Massive 50mm comparison test

[Harpomatic]

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Hello everyone,

 

as I mentioned before I have been working on a comparison of Leica M 50mm lenses.

I compared 10 of them. I ended up with an enormous amount of information and really long articles.

You can read the whole thing, only the summaries, or only the conclusions.

I am posting it here because I hope it's going to be a good resource for the community, clarifying quite a few doubts and answering a lot of questions that are often asked here. I would love to see a discussion coming out of it here on the forum, we all have different opinions and my conclusion might differ from yours. If so, do tell! I want conversation!

The article is in 4 parts:

https://www.47-degree.com/focus-shift/leica-m-50mm-lens-comparison-part-1, the introduction and first tests,

https://www.47-degree.com/focus-shift/leica-m-50mm-lens-comparison-part-2, the technical analysis,

https://www.47-degree.com/focus-shift/leica-m-50mm-lens-comparison-part-3, the bokeh and portrait rendering, 

https://www.47-degree.com/focus-shift/leica-m-50mm-lens-comparison-part-4, the conclusions.

 

The lenses in the article are, of course all 50mm:

Nokton 1.1

Nokton 1.2

Nokton 1.5

Nokton 1.5 II

Summilux ASPH

Summicron v5

Zeiss Planar

Zeiss C Sonnar

7Artisans 1.1

TTArtisans 1.4

 

Enjoy!

[kokoshawnuff]

Thanks for this. Impressive write up. 
 

I’ve only used 4 of those lenses, but my opinions (from what I remember) tend to be similar to your conclusions. I’ve been tempted to try the Nokton 1.2, certainly more now. 

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[Yigal]

Thank you for the very informative read! Impressive work!

[roma]

Thank you! This is great.

[Ecar]

Thanks Flavio! Your write-ups are always interesting and refreshing. I own several of these lenses and would (often, but not always) tend to agree with your findings - especially from a purely optical perspective. Everything else is, indeed, rather subjective (FWIW, my 'desert island' lens would probably look more like a Nikkor 50/1.4 LTM from the 1950's 😏).

[David_miller70]

What an astonishing piece of work, you are so dedicated to your love of glass, Flavio!

Thank you for sharing that. If only I’d seen it before I bought my Summliux 😉

Whatever you do, please don’t repeat for the 90mm, 35 and 21 mm focal lengths or me and my bank manager might be doing a lot of crying!!

Best, David

[Stein K S]

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Hi and a big THANKS from my side! Just great!

 

Regards, Stein

[Gobert]

Great review. I have to study it to more extend as I am considering another 50.

Regretfully I am missing the Leica  50 APO, being considered the best and most expensive 50 ever (????) and the new Voigtlander Lanthar.

[benqui]

Great work Flavio, very well done! Very pragmatic and clear!!

[cboy]

Excellent comparison. Well done. However im surprised how highly rated is the TT artisan 50mm f1.4 & VM f1.5v2 compared to the cron 50 f2 and vm planar 50 f2. I guess they are best value lenses?

Hope you update it come the lanthar 50mm f2. Also how come the heliars are not mentioned? The f3.5 and f2 heliar are nice lenses. Also the summarit? And skopar lol

Edited February 25, 2021 by cboy

[Harpomatic]

3 hours ago, Ecar said:

rather subjective (FWIW, my 'desert island' lens would probably look more like a Nikkor 50/1.4 LTM from the 1950's 😏).

Thanks Ecar, I absolutely agree about the subjectivity.

My requirement from a lens is transparency, I want to be the one giving character to the image, not the lens. That is why my conclusions are skewed towards high quality. That’s where the glass disappears and only the contents remain!

[Harpomatic]

1 hour ago, Gobert said:

Regretfully I am missing the Leica  50 APO, being considered the best and most expensive 50 ever (????) and the new Voigtlander Lanthar.

Thanks for your comment!

The APO was too much of a stretch to buy together with all the other lenses. My finances are limited!

1 hour ago, cboy said:

Hope you update it come the lanthar 50mm f2. Also how come the heliars are not mentioned? The f3.5 and f2 heliar are nice lenses. Also the summarit? And skopar lol

Thanks cboy. I only have so many hours in my life and those Heliars just don’t interest me. If you notice all the lenses bar the Nokton 1.5 ver.1 are current production and at least F2. Even then , the Nokton 1.5 v.1 has just ceased production.

 

1 hour ago, cboy said:

However im surprised how highly rated is the TT artisan 50mm f1.4 & VM f1.5v2 compared to the cron 50 f2 and vm planar 50 f2. I guess they are best value lenses?

The rating has nothing to do with the price! Price is a consideration made after the lens was evaluated and scored. Score in hand it is impressive to see how high the quality of lenses considered to be inherently inferior can be. Then, when you consider the price differences, it becomes quite sobering!

[Rennrocky]

Super ! Thank you. My 7 Artisans 1.1 50 mm is not bad -take nice pictures with a special character

Examples

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Rennrocky

[Harpomatic]

8 minutes ago, Rennrocky said:

Super ! Thank you. My 7 Artisans 1.1 50 mm is not bad -take nice pictures with a special character

Hi Rennrocky, thanks for your comment and for the pictures!

Any of these lenses can take great pictures. Including the 7Artisans. But the special character is not something I look for, I just want a neutral lens or my work. This is reflected in the comparison. 

I did say in the articles that what I am looking for is THE 50mm lens for me, to own just one and go out and shoot. For that the 7Artisans doesn’t cut it at all in my book. As an alternative choice? Sure! But not for me!

[jiri-c]

thank you for this enormous piece of precise work. from the subjectivity angle: with the extensive pictorial material enyone can draw his own conclusions. what i find great, it’s the fact that price is not a part of the rating, and performance is compared at both extremes (mfd&inf). anyway, at f8 and 5metres is comparison useless, if one is not going to like/hate binary rating over the “character” or “rendering”.

even if i don’t exactly agree with final results, i find your article extremely useful for anyone deciding his first M lense, or considering another. and another...

big, big thanks!

[crony]

Hi, thank you for your excellent and diligent opus magnum, Harpomatic! 👍 I think (and hope), this is an ongoing effort, with more tests to come from you!

Your Summilux is from 2010, your Summicron from 1997, according to the production numbers.

So, they might perform better after some TLC in Wetzlar ... ---

[Herr Barnack]

Quote

...The latest Noktons are as good as the Leicas. Period. And at a fraction of the price.

Let’s stop worshipping the Leica lenses because of their price or their heritage. They are not the top of the heap anymore and the prices don’t reflect the quality compared to the competition. The competition chooses to be price conscious and they cater to price conscious customers, but there is no compromise in quality. Just a different balance of characteristics....

Ouch.  That's gonna leave a mark!  😬

I wonder how the gents in Wetzlar would respond to that?

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Herr Barnack

[Harpomatic]

4 hours ago, jiri-c said:

anyway, at f8 and 5metres is comparison useless, if one is not going to like/hate binary rating over the “character” or “rendering”.

Thanks for the comment. Can you clarify wha you mean there? I don’t understand, sorry. 

 

4 hours ago, jiri-c said:

even if i don’t exactly agree with final results

Can I ask you what you don’t agree with? I’m looking to have a good discussion here on the thread, I’d love to understand the other points of view!

[Harpomatic]

40 minutes ago, crony said:

Hi, thank you for your excellent and diligent opus magnum, Harpomatic! 👍 I think (and hope), this is an ongoing effort, with more tests to come from you!

Your Summilux is from 2010, your Summicron from 1997, according to the production numbers.

So, they might perform better after some TLC in Wetzlar ... ---

Thanks a lot! The ongoing effort will be there, but never again at this magnitude. That was a huge effort in my free time! But yes, there is more to come.

I did state even on the article that the Leicas need TLC, but they will hardly gain more than 1 or 2 stars in the overall score: the issues were problematic only in a single test, they performed pefectly well elsewhere. And, as I stated, of all the lenses I ever had, only the Leicas have given me trouble. If anything, the Leicas predating 1990 were the ones with the least trouble! 

I had so many other lenses from Voigtlander and Zeiss, and many that were quite old. None of them ever had that blasted stiction, all of them were consistent with their focus and aperture ring action. It’s only my experience, but I had 15 Leicas and close to 40 of the others. It’s not anecdotal. 

The Lux had been taken care of already before the testing by Alan Starkie at Cameraworks UK, and he said it was a good copy. It is with him again now. Let’s see. 

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[Harpomatic]

24 minutes ago, Herr Barnack said:

Ouch.  That's gonna leave a mark!  😬

I wonder how the gents in Wetzlar would respond to that?

 

Well, I think we need to take a reality check and understand that Leica is not a camera brand, it is a Luxury brand making cameras and lenses nowadays. Making beautiful cameras and lenses, mind you, and I shoot a Leica camera because of its simplicity and the rangefinder experience: if anyone made a full frame rangefinder like theirs but without the brand premium attached to the price I would be all over that.

I could have decided to keep the Summilux 1.4 or the Summicron v5. The Cron v5 in particular is just gorgeous. But the Nokton 1.5 II is as good a lens as the Leicas, it’s as fast as the Lux (almost), smaller and lighter than the Cron (even the black one), and it costs, brand new, just more than half the used price of a Cron and a third of that of a used Lux. Not to mention the new prices. This is not choosing value over quality, it is same quality at incredible value. I can’t justify to myself keeping the Leica over the Voigtlander just for the red dot. 

How should Wetzlar respond to that? I don’t think they need to. Their customer base buys Leica because they perceive it as inherently better, no matter the real quality difference (or lack thereof). I’m sure that if you took apart the lenses you would find some traits in the build that are possibly better than the Japanese ones, but does it matter in real life? Does it make a difference? And is it worth the vertiginous price difference? I don’t think so.

If they can sell the new Noctilux 1.2 at £6500 without a problem when the Nokton 1.2 is objectively a better optic (I said objectively!! I know about “character”!) at 1/8th of the price, \why should they worry?