retrofocus wrote: 1bwana1 wrote:
my experience 50mm is one focal length that I use in a wide variety of circumstances. This includes shooting in low light, and executing compositions where I want strong subject separation, and soft backgrounds like portraits. Therefore for my 50mm I would choose as fast a lens as I can find/afford.
Just a thought you may want to consider...
True - from my own experience a faster 50 mm is beneficial, but I shine away from anything faster than f/1.4 since the lens gets too bulky for a rangefinder camera IMO. Advantage of some vintage f/1.4 lenses is their compactness. For best subject separation I find the 75 mm FL more advantageous - like the CV 75/1.5 give you a fantastic background blur and separation wide open which you could only resemble with a 50/1.2 or wider in a similar way. But the 75 mm avoids a too bulky or heavy lens to use. As a positive side effect I encountered that I can manage > 90% of my 50 mm shots with the 75 mm FL, too. I often use now the pair of 28/35 and 75 mm FL and leave 50 mm at home.
Agree 100% about the VM Nokton 75 f/1.5 ASPH. It is one of my favorite M body portrait lenses. Great colors, at wide apertures it is sharp in center and falls off beautifully to a creamy background. Stop it down and it is sharp everywhere.
By the way an exception for me is that with with Leica lenses at 50mm I actually prefer the Summicron to the Summilux for both sharpness and rendering.
Here is a sample from one of my shoots. This was shot natural light at the counter of a temporary outdoor wine bar. The background looked like a homeless encampment. The Noktoned creamed it out and made for a successful shot.
retrofocus wrote: 1bwana1 wrote:
my experience 50mm is one focal length that I use in a wide variety of circumstances. This includes shooting in low light, and executing compositions where I want strong subject separation, and soft backgrounds like portraits. Therefore for my 50mm I would choose as fast a lens as I can find/afford.
Just a thought you may want to consider...
True - from my own experience a faster 50 mm is beneficial, but I shine away from anything faster than f/1.4 since the lens gets too bulky for a rangefinder camera IMO. Advantage of some vintage f/1.4 lenses is their compactness. For best subject separation I find the 75 mm FL more advantageous - like the CV 75/1.5 give you a fantastic background blur and separation wide open which you could only resemble with a 50/1.2 or wider in a similar way. But the 75 mm avoids a too bulky or heavy lens to use. As a positive side effect I encountered that I can manage > 90% of my 50 mm shots with the 75 mm FL, too. I often use now the pair of 28/35 and 75 mm FL and leave 50 mm at home.
Agree 100% about the VM Nokton 75 f/1.5 ASPH. It is one of my favorite M body portrait lenses. Great colors, at wide apertures it is sharp in center and falls off beautifully to a creamy background. Stop it down and it is sharp everywhere.
Here is a sample from one of my shoots. This was shot natural light at the counter of a temporary outdoor wine bar. The background looked like a homeless encampment. The Noktoned creamed it out and made for a successful shot.
Jul 27, 2023 at 12:56 PM
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