50 Lux v3 (11868) vs ASPH vs Sonnar 50 1.5 (or other for "character")

[Mute-on]

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@White Buffalo, have you personally used your 50 APO such that you have found its rendering in any way lacking for your purposes?

I ask because it is one thing to research lenses, read reviews, and examine internet photos, but it is entirely another to use a lens on your camera, with your film, in your preferred environment, and with your preferred subjects, not to mention your processing (film) and post-processing (digital). 

If you are basically speculating without direct experience, it is likely you are talking yourself into another lens you don’t actually need for any purpose other than to fill a perceived gap (not that I would know anything about actually doing that myself ...  )

Edited September 17, 2019 by Mute-on

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[farnz]

7 hours ago, lct said:

Only serious con is focus shift on rangefinders, which is mainly a digital issue due to the lack of thickness of the sensor.

I believe the focus shift to be a result of the inherent aberrations in the fast Sonnar lens design.  Slower Sonnar lenses, such as my Rollei 40/2.8 Sonnar HFT don't suffer from it and I have noticed focus shift when using my Zeiss 50/1.5 ZM C-Sonnar with my M3.  The thickness of the film probably masks it better than digital but it's still there.

Pete.

[lct]

10 minutes ago, farnz said:

I believe the focus shift to be a result of the inherent aberrations in the fast Sonnar lens design.  Slower Sonnar lenses, such as my Rollei 40/2.8 Sonnar HFT don't suffer from it and I have noticed focus shift when using my Zeiss 50/1.5 ZM C-Sonnar with my M3.  The thickness of the film probably masks it better than digital but it's still there.

Never used the ZM 50/1.5 with film nor noticed focus shift on mirrorless cameras with this lens but it comes from the fact that i focus stop down i guess. M8.2 and M240 are another story though so it is mainly a digital RF issue for me. YMMV.

[farnz]

3 minutes ago, lct said:

so it is mainly a digital RF issue for me. YMMV.

Oh I completely agree.  Focus shift will be invisible on a through-the-lens camera.

Pete.

[lct]

12 minutes ago, farnz said:

Focus shift will be invisible on a through-the-lens camera.

+1 you mean when focusing stop down i guess.

[a.noctilux]

As side note on Sonnar lenses and focus shift.

I have Jupiter 3 and Jupiter 8 in LTM mount, for a while and I never investigated why these "Sonnar lenses" sometimes give good focus (M used in RF mode)

and some other times not so good.

 

So I took time to understand with my new M's LV/EVF with experimentations in aperture open wide and close down a bit some stops.

As in real life use, they are well calibrated with RF and only wide open and stop down, focus shift is there for the two J3 and J8.

So for me focus shift inherited in the Sonnar optical formula can ruin or not the image : used wide open nice but stop down not so.

Some would say that I discovered the "well known since long" Sonnar properties, but now I feel better 😁.

[ianman]

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On 9/12/2019 at 11:18 PM, White Buffalo said:

I'm looking to add a second 50mm.

Impressive for someone who described himself as "not a big 50 guy" 🙂

[Archiver]

I don't have the aforementioned 50 Lux, but I do have the Sonnar and the Summicron 50 (non-APO version). The Summicron is great on film and digital, but the Sonnar is creamy dreamy soft luscious wonderful. It renders in such a pleasant way, and it's superb on film, full frame and aps-c sensors. I took the Sonnar and Summicron on an overseas trip in 2017 and didn't touch the Summicron at all, because I loved the images and handling.

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[Rollin]

Been so busy with work just had time to enjoy some forum reading, so I know I'm late to this party, but in case someone reads this thread with the same original question, some thoughts:

I love my Zeiss C Sonnar 50/1.5, and sold my 50 lux II because I found the out of focus rendering too distracting with it, especially on large lettering. I'm a former photojournalist and usually shoot with some DOF as like relationships between multiple points. Also, I don't care for distracting glowing, purple fringing or vibrating out of focus objects. After reading this 35mmc blog post and some contemplation found myself a nice used copy of the Zeiss 50/1.5 Sonnar and have been very happy with the images from it. It has become my favorite lens. Primarily because how the old school character of the lens comes through at most apertures and not just wide open which fits my reportage work, and lack of distractions with no purple fringing on digital since a modern lens and most of the time less busy backgrounds.

As too the dreaded focus shift - it is not an issue in daily use for me. Also read the observations on this issue at the blog linked before.

This sonnar has lead me to finding other sonnars, include a 1950's Nippon Kogaku Nikkor-P.C 10.5cm/2.5 LTM which has been lovely. For some example images with the modern Zeiss 50 Sonnar see this dedicated forum thread:

 

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by Rollin

[Archiver]

@Rollin - I'm not bothered by a bit of purple fringing. Lightroom takes care of it if it gets too obtrusive, but otherwise I don't really care. I love how compact the Sonnar is for its speed, and how it handles on M bodies. I adjusted to the focus shift very quickly after I got it back in 2010.