joe88 wrote:
Adam, I think the fast Leica glass that have smoother bokeh are the 50 Lux pre-ASPH and the Nocts. Have you tried those?
I wouldn\'t count on the 50 Lux pre-ASPH having nicer boke than the 50 Lux ASPH. There was a shot-by-shot comparison in different situations some time back, and they almost always had the same or very similar boke, and sometimes the ASPH pulled ahead. It has a flatter field, less CA, less softness wide open, and so on. Add the extra sharpness of the ASPH on top, and it is not hard to understand why it is so highly regarded. I have tried a decent number of 50s on various systems, but never found any I like as much. The Sigma 50/1.4 comes close in the boke department, but it lacks the sharpness wide open, and some of the magic.
The legend goes that Herr Peter Karbe, the designed of the 50mm f/1.4 ASPH, played with the design over a number of years until he could no longer find a way to improve it (without making it too large or expensive). Here is an interview with him about this lens.
I should add that the 50 Lux pre-ASPH is a fantastic lens, perhaps the second-best there is. The ASPH is just that much better. On DSLRs, the 50MP is meant to be very good, but like almost all the ZF/ZE lenses, it has visible CA. A pity.
