Jack, you are evil! Pure evil!
As I was packing up a bunch of lenses for Jono to play with, I started getting nostalgic about how I ended up getting each and every one… You are responsible for both my first and last Leica lens (to date) -- both 50mm Summilux. The first was an old 1962 chrome one that I fell in love with at Camera West after trying out many. It is still achingly beautiful, but I hadn't realised that it had only 1M near focus. So when I finally looked to get another, I got the last version pre-asph (BP that, unfortunately, weighs a tonne) rather than the apsh all because of you! (You and that picture of dancing children at a wedding -- was it the flower girl and the ring bearer or something like that?)
So, please, create lust, guys!
Cam. Cam, Cam, Cam... Long story, sorry
:ROTFL:
You will find it no surprise the whole reason I started down the A7r path was because of that lens!!! I gave it (and the M8/M9) up because I could no longer focus an RF as quickly or as accurately as I desired, especially at f1.4, so when EVF with focus peaking appeared my ears and eyes perked up and curiosity peaked, and I dreamed of being able to have it again and actually focus it! I went through a raft of 50's trying to replicate it on my Nikon to no real avail -- a lot of great 50's out there, but none as sweet as the pre-Lux to my eyes. But then the Sigma ART 50 arrived on scene, and of course I bought one in Nikon mount immediately. My 50 lust was (finally) appeased -- it is truly *almost* as nice rendering wide open as the pre-lux -- and seriously close enough from f2 up for me -- not to mention it AF's fast and accurately with Nikon's AF fine tune. Lust was now moderated enough I sold my Nikon 50/1.2 manual focus because I knew with the ART's AF and look, I'd never use it again -- if I was going to manually focus a lens, it needed to have very special character. (I still have my 85mm brass lantern focus Petzval lens for that reason
)
So now my lust for focus peaking is attenuated somewhat, but let's fast forward some more. I have what amounts basically to a "spare" Nikon D800e body that was used for one workshop, had under 1000 clicks on it, and was not getting used since I got my D810. A member tags me offline asking my honest opinion of the D810. I tell him and another very long story cut short, he indicates he has an A7r that isn't cutting it for his style of landscape work, and wishes he never sold his D800e, so we come to an arrangement -- :ROTFL: -- and he ends up with a like new D800e and I end up with a gently used A7r. I immediately bought two Metabones adapters, Nikon of course, and Canon EF so I can use Guy's 24 TSE
Now having the EVF with focus peaking, I start rethinking what lenses I can mount on it for their "look." Of course the pre-Lux comes to mind immediately, but as immediately the thought of actually being able to focus a Noctilux accurately wide open becomes compelling -- I did own multiple copies of the Noct (and even a few Canon 50/0.95's) when I had Leica M's and loved the look wide open, but could never focus them accurately enough to justify them; like I was lucky to hit on 1 out of 10. So the pre-Lux being better at f1.4 anyway and half the weight and cost of the Noct became my main squeeze. But now we've all seen Noct images in the A7r thread, so speed and paper-thin DoF come to the forefront of my thinking again.
I start doing some searching and learn of the Mitakon. Look at all the online reviews with images and am actually impressed. I find out Don has one, and ask him about it -- he's only had it a short while but is really impressed, especially for the price. And while on the subject of price, for the cost of a good used pre-Lux I will just mention you can buy the Mitakon 50, a Nikon 28/1.4 ASPH and a Nikon 105/2 DC or a Zeiss 18 or 21, and still have money left over for a used A7r body!
~~~
So without making this post so long nobody reads it, here is an image. I apologize as I have posted it in the fun with Sony A7 thread, but it got buried pretty quick. Nor is it as interesting a subject as the child ring-bearer and flower girl dancing (though those were at f4 IIRC -- see:
http://www.getdpi.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=55&c=27), but it is a pretty decent exemplar image for this lens wide open I think. I focused on Mrs. Clause's glasses, right at the hinge on the frame and to my surprise I pretty much nailed it, though clearly I should have focused on her eyelashes! (But yeah for focus!) I think this image shows off the lens' strengths -- sharpness, fall-off (though I added another 2/3 stop vignette in C1), check out the oof speculars in the mirror behind them, overall Bokeh -- love the term "Bokelicious" Tim! -- and the overall balanced rendering. Pretty amazing for under $800...
Mitakon Zhongyi 50mm f0.95 lens, handheld, ISO 200, 1/60th at f0.95; focus point on glasses frame is roughly 3 feet distant:
Now the image looks pretty good at web size, but what about at actual pixels? Not too dang bad for an inexpensive (relatively) hyper fast lens, at least IMHO... Actual pixel crop as it came out of C1:
Note that I've only had it and the A7r for about a week and am still learning the C1 parameters for it. That said, I had dialed back the C1 sharpening preset based on my eyes, and it is still slightly over-sharp so I will need to cut it back a bit more, but all that said, I think the image and the crop speak well to this lens' performance.
PPS Note: There are TWO versions of this lens, so be careful about what you buy online, and/or other online images and reviews you might see. The newer lens has had some significant improvements and corrections for flare, resolution and CA. You can tell them apart by the filter size -- new = 67mm, old = 58mm.
