Ron, below are some shots from San jose I mentioned, I took those shots after I send my film to lab before work. The building just cross the street. I took some snaps. It was raining.
I believe it is San jose city hall. It is really a surprise to see such a fancy government building in US. Though, in China, the fanciest building in the city, especially small city, usually is city hall. A shame.
Luka, I very much like the first three. Quite a bold and crisp feeling from the 28 Cron.
Michael, all three are interesting and I like your PP treatment, as it suits the architectural style very nicely. Looks like an interesting building.
Looks nice Charles, though in the reprocessed image I barely see any difference I think one of the other images with the traffic lights and the purple fringing would be more indicative... or the 24 Lux auto show image from a while back with all the severe purple fringing.
A fellow FMer was very kind to loan me his Nikkor 10.5cm for a couple weeks and I've been taking it out during my walks in place of the 90 Summarit. I haven't really done much in the way of side by side comparisons, rather just trying to get a feel for the Nikkor on its own.
My impression so far is that it's probably similar to the differences Luka explained a while back between the 90 Cron and the 90 Cron AA, though the Nikkor has less CA than the 90 Cron. It has very nice rendering but some field curvature and not as sharp corner to corner at far distances and wider apertures compared to the 90 Summarit. Therefore, for technical applications, the Summarit would be preferred, and the 90AA would be the ultimate solution, but the Nikkor is by no means unsharp. It's just a question of how sharp one 'needs' a lens to be.
It also has an extremely long focus throw, particularly at close distances, making precision focusing much easier than the Summarit. At near infinity distances I can fine tune focus slowly enough because there is enough throw, whereas the Summarit is a fractional rotation off infinity and results in a noticeable change in focus. I feel a lot more confident focusing the Nikkor, though still have misses with it.
Anyway, here are some photos:
Both were wide open. The second was at about minimum focusing distance.
Here is the 50 Lux, also wide open and around minimum focusing distance (though maybe not quite):
BTW, for these I did have clarity cranked up a fair amount... for personal preference.
Some more Nikkor, all wide open:
These are stopped down to f/8 I think:
The Nikkor will flare, as seen in the second to last image, so for many of these backlit shots I had to shield direct sunlight from the front element with my hand. But I think most 50mm+ lenses will flare in such situations. The 90 Summarit certainly does, as does the 50 Lux ASPH and ZM50P, from personal experience.
Thanks for reprocessing that image Charles - looks very promising!
While out for my walk last Friday, I was quite drawn to the grassy slope in the ravine in many of the images above. Behind me were some wooded hills that looked like this:
Quite the mess of trees...
After the sun set, I turned around to see a herd of deer. Not really that unusual here, since it's a conservation area and directly next to a neighbourhood, therefore hunting isn't allowed and they're quite used to people.. so I got in some 'wildlife' photography with the Nikkor as well.
And the previous evening, two from a herd of 11 I stumbled upon about 20 minutes earlier deeper in the woods:
There's supposedly a deer overpopulation problem and it will be interesting to see how it's dealt with...
Andrew - The 85 Sonnar really is a wonderful lens with great colour and rendition. I wonder how its purple fringing and rather strong LoCA will respond to the new corrections in LR4.1 RC2? I haven't yet updated to LR4, therefore not able to try it yet on my Sonnar cemetery images. I agree with Charles - too bad it was discontinued! Though was it? According to Edward in this thread, it will again be available at the end of this year.
Summarit 5cm: I think it works nicely in the woods to calm and smooth the fine details of leaves and branches, blending details in the periphery rather than defining with ruthlessly high resolution, as is the case with modern lenses. The high rez files are not all that sharp, so what you see here downsized for the web and sharpened is a bit deceptive, perhaps leading to a sharper impression than is actually the case. It is nice to have this option though, to counter the look of modern lenses. Any suggestions for an even less perfect lens to use on the M?
Charles, the second image in particular looks great with the slight glow.
Back to urban landscapes...
Shot through a vacant lobby, first and third images are 50 Lux and second and fourth are Nikkor 10.5cm details of roughly the same view. I liked how the buildings behind me reflected in the glass and combined with the building in the background.
Ron, I like your urban landscapes. The reflection looks great. and also, Nikkor 105 looks great on those shots.
Charles, Thanks for the info for Noct50 and nice showcase of images with it. From what I see, it is quite sharp at WO, at least at the size displayed. And new 24lux picture looks way better with removing disturb CA
For some reason, I don't feel very excited about 50lux. I can't tell what is wrong. Maybe it is price, maybe it is the expectation, maybe is something with strong color and contrast even WO, or even maybe my PP hasn't used to it. I can pretty much predict the end result before look at screen. Don't get me wrong, I like it. Just don't feel very excited use it. With M system, I seems like shooting more f2/f2.8 region and use f5.6 and smaller a lot, and seems also appreciate images with more DOF.
But I have to agree, if I choose only 'A' single 50mm lens, this will be the one.
Andrew, Another nice set with 85mm. Again, I feel the lens is the famous MP100 at M platform. a compliment for sure.
Seekuh, The last one is beautiful. I like it a lot. Would you mind to share how you feel about 50 Rigid?
zhangyue and Charles, thank you very much. Much appreciated!
zhangyue, I love the 50/2 rigid. I bought it a few weeks ago and love it so far. zhangyue, I share your thoughts on the Summilux 50. It's a perfect 50mm lens and how can you not like it?
However, its contrast is in deed very high and somehow I'm not too excited to shoot with it either. So I'm going to sell my copy of this lens. Bearing in mind that I own the Noctilux .95, too, this seems to be an easy decision but I can stress that I'm not selling the Summilux 50 because I have the similar Noctilux .95 at hand but because I have the 50/2 rigid now. This lens is very different. It has a completely different look if you compare it with the Summilux 50. Its contrast is rather low and the b/w shots coming straight out of the camera are just gorgeous. You don't get that look with the Summilux 50.
Besides, the Summicron 50 rigid is even lighter. It's a nice addition to my other more contrasty lenses.
Hmmm... do I feel a growing interest here in 1950s era rangefinder glass?
Hilmar, great expression for the jump! And love the feel of the last three, especially the last one.
Charles, I think you got the colours spot on in these and like the diagonal line of the first one.
Michael, fun shot of your son - looks like a mini-Michelin Man, but in black. I'm not sure I quite agree with Charles's assessment, having seen many 50mm images from you, both here and in other threads. But many were with 'character' lenses such as the 50 Sonnar or Nikon 50 f/1.2. I agree with you about the Lux - it's predictable, but that might also be why many like it. I like it because I know it's sharp wide open and just a couple stops down is already excellent pretty much corner to corner. For some of the things I like to photograph, other 50mm lenses I've used need to be stopped down a couple stops more for similar performance. I consider the Lux medium-high contrast (at wider apertures). And at closer distances it loses some of that. The ZM50 Planar is snappier, also I think the CV50 f/1.5. But, yeah, stopped down and it's high contrast (along with all my modern Leica lenses). Is there a bad 50mm once stopped down?
As you've seen in my recent images, I'm experimenting with the Summarit because there are definitely times when I don't want the modern, clinical look of the Lux, but this dreamy look quickly disappears and at f/5.6, IMO, it looks pretty much like any other 50. I think next on my list is the Nikkor 5cm f/1.4. But I'm definitely keeping the Lux, at least for the foreseeable future. I don't know if that helps any... With my Canon system I was happy to stick with the 50 f/1.2L, but now with the M9 I'm turning into a 50mm collector.
Nikkor 10.5cm:
28 Cron:
And one of a now retired colleague from the newspaper... Just happened to meet him on the street and liked the light on him as we chatted. 28 Cron at f/2.8.
Ron, very well said. Yes, I agree, I happen to become a collector of 50mm lenses as well although I don't like to be a collector and to have several lenses of a certain focal length. I'm not a collector guy (genuinely...), too many choices for me.
The Summilux 50 is a wonderful piece of glass but currently I'm not too excited about it. Don't want to shoot what everybody else shoots - and my other lenses are mainly the most recent ones so I'm too much of a mainstream guy anyway.
Ron, I like how your lens draws. The second picture is awesome. Light is always so great in your photos.
Ron, very nice set, and great PP'ing as usual! I really like the muted rendering in #2 I wish I could borrow the 10.5cm for a day
Well expressed about the yearning for the classical look. It is interesting, the M9 having a great sensor, and yet we now look to add character to the images now. This is the wonderful attribute of the M system lenses, that spans decades. As Hilmar, eluded to, the old style lenses do lend to better conversions in B&W, and brilliant for the harsh lighting in Australia for most of the time.
Hilmar, I am the same, I am not a collector either, and only keep the lenses I use, and I must say when the 50 Nocti f 1.0 IV came up, I jumped at the chance for the wonderful older Mandler style glow. I now only have two 50's, the Lux and Noct. I had entertained the thought about the older 50 Lux PreAsph for its glow like rendering.
Ron - My latest beach pictures have been in Seaside, FL. If you have ever seen the film 'The Truman Show'...it was filmed there. I see you tried out a Nikkor 10.5....very nice lens. Huge, but a great look to it
Charles - great shots from your new toy . Love the dream like look
Michael - Don't fret the 50 choice....your Rigid shots are excellent!
Thanks for comments. . Ron, Charles. ‘mini-Michelin Man’ I like the comment. I feel it is funny, but didn’t realize it until your comment. Thanks.
Seekuh, thanks for feedback about Rigid. I like it for its handling and decent performance cross aperture range but Bokeh is not that great (busy) if nitpicking.
Ron: the Nikkor 10.5 is really a nice lens. (Not only in focus area but also OF rendering.) Does it have the same formula as famous 105mm 2.5 F? I guess only you can tell how different they are compare to 90mm Leica you have at 100% zoom? Again, the portrait with 28cron is very nice. I really want that lens but the price I can echo your feeling about 5cm as I myself really love my rigid. its stop down performance blow my Sonnar easily.
Charles, good composition and PP from your noct50 set and as always I like the 75lux shot.
Ryan, I really like those beach shots seen from you so far. Favorite: 2&3 first set, 3&5 2nd set.
A 50 lux shot at f2.8 in front of a grocery store.
90 some Elmarit shot from last weekend one day trip to Big Basin red wood state park.
These are mostly with the 85mm Sonnar.
I can echo your feeling about 5cm as I myself really love my rigid. its stop down performance blow my Sonnar easily. 
