FAST 50mm FOR M9

[Moonshine]

I'm looking to buy a fast 50mm for the M9 as i really like to shoot in low light and at night mostly which i can't do with my Summarit 50 2.5. Another Leica seems impossible as they are so expensive...was really looking to buy a pre asph summilux but couldn't afford it!

I looked at the Nokton 1.1 and read that while its a great lens the images lack character.The Nokton 1.5 is much better? Or the Zeiss Sonnar? Is the focus shift issue hard to get around? Any one own both or used both that can advise?
Thanks

 

[Godfrey]

I'm looking to buy a fast 50mm for the M9 as i really like to shoot in low light and at night mostly which i can't do with my Summarit 50 2.5. Another Leica seems impossible as they are so expensive...was really looking to buy a pre asph summilux but couldn't afford it!

I looked at the Nokton 1.1 and read that while its a great lens the images lack character.The Nokton 1.5 is much better? Or the Zeiss Sonnar? Is the focus shift issue hard to get around? Any one own both or used both that can advise?
Thanks

See http://lavidaleica.com/content/lens-shoot-out-50mm

 

[Vivek]

Check this out:

http://leicarumors.com/2011/12/31/s...f0-95-lens-with-leica-m-mount-announced.aspx/

There is a comparison between the new SLR magic 50/0.95, Canon 50/0.95, Noctilux 50/0.95 and the Nokton 50/1.1.

 

[Moonshine]

Thx, I read both the links. Was wondering if anyone has compared the Nokton 1.5 50 and the Zeiss Sonnar 1.5. That's the 2 lenses I'm sorta narrowing it down to unless there's some other lens I'm missing out on.

 

[Godfrey]

Thx, I read both the links. Was wondering if anyone has compared the Nokton 1.5 50 and the Zeiss Sonnar 1.5. That's the 2 lenses I'm sorta narrowing it down to unless there's some other lens I'm missing out on.

Well, from the looks of it, the Zeiss Sonnar 1.5 is a bit curious to work with. The older Nokton 50/1.5 is a very well respected lens.

I have the Skopar 50/2.5 which I like a lot, but if I wanted one of the premium brands, I'd likely go with a Zeiss Planar 50/2. I always liked the Summicron 50/2 more than the Summilux in the past, too.

I know, I know ... "only" f/2. Well, I've found in the past year and some that I prefer what I see out of the slightly slower lenses, and I have no fear about racking sensitivity up to ISO 1600 at this point.

G

 

[zombii]

I shoot a lot of low/very low light (EV 1, EV 0). If you're shooting in that range, the Summilux or Sonnar won't get it without a tripod. I use a Noctilux f/1 and I've owned the Canon 0.95 and Nokton 1.1. With the Canon, getting a good one is critical and they vary, plus they're as or more expensive than a pre asph Summilux if they're already converted. Considering your budget constraints, the Nokton 1.1 is your best choice. I wasn't wowed by the one I had but I didn't really give it as much of a chance as I probably should have. You didn't say what body you're using but I'm assuming ISO in the 1250 - 2500 range and shutter speeds no lower than about 1/30 second unless you can brace yourself somehow. Even then, practicing your technique of holding your breath and bracing your arms against your body is necessary at those shutter speeds with a large lens.

 

[seakayaker]

I have both the Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton and Zeiss 50/1.5 C Sonnar T* and like both of them. Both give you good value for the cost of the lens.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/26672618@N03/sets/72157624154693002/?page=6

Sample of the Nokton at night.

M9 with Voigtlander Nokton Asph 50mm f1.5 -- ISO 160 -- f1.5 -- 1/90

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26672618@N03/sets/72157627847756632/

Sample of the Sonnar with only light source of open garage door, building and street light.

Leica M6 TTL with Zeiss C Sonnar T* 50mm f1.5 / Ilford HP5

 

[Godfrey]

I have both the Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton and Zeiss 50/1.5 C Sonnar T* and like both of them. Both give you good value for the cost of the lens.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/26672618@N03/sets/72157624154693002/?page=6

Sample of the Nokton at night.

M9 with Voigtlander Nokton Asph 50mm f1.5 -- ISO 160 -- f1.5 -- 1/90

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26672618@N03/sets/72157627847756632/

Sample of the Sonnar with only light source of open garage door, building and street light.

Leica M6 TTL with Zeiss C Sonnar T* 50mm f1.5 / Ilford HP5

Nice, Dan!
Tell me, did you have either of those coded?

 

[Per Ofverbeck]

Thx, I read both the links. Was wondering if anyone has compared the Nokton 1.5 50 and the Zeiss Sonnar 1.5. That's the 2 lenses I'm sorta narrowing it down to unless there's some other lens I'm missing out on.

The place for you to go is Reid Reviews. You have to pay a subscription fee, but when contemplating new lenses for the Leica, this site is a must! Not easy to navigate, but in there you´ll find comparisons between these two lenses and innumerable others. The comparisons are very informative, not just test charts and lpm numbers, but lots of info about bokeh, drawing, flare tendencies, and just plain image quality of the kind that really matters...

 

[glenerrolrd]

I would 2nd the recommendation to go to Reid Reviews. The quest for the perfect 50mm is endless. Add in the requirement to shoot at night with an M9 where an extra EV can make the difference between getting a usable image and not and its a difficult search .

If you can afford one ,can find one and can comfortably handle the size ....the Noctilux 0.95 is peerless.

The best all around 50 is the summilux asph .....still expensive and hard to get ..but IQ and handling are superb. IMHO this is a must have lens at some point for most M9 owners ...because of its versatility and high IQ.

If I was on a budget I would look at the VC 1.1 but my expectations are that it would be great for night work in black and white but less acceptable for daylight color ....this of course is highly subjective .

 

[Chris C]

An alternative thought - How about a new version of the CV 35mm f1.2, and take the 'sweet spot' of the lens by cropping your images a bit. The loss of your files edges won't likely be too significant [better file than an M8, slightly less than full area M9]. Hey; it's better advice than saying that you really must get a damned Noctilux.

And yes; Reid Reviews will likely give you many pointers.

.......... Chris

 

[seakayaker]

Nice, Dan!
Tell me, did you have either of those coded?

Godfrey, thank you for your kind words.

I do have the LTM to M adaptor hand coded using the Match Technical coding kit for the Voigtlander as a Summilux APSH. The Zeiss has not been coded as of yet but will get around to it . . . . .

As a side note, I do subscribe to Reid Reviews and do believe it is money well spent if you are looking to purchase Leica, Zeiss, and Voigtlander Lenses.

 

[Moonshine]

I have both the Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton and Zeiss 50/1.5 C Sonnar T* and like both of them. Both give you good value for the cost of the lens.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/26672618@N03/sets/72157624154693002/?page=6

Sample of the Nokton at night.

M9 with Voigtlander Nokton Asph 50mm f1.5 -- ISO 160 -- f1.5 -- 1/90

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26672618@N03/sets/72157627847756632/

Sample of the Sonnar with only light source of open garage door, building and street light.

Leica M6 TTL with Zeiss C Sonnar T* 50mm f1.5 / Ilford HP5

wow those are beautiful Dan! I'm thinking of buying a 1.5 nokton but its a discontinued lens...do u know where i could maybe find one?

 

[Moonshine]

An alternative thought - How about a new version of the CV 35mm f1.2, and take the 'sweet spot' of the lens by cropping your images a bit. The loss of your files edges won't likely be too significant [better file than an M8, slightly less than full area M9]. Hey; it's better advice than saying that you really must get a damned Noctilux.

And yes; Reid Reviews will likely give you many pointers.

.......... Chris

never thought of that! do u have an image sample?
thanks!

 

[250swb]

Super examples Dan, and the Sonnar one sort of blows out of the water what I was going to say about that lens.

But for the record, as I understand it the Sonnar is designed to render a slightly diffused image wide open, to give the classic glow of earlier lenses. This settles down at around f/4 to render images in a modern way. Some people like it, some don't. I like it from images I have seen, but your photo looks every bit as 'modern' as any other lens. Much post processing going on?

I will add to the recommendation of Reid Reviews, it offers a no-nonsense and real world review of lenses and 'fast 50's' crop up often. My position is that once you go beyond f/1.4 your are into the limiting aspects of very fast lenses, the very narrow DOF can be more difficult to work with in low light compared to slower lenses, with the focus becoming so critical you can have more chance of getting a sharp image hand held at 1/8th second and f/2.8 than trying to focus a Nokton at 1/60th at f/1.1. This is particularly so as the Nokton does exhibit some aperture related focus shift, although when I had one it wasn't as bad as I expected.

Personally from the ones you mention Moonshine I would say the f/1.5 Nokton is a good enough fast lens, and a very good day to day lens. If I threw a wild card into the mix, then the 40mm Nokton f/1.4 is a very nice lens (and very small) and the image fits the M9's 35mm framelines very closely, although you would need to file the lug on the lens flange to bring up those framelines (a camera tech could do it while you wait).

Steve

 

[Godfrey]

A side note:

I've heard this mention of filing the lug on the 40mm lens mount a couple of times. Anybody have a picture of exactly what needs to be done and where?

The Nokton 40/1.4 and M-Rokkor 40/2 are two of my favorite lenses and the 35mm frame lines do fit better than the 50mm.

 

[seakayaker]

wow those are beautiful Dan! I'm thinking of buying a 1.5 nokton but its a discontinued lens...do u know where i could maybe find one?

You can still pick them up from Steve Gandy at Camera Quest

http://cameraquest.com/inventor.htm

50/1.5 ASPH Nokton: Leica Screw Mount -- add Screw Mount adapter for perfect compatibility Leica M cameras! Many shooters consider this lens better than the much more expensive 4 decade old design 50/1.4 Leica Summilux! Very popular, Silver or Black. Remember you can use this lens on any Leica Screw Mount body, or any Leica M body with the screw mount adapter. This lens is DISCONTINUED and SOLD OUT at the factory, but a few are still in stock at CameraQuest IN STOCK PICS $699 Black

 

[Godfrey]

Somewhat off-topic but my morning rant ...

I'm somewhat allergic to Reid Reviews due to the miserable flash implementation, horrid white on black text, inability to adjust the font or font size for easy reading, inability to save an off-line copy of the articles so I can read at my leisure without having a high bandwidth network connection and a BIG monitor and keyboard in front of me, no way to search an article's text since it is presented in flash, poor choice of font, etc etc.

Sean writes well and $33 a year for a 12-article subscription is a little pricey if in line with other boutique magazines of similar information quality. But he'd do well to hire a book/magazine designer and re-think using flash as a delivery mechanism. I mean, jeez, a secure PDF file would be a MUCH better reading experience than a flash website, and would be accessible on any device that had a PDF reader app. Add some line spacing, a more readable font for a computer screen than "Ariel": it would be far nicer than his current mess.

Ok, rant over. ;-)

 

[Godfrey]

I do have the LTM to M adaptor hand coded using the Match Technical coding kit for the Voigtlander as a Summilux APSH. The Zeiss has not been coded as of yet but will get around to it . . . . .

Thanks Dan!

This is probably getting off topic, but just how big a difference does the coding make for someone interested primarily in raw capture?

Sorry for the thread hijacking.

 

[Per Ofverbeck]

Somewhat off-topic but my morning rant ...

I'm somewhat allergic to Reid Reviews due to the miserable flash implementation, horrid white on black text, inability to adjust the font or font size for easy reading, inability to save an off-line copy of the articles so I can read at my leisure without having a high bandwidth network connection and a BIG monitor and keyboard in front of me, no way to search an article's text since it is presented in flash, poor choice of font, etc etc.

Sean writes well and $33 a year for a 12-article subscription is a little pricey if in line with other boutique magazines of similar information quality. But he'd do well to hire a book/magazine designer and re-think using flash as a delivery mechanism. I mean, jeez, a secure PDF file would be a MUCH better reading experience than a flash website, and would be accessible on any device that had a PDF reader app. Add some line spacing, a more readable font for a computer screen than "Ariel": it would be far nicer than his current mess.

Ok, rant over. ;-)

Well, I agree wholeheartedly: Flash is horrible, and the smallish Flash window and the white-on-black text in an antediluvian font adds insult to injury. Sean has received lots of flak in different fora for all this, and he still believes Flash is his one safe insurance against contents theft (it isn´t, but let´s not get into details...).

Thing is: the site contents is invaluable, and it can at present only be had while putting up with these inconveniences. As for me, I pay, I cuss profusely while reading, and I benefit a lot from the info I get.