I know this seems a random comment, but quite appropriate nevertheless: Great pictures on the previous page!
Nice coolness Jako, great stitch Sebboh, your daughter has a good eye Membler, great composition René, interesting how the fire truck gets by unnoticed due to the high impact of that yellow fantasy vehicle, nice intensity Marek...
That 24-240 seems useful eBookman, as does the ZM35/1.4...
Playing around with Photoshop. I don't do this very often, but this picture just asks for it. Inverted colours makes its impact much more dramatic, I think.
I was not going to get any lenses in 2015, but had a weak moment and got the Loxia 2/50. Excuse for myself; shooting season haven't yet started, still time to fiddle with equipment, who cares about calendar years
Small comparison to Contax G45 from my viewpoint, which may differ quite a lot from average "sharpness is everything"-shooter.
+ boke highlights have even light distribution even wide open (G45 f/2-2.5 has light concentrated too much to circle's edges for me)
+ boke highlights when closed down are round due to rounded 9 blade aperture (G45 6 blade = hecaconal highlights)
+ focuses closer and performs better at close distances
+ better focus helicoid/feeling than with any other normal lens I have been shooting with; light to turn, but I don't accidentally nudge focus off (not much competition here...)
+ EXIF (lens & aperture) is saved to files
+ on focus plane; better extreme corners
= boke contrast compared to focus plane is low (similar to G45)
= based on first ~100 photos it seems both have similar (=mild) field curvature and no focus shift (I did minimal number of infinity shooting were field curvature is usually more problematic)
= no visible CA (magenta/green on contrast edges)
= no boke CA (based on shooting this far, but it might be too early to say)
- at large focus distances boke in corners starts to get smaller only after f/4 (before that corners only get brighter - with G45 this happens little earlier around ~f/3.2)
- lens has tendency to double boke (G45 also does this, but not at this magnitude)
- on focus plane G45 offers more contrast from microcontrast to macro contrast on any size detail f/2.8-11, photos "pop" more (G45 is the best normal lens on this respect I have ever shoot with, Loxia 50 close second way before SLR planars)
- lens is more prone to flare than G45 (with any standard adapter G45 flares more, but if you have flocked it properly it's superior)
I'm typically little "shy" shooting lenses wide open due to boke quality issues, but this might be second lens (1st = APO-Sonnar 135), which I can shoot wide open assuming scene allows larger boke in corners than in center and focus plane survives without additional contrast gained by stopping down to f/2.8. EDIT: after lots of shooting, both APO-Sonnar and Loxia 50 like more f/2.5-3.2 than wide open - also while writing this I forgot only lens, which I have no isses shooting wide open: C/Y Sonnar 3.5/100.
It's too early to make final evaluation, if I'm still posting Loxia photos on fall 2015 then it's indication I like this more than G45...
