Sam_W
Online
• •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
That really depends on your budget and your photographic goals.
There's quite a few fantastic C/Y lenses, as well as strong performers, or more artistically-inclined lenses.
Setting aside the expensive, but marvellous, Apo-Sonnar 2/200, Planar 1.2/85 50/60 Jahre editions, and so forth, you're left with quite a few good options:
* Distagon 2.8/21: Amazing piece of glass. Well-priced these days. Practically apo-level correction, and amazing colour. The newer Z* versions are sharper, but more clinical, and lose some "warmth".
* Distagon 2[.8]/28: The f/2 "Hollywood" is an art lens. But harder to find in good shape these days, without requiring some servicing or repair. The f/2.8 is amazing. It was my first ever C/Y lens. Get one in the late 8.xxx.xxx serial range. Size, performance, colours, everything is in the Leica territory, at a fraction of the cost.
* Distagon 1.4/35: The f/1.4 is amazing and artistic at the same time. On par, and sometimes arguably better, than the Summilux-R 1.4/35, but for a quarter of the price. Different lens between f/1.4 and, say, f/4.
* Makro-Planar 2.8/60 C: The C is fairly rare, and only does 1:2 magnification, but is considerably more compact than the 1:1 siblings. Good piece of glass.
* Sonnar 2.8/85: The Sonar design of the 85 focal length is superb. Especially if you find an MMG serial range 8.xxx.xxx one. For the price, you're getting a tiny yet lively powerhouse.
The longer glass is either so-so, or really expensive. And if you're going to drop US$5k+ for a telephoto, might as well get a Leica.
The wider (than 21mm) glass is also so-so, and overpriced. The Distagon 3.5/15 is good, but not great, and overpriced. The Distagon 4.18 is similar.
Most of the f/2.8 Distagons are good to great to fantastic. Like you've mentioned, even the 25mm. The 35mm is great, too. Super cheap, but, then again, most 35mm lenses are good. It's hard to screw up a 35mm or 50mm design these days unless you're really doing something very wrong, or very fast.
Speaking of, the Planar 1.7/50 is super cheap, and an excellent performer, though character isn't always there. (You'd have better mileage with a last-gen Summicron-R 2/50, especially with its "schizophrenic" rendering, as one FM-er previously described it.)
The PC-Distagon 2.8/35 is an interesting piece of glass. Actually owned it for a few years. Huge. Great quality (back then the biggest FF sensor I could stick it on was 12Mpix) even when shifted. But a 35mm T/S isn't that great. For the same price you can get a Leica PC-Super-Angulon-R 2.8/28. The change to 28mm helps a bunch.
Finally, the Planar 1.4/85 is pretty good, and some slight drawing style variations between AEG/AEJ/MMG/MMJ. I like it considerably more than the Z* versions, as the newer ones are pretty harsh and do horrible things to the bokeh depending on your background and lighting (such as when shooting against foliage in the mid-to-far background, and bright sky being visible behind it).
|
