better. (just my opinion) I've only used the older 50mm Summicron and it is a fantastic lens without a doubt. Some may find it to be reasonably priced, but that's very subjective depending on your financial situation. Most 50mm lenses perform better that people seem to believe. Maybe because for so long they were call just a "normal" lens, coupled with the fact that they are very reasonably priced, they were pooh, poohed. Zoom lenses became what everybody wanted, but now fixed focal length lenses are coming back into favor, I suppose because of their speed and build quality. 50's are cheap enough to experiment with, so you can have fun deciding for yourself what you like.
 
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blockend

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Chan Tran said:
Although this is a film forum but I keep wondering how can one use live view to focus? I never could figure that one out.
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Hit the x10 button and turn the dial. Live view on a film camera...now that really would be something!
 

Chan Tran

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blockend said:
Hit the x10 button and turn the dial. Live view on a film camera...now that really would be something!
Click to expand...

If you have to do the x10 and only see a little bit of the frame? No thanks I use the plain ground glass SLR viewfinder. Live view on a film camera it's quite possible. In fact I think Sony has the technology to do it already. But of course no manufacturer starts to make film camera now.
 

clayne

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MC Rokkor 50/1.4 should not be passed over. The 50/1.7 is also quite a capable lens and definitely is not "not very good".

To the folks talking about live view (which I can't believe we're discussing here) by the time you e achieved your "focus accuracy" I've already taken the shot and moved on.
 

John Koehrer

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AKA "pancake" 50mm.

The "S" marking is only on the box, not the lens itself.
 

jjphoto

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jjphoto said:
With digital you can use Live View, or similar, to ensure focusing accuracy.
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Chan Tran said:
Although this is a film forum but I keep wondering how can one use live view to focus? I never could figure that one out.
Click to expand...

Really?

Clearly my sentence states that you can focus with Live View with "digital". Although you clearly didn't comprehend it the first time so I'm not sure why you might comprehend it now. Have you heard of digital cameras and do you know they are different to film cameras? Where in my clipped and out of context sentence does it say that a film camera has Live View?

The entire paragraph is below.


Again, and with the benefit of the entire paragraph instead of a single sentence out of context, where does it say you have Live View with a film camera?
 

lxdude

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^^Dude, chill out!^^
 

choppastyle

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Because he used the word "although" he clearly understands that you mean digital.
 

lxdude

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^ +1 ^
 

JimCee

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John Koehrer said:
AKA "pancake" 50mm.

The "S" marking is only on the box, not the lens itself.
Click to expand...

The term "pancake" has been applied rather liberally to several of the various Nikkor 50mm lens. The lens I'm referring to was the one originally sold in Japan and focusing down to 0.45 meters, other U.S. lens focused down to 0.6 meters. In addition the so-called "S" lens has a metal barrel and is multi-coated, U.S. versions of the 50mm f/1.8 AIS lens were single coated. Here's a current example listed on eBay (no connection to the seller): http://www.ebay.com/itm/271263179815?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 The seller clearly shows the differences in the lenses with the photographs on the listing.

Based on a reading of the development for the Nikkor AI 50mm f/2.0 lens on the Nikon website "The Thousand and One Nights", which refers to the "S" type 50mm f/1.8 lens, it's clear that the latter lens has a superior correction. Tale 2 on the page: http://imaging.nikon.com/history/nikkor/index.htm

"Compared with the previous model, the NIKKOR-S Auto and the AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8(1980~) mentioned above, which had almost zero geometrical distortion, it is something of a pity that this lens did not have quite as good correction."

Jim
 
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blockend

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In my ignorance I was unaware of the S type Nikon lens. I wonder why it was never exported?

I don't get to decide these things but live view would appear to be more of a viewfinder concept than a digital imaging one. Large format cameras have live view of course.
 

miha

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The type S looks exactly as the series E I once owned. A great little lens BTW.

Edit: The above statment is wrong, mine was the 0.60m version.
 
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The Old Pharaoh

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May I mention the Voigtlander Ultron 40mm f/2. It is rather expensive, but it is an outstanding lens in every aspect of the word.
 

02Pilot

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If you want something rather different in terms of rendering, small, and relatively cheap, grab an FSU rangefinder (FED or Zorki; personally, I'd opt for a FED-2 or a Zorki-6) with a Jupiter-8 50/2. The lens is a copy of the pre-war Zeiss Sonnar 50/2 and gives quite a different look to the Planar formula lenses common to most SLR mounts. You could be into the whole rig for under $200 from a reliable (non-ebay) supplier.
 

Thomas Bertilsson

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My favorite 50mm lens is the Pentax 50mm f/1.4. I have used it alongside the also excellent Pentax 55mm f/2, and Leica Summitar 50mm f/2, a Leica Summicron 50mm f/2, and a Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.5.

In my prints, I get the best results from the Pentax and the Summitar. Both these lenses yield very beautiful prints. The Pentax is definitely a bargain super performer, and is easily used with inexpensive cameras of the screw-mount type with the M42 lenses, and K mount camera bodies like the KX, K1000, MX, LX, etc etc etc. You can have a stellar performer for very little money.
 

Paul Howell

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I have several 50mm in different mounts, I tested most using several film tests charts, my prime chart was put out by Modern Photography in the 70s to which I have added a rather generic color chart. I tested Konica 55 1.4 1.7, Pentax M42 and k 50mm 1.8 and 2, Miranda 55 1.4 and 1.8, Petri 55 mm 1.9, Kowa 55 1.9. Yashica M42 F2, and Mamyia 1.8.
My testing is not scientifically as rigorous as I would like, testing out doors on my patio in the shade, but based on my samples I found the Konica 1.7 Kowa, Pentax 1.8, M42 and Ks, and Miranda 1.8 to be very sharp, the Konica and Pentax have better contrast and color than the Kowa or Mirandas, the 1.4s were as sharp as the 1.7 and 1.8 stopped down to F2, but was not sharp wide open. My Petri and Mamyia were good but not has good as others, the Yashica seemed to be the worse, but still ok. I have another Petri to test.

As most of the lens evloved over time I cannot say which Konica 1.7 of the several that were made is the best of the lot, I have just one to test. I also dont know if the issue was in the camera bodies, such as the focus being just off, or if over time a lens had been dropped or poorly repaired. But if I had to pick one lens as the best it would the Konica 1.7. Having said that I usally carry a pentax or mirdanda as I have a complete set of lens and only 4 Konica lens.
 

Ian Grant

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When I shot 35mm my main lenses were an f1.4 Pentax and an f2 summicron, I had other Pentax standard lenses and they were all excellent, I'd had a Chinon 50mm f1.4 (K mount) and that was possibly better than the Pentax, I'm not sure who made them.

However I found my Summicron quite different in it's qualities, more tonal, greater fine detail and so deceptive. I've used quite a few different lenses and Japanese lenses are generally higher contrast with a more graphic sharpness, slightly less tonal, it's subtle differences.

Ian
 

Thomas Bertilsson

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The Summicron was nice, but for my purposes I literally have to look up what lens I shot with compared to the Pentax in order to tell, unless it was wide open. The Pentax does have a little bit more contrast, but that's easily overcome with a wee bit more exposure and slightly less development. I like the Summitar better than the Summicron, because of how open the shadows are.

Either way, there are very few lenses to hang on a camera where the lens is the weakest link in the chain - I gather it's usually the photographer that is the weakest link...
 

Chan Tran

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I did understand that you were talking about digital camera. But I couldn't use the live view feature on a digital camera to manually focus the lens. Someone suggested to put on the 10x magnification but doing so I could only see a small portion of the screen which makes the operation too slow. I much prefer a simple plain ground glass screen of the SLR for focusing.

Blockend said that it would be cool to have live view on a film camera and I said that it's possible as the technology to do that is available. But to me live view is the poorest way to focus.
 
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