Love my 50 mm Lux

[jimleicam3]

Just got my new 50 mm, f/1.4. This thing is unreal!! Those of you that don't do this to pay the bills, but rather for the fun and the thought behind trying to be creative, this is a lens that you should look at! Those of you that have the very difficult task of trying to take great photos and run a business, and pay the bills, why have you kept this lens a secret from the rest of us!? You pros keep up the great work!! Those folks like me, keep having fun, the 50 mm is glued to my M8!! Cheers, Jim

[Walt Calahan]

Due to the state of the economy, many professional photographers can't afford the 50 1.4, let alone get an M8 body. The only people buying this gear are the smart ones with real jobs.

I have to use my M6 bodies that I got back when professionals actually got paid to do work.

[offshore]

Originally Posted by jimleicam3

Just got my new 50 mm, f/1.4. This thing is unreal!! Those of you that don't do this to pay the bills, but rather for the fun and the thought behind trying to be creative, this is a lens that you should look at! Those of you that have the very difficult task of trying to take great photos and run a business, and pay the bills, why have you kept this lens a secret from the rest of us!? You pros keep up the great work!! Those folks like me, keep having fun, the 50 mm is glued to my M8!! Cheers, Jim

It's been my lust after lens for some time now. Everytime I get ready to click on the "buy it now" for a cron, elmarit or the pre ASPH version of the lux a little voice whispers "you won't be happy until you get what you want and you want the lux ASPH."

[lars_bergquist]

I bought the lens way back when it was introduced. I sold my Summicron and my (previous version) Summilux. Today it is really a secondary lens, due to its 69mm equivalent field of view, but it is so damn good that I cannot bring myself to sell it. And I may yet live to own a full frame M ...

The old man from the Age of the 5cm Elmar

[JeffreyTotaro]

I've had many nice Leica lenses but I always go back to the 50 Lux. Everything about it is great. Small size, fast, super sharp, shallow DOF. Why get the new Nocti for 3x the price and many times the bulk? Enjoy it!

[andybarton]

A 50 lux will be my next M lens too.

[Austerby]

I'm selling mine. I bought it earlier this year but have decided the look (on film, I don't have an M8) is not for me. It's a personal preference thing about the somewhat clinical quality to the image, but I also don't like the size and fit on an M compared to other 50's and I'm keeping my CZ Sonnar as that meets all my requirements.I certainly enjoyed owning it but it's not a lens I need to keep.

[NZDavid]

Clinical? How so? Which model? I am happy with my 'cron but often use it wide open and like what I have seen posted from the 'lux.

[el.nino]

yes, images with this lens look somewhat clinical.
it's a perfect lens and that is the "problem". i took some portraits with my MP and they are razor-sharp. way too sharp for my taste.
i often think about selling it as well and getting the old non-aspherical version.
right now i'm using my leitz summicron most of the time.
on the other hand i do like the extraordinary sharpness of the summilux for landscape-stuff.
so i might keep it as i paid only about 1500€ for a new one.

[lars_bergquist]

It is all right with me that some people love mediocre lenses. That's their business, and you cannot argue about taste. It is simply that I cannot understand why they must needs seek their mediocrity with Leica. They can have any amount of brand new, autofocusing mediocrity from Canon, Nikon and other manufacturers, and mostly for less money.

Also, a good lens can be 'bent' in many different directions, including the direction of undercorrection. It is as simple as screwing on a soft focus attachment. There are also other time-honoured methods, in use already a century ago when people found those newfangled four-lens anastigmats 'too clinical': breathing on the lens, smearing vaseline on the lens, kicking the tripod during a time exposure (abrading your glass plate negatives with sandpaper is impossible nowadays, unfortunately, but in compensation, we now have the option of using our dear friend's pantyhose over the lens ...). But a mediocre lens can never be anything else than just that, a mediocre lens. Give me freedom of choice.

The old man who is silly enough to love the 50mm Summilux ASPH, the 35mm Summilux ASPH and the 28mm Summicron ASPH, for their clarity of image.