Jump to content

Rare 50mm 1.2 ASPH


dannyt

Recommended Posts

Last time I saw one of these it was NEW, $711 in 1969 at Altman’s Camera in Chicago. I could only afford the 2.8 Elmar for $81…

 

I was making around $700 monthly then. Used Pentaxes because I could afford them, but spent years trying to figure why my prints did not match the paper samples all to no avail.

 

Then I was loaned a Leica and the problem went away instantly with the first roll, same film, developer, paper, all the same.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Can't imagine what a mint price would be. On a related topic, I noticed that Adorama is using their classing their 'demo' lenses as used, then charging over list price. Seems there's a loop hole to get a higher margin from new lenses, considering the used market sellers are making more than retailers now.

 

So here's the new procedure. Open a new lens, demo it, then charge the used market price. Genius!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Last time I saw one of these it was NEW, $711 in 1969 at Altman’s Camera in Chicago. I could only afford the 2.8 Elmar for $81…

 

That's interesting. $711 was a lot of money in those days Puts the current Noctilux price in perspective.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The lens has only collectible value now. The optics are way inferior to the nocti 50/1

 

Maybe yours has taken a knock. There is not much between my f1.2 and f1.0 Noctis, except at f1.0 of course.

The f1.2 is lovely to use but one may as well have a f0.95 if you have that sort of money!

 

Frank

Link to post
Share on other sites

I was making around $700 monthly then. Used Pentaxes because I could afford them, but spent years trying to figure why my prints did not match the paper samples all to no avail.

 

Then I was loaned a Leica and the problem went away instantly with the first roll, same film, developer, paper, all the same.

 

Wow, I was earning about $700 a year then, one could have bought a small house in need of renovation where I lived at that time for $700, but I couldn't afford it.

 

It was a over a decade later before I could afford my first Leica, a used IIIf-RD

 

Frank

Link to post
Share on other sites

Maybe yours has taken a knock. There is not much between my f1.2 and f1.0 Noctis, except at f1.0 of course.

The f1.2 is lovely to use but one may as well have a f0.95 if you have that sort of money!

 

Frank

 

I do not own one :(

This was actually based on Erwin Puts review that I read not long ago.

 

The original Noctilux 1,2/50mm (the one with the aspherical surfaces) recorded image outlines with medium to high contrast, but lost out in the recording of fine image details. When stopping down the image quality did not improve very much. It might be possible that these characteristics have been projected into the new Noctilux-M 1.0/50 because the name is the same. The latter lens however is a quantum leap better than its illustrious predecessor.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I was surprised by Erwin's comment. At the time the f/1.0 replaced the f/1.2, I was not alone among those working for Leica who preferred the rendering of the aspheric lens to its successor.

 

Still, in neither case was I seeing the work of real photographic artists. My opinion might have been different if I had seen images made by a talent such as Kristian Dowling with the current f/0.95 as at http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/customer-forum/190427-leica-noctilux-0-95-unplugged.html.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...