The Olympus 50mm F/1.2 does much better when some distance is involved... Its bokeh at min distance is distracting and you have to be careful with the lens. At longer distances its a very good lens wide open.
The Zuiko resolves more detail than any f/1.2 lens I have tried - including the Rokkor. Contrast can always be added in PP, but not detail. The Zuiko 50/1.2 is also near perfect across the full frame from f/2, and has excellent/neutral color.
ulrikft wrote:
The zuiko actually seems to resolve more detail, but the konica is more contrasty.
fun
I really love the 'technical' bokeh of the Olympus 50mm 1.2 and the examples here show nicely how it gathers all the detail at the focal plane and then blurs in its own way the bg and fg.
I don't use it often enough because I prefer the versatility and bokeh of the 50mm f2 macro which spends more time on my cameras.
Thanks James, great blog! You're the perfect person to ask, I have a pentax-a 50/1.2, and was thinking of trading it in for (or adding to my collection) a 50mm Summicron-R. Does the Summicron outperform the Pentax at f/2.0? I find this is the aperture I usually use on the Pentax to avoid purple fringing and general softness from shallow DOF when shooting portraits.
