Comparing the CV fast 50mm lenses

Yokosuka_Mike said:
I have bought and sold a lot of lenses in my life time. To date there are only two lenses I regret selling. The Nokton 50mm f1.1 VM is one of them. The damn thing was built like a grenade, big for an M-mount lens and heavy too, but it it possessed magic. If the weather turned bad, the rain was gonna fall, most people were heading home... it was time to break out the Nokton 50mm f1.1 and have some fun.

All the best,
Mike
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As much as I like this idea, that scenario was one of the reasons why I bought the Olympus E-M5 about ten years ago. It was getting into winter, and the day was already dark, so I had the M9 with Voigtlander 35mm f1.2. But rain started to fall, so it went back in the bag and I couldn't take photos without the worry of my gear getting wet. The E-M5 was billed as very weather resistant, so I got one with the Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8, which is also fairly weather resistant. This is the last image I took that day with the M9 and Nokton 35 before it went back in the bag:

M9 - Two in the rain by Archiver, on Flickr
 
I am waiting for some better photography opportunities, but until then, I have a few snapshots taken with a wide open Heliar Classic. I wondered how the OOF would look like.

Pensacola Farmers Market


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I am trying to better understand what this lens can do and what it cannot do for me. Rainy days can be very beautiful. I agree with you Mike.
 
Raid, I prefer your B+W shots here. Do you have the program Adobe Photoshop Elements? It is a very simple free version of Photoshop. It is nice to load a B+W picture into it and play with the controls to see how you can change the picture until you get something you really like. Flickr too has some controls to change the gradation, sharpness and so forth under "Edit Photo" (a square with a pencil), but Adobe Photoshop Elements is better.

Erik.
 
Erik: I have LR5 and CS2 and also Perfect Effects 9. I chose the Tri-X 400 settings in the latter.I am not really into PS a lot. Just the basics.

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raid said:
Erik: I have LR5 and CS2 and also Perfect Effects 9. I chose the Tri-X 400 settings in the latter.I am not really into PS a lot. Just the basics.
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Yes, that is what I thought. These programs are very complicated and have incredible possibilities. I am unfortunately a digital fool and this old program Photoshop Elements is very simple. I use it only to adjust te gradation or to make the picture lighter or darker. A small adaptation can however change the mood of a B+W picture completely if you want to.

Erik.
 
I am trained for many years to nail the most appropriate exposure with a slow slide film such as Fujichrome 50. There was no PS or similar programs. The smallest error would result in a poorly exposed transparency.
 
These are newly taken photos with the Heliar Classic.


Outside Joe Patti's Seafood Market

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The Beignet Truck from outside
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Our cat- Jenny.
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The images at Joe Patti's were taken at f 8 while Jenny's photos were taken wide open at 1.5.
 
raid said:
Do you feel that the 50/1.5 Heliar is best suited for B&W?
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Wonderful shots, Raid. I'm always surprised by the contrast this lens has at full aperture. That surely is an advantage for color. I've seen some excellent examples in color by robert too. Contrast is something you can never have enough of.

Erik.
 
raid said:
I am trained for many years to nail the most appropriate exposure with a slow slide film such as Fujichrome 50. There was no PS or similar programs. The smallest error would result in a poorly exposed transparency.
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Yes, slides need a perfect exposure.

Erik.
 
Thank you Erik. I see the so-called 3D effect with this lens. In the shade, I use it wide open, and in full sunshine I set the lens to 8.
The slower the slides film, the more sensitive to errors.
 
d__b said:
This review is comparing a bunch of 50mm lenses including the 50 1.1 and 1.2. Unfortunately not the 1.0. It looks like the 1.2 is much better overall than the 1.1

https://www.47-degree.com/focus-shift/leica-m-50mm-lens-comparison-part-4
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thanks for the link, I love reading about comparisons about various 50mm.

currently have a 7A 50mm 1.1, Summicron Collapsible and a Nokton ASPH II 1.5.
the Nokton is the best of the 3 and probably what I will be using primarily.
the 7A is definitely the weakest but I used it for a corporate headshot just fine
chris-800x534.jpg
 
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