Motivations
After purely shooting on digital for 5 months, I shift a bit back to film because my dad has the passion to develop and scan film after his retirement (He now develops C41, ECN-2 and E-6!). Also I bought a CLA’d silver M4 recently and now I enjoy it more than my black M10-P.
I mainly use the 35mm or 40mm focal lengths. I have a LLL 35/2 8E replica and the Minolta 40/2. Both of them are excellent on digital and film. As I mainly shoot with digital before, the F2 is enough to cover my needs in indoor and streets at night. Now with film, I’d like to push 5207 or 5219 to 800 to maintain my ability to do street photography in city night. I am confident to zone focus at F2.8 now but at night even at F2 I have to use slower shutter speeds than 1/125, which is hard to freeze the motions. I am considering to try a F1.4 lens.
My thoughts about the F1.4 35mm lenses…
Summilux-es are too much for my wallet to afford currently. I know the FLE and ASPH luxes are great lenses in IQ but they are also much bulkier than the F2-crons IMO. The compactness is an important consideration for me. The Nokton 35/1.4 is a famous lens—for its budget friendliness and the debate over its IQ and focus shift issues, I guess? And its focus shift make it a less proper lens on the digital sensor. But if I pair it with my M4 it would be fine right? The next doubt is the build quality of this lens. I’m afraid buying a brand new one and find it does not focus properly…and I am totally fine with a pre-owned one if it has been proven to have no issues about focusing.