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Looking to buy a new fifty. Voigtlander 50mm 1.2 or 1.5 VMII?


Beena22

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Replacement lens arrived and this one fits perfectly. 
 

It’s the perfect size for me and I’m glad I chose it over the 1.2. I don’t do a lot of portraits so 1.5 is plenty shallow enough for my needs.  The ergonomics are really good and the lens feels really well made and solid. 
 

I haven’t had a chance to give it a proper test as yet, but from what I can see it tends to render on the cooler side. It’s very sharp and draws just how I like. Wide open performance is good and you get a nice glow close up. 
 

Here are a couple of wide open snapshots I snagged at lunchtime on my M9. 
 

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21 hours ago, Beena22 said:

Did yours spin past where it was supposed to click in place? Mine didn’t stop turning until it hit the 90mm position. I wonder if it was to do with the temperature. It was below freezing and the lens would have been sat in a van overnight until it got to me. It felt incredibly cold when I removed it from the box and maybe it had shrunk and that’s why it didn’t click into place. I didn’t consider that until I had returned it - it’ll be interesting to see if the replacement does the same today as it is even colder. 

It definitely didn't click in, might have gone past the correct position, not sure. I could demount it without pushing in the lens release button. Hope your new lens works better.

-Thomas

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On 2/10/2021 at 6:45 AM, Beena22 said:

Replacement lens arrived and this one fits perfectly. 
 

It’s the perfect size for me and I’m glad I chose it over the 1.2. I don’t do a lot of portraits so 1.5 is plenty shallow enough for my needs.  The ergonomics are really good and the lens feels really well made and solid. 
 

I haven’t had a chance to give it a proper test as yet, but from what I can see it tends to render on the cooler side. It’s very sharp and draws just how I like. Wide open performance is good and you get a nice glow close up. 
 

Here are a couple of wide open snapshots I snagged at lunchtime on my M9. 
 

 

It looks promising. great choice! Can you tell it is SC or MC? and how does it compare to ZM planar? Thx.

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56 minutes ago, surfmanjoe said:

It looks promising. great choice! Can you tell it is SC or MC? and how does it compare to ZM planar? Thx.

It’s the MC version. Compared to the Planar it is smaller and has more character. The Planar is great because it’s so perfect, but that makes it a little dull in my opinion. 
 

Here’s a couple more at F1.5

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 It has a nice subject isolation and pop like the Planar. 

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13 minutes ago, surfmanjoe said:

Thank you for sharing! Beena22. 

One more question, I don't know if you have hood on Planar, if you do, can you try it on the Voigtlander Nokton (which is 43mm front too) to see if it can fit? Thanks again. 

I’m afraid I don’t have a hood. I’m not a fan of them and don’t use them on any of my lenses. 

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6 hours ago, surfmanjoe said:

One more question, I don't know if you have hood on Planar, if you do, can you try it on the Voigtlander Nokton (which is 43mm front too) to see if it can fit? Thanks again. 

The Zeiss hood for Planar 50mm and Biogon 35mm f2 is essentially the same hood as the Voigtlander LH-6 hood, just different markings. Both are made by Cosina AFAIK.

-Thomas

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On 2/13/2021 at 8:08 PM, surfmanjoe said:

Thank you for sharing! Beena22. 

One more question, I don't know if you have hood on Planar, if you do, can you try it on the Voigtlander Nokton (which is 43mm front too) to see if it can fit? Thanks again. 

I have both and the Voigtlander hood, it’s exactly the same bayonet mount, exactly same hood for both

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  • 3 months later...

This is a great thread - I'm likely to be pulling the trigger on the 1.5 II in the coming days, primary use will be portraiture - in particular low light portraiture, but it will also be my standard carry around 50 on my M9M (my other lenses are 24 elmarit, 35 VM1.4II, 75 Summarit). Before my Leica days, my favourite lens (possibly ever) was a contax Zeiss 50 1.4 planar on a contax RTS body - so much character that just rendered portraits beautifully. But I recently sold all of my contax stuff when re-investing in the M system.

Given my love for that lens, I'd been settled on replacing it with the Zeiss C sonnar, as people seem to talk about this "characterful" lens in the same way I felt about my contax planar. However, I then had a little spanner thrown at me when I saw some of the images from the nokton 1.2, and now a massive spanner thrown at me having seen some of the 1.5 II shots.

I think I'm now settled on the 1.5II, but wanted to throw to the community before plonking the money down: given my intended uses - can anyone convince me why the Zeiss or nokton1.2 is a better choice than this 1.5II?

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4 hours ago, hiphopopotamus said:

can anyone convince me why the Zeiss or nokton1.2 is a better choice than this 1.5II?

Yes please, convince Hiphopopotamus 🙂 I'm interested to know how the Nokton 1.2 and the 1.5II perform is the f/1.4-2 range.   

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I can't help you with the 1.2 but here are some more shots with the 1.5II at F2 that I just took:

 

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54 minutes ago, Beena22 said:

I can't help you with the 1.2 but here are some more shots with the 1.5II at F2 that I just took:

lovely bokeh by the way. Any sample to share you already have wide open, at close-medium distances such as 1.5mt-2mt? I'm curious

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45 minutes ago, Dennis said:

lovely bokeh by the way. Any sample to share you already have wide open, at close-medium distances such as 1.5mt-2mt? I'm curious

These were all wide open.  Nothing particularly artistic, just testing the lens when I got it:

 

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The photos I posted further up in the thread were all wide open as well.

Edited by Beena22
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1 minute ago, Dennis said:

Every time I see how an OOF of a 50mm FL can do, (at f/0.95-f/2 range) and I'm always more convinced that a 35mm is my "normal" lens, while a 50mm is my tele-photo lens. Tele-enough I feel.

Certainly on full frame I feel that 50mm is plenty tele at short distances.  Although a 90mm is pretty nice - even at F4.

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39 minutes ago, Beena22 said:

Although a 90mm is pretty nice - even at F4.

Yes it is. I used a lot in my life the 85 FL, and I still like it. But for M, the way I use it, I prefer to stay in close (but highly effective) FL range. 21 (wide) + 35 (normal) + 50 (tele). 

I have a 58mm for dslr and I adore it. One of my favorite ever. It's right between the 50 and 75. Once I'll find a 58mm coupled lens for M on my way (it has to happen alone), I'll value it. I don't even know which options I have to choose from.

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This Nokton 50mm f1.5 v2 is my next lens 100%. It’ll replace the gorgeous 50 Lux Asph which is amazing but hardly used since I often rather prefer 35mm FL. It will share lens hood with my 35mm Nokton v2 and filters… Smaller, lighter, I’m guessing that better handling and very close in terms of results. There’s been no stock for black MC version for long time but hopefully orders will be accepted in a couple of weeks…

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