Portraiture lens choice: 50mm f1.4 Asph or 75mm f2 Apo

[Yihong]

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Hi, all. I'm quite new to Leica and would like to add one more lens that highly capable for portraiture(tough definition lol).

I'm currently using M10-R with 35mm f1.4 Asph and 90mm f4 Macro-Elmar. 35mm for street, landscape, full body photography and 90mm for Macro, architecture, and headshot.

My intension with this lens is to: (1) night portraiture (2) Creamy bokeh with great background isolation (3) Good combo with my 35mm. I normally only out with two lens, with 35mm as my main.

I have two preference at the moment: 50mm f1.4 Asph and 75mm f2 Apo.

I found 35mm a bit too wide, good for environmental portrait but not close enough. 90mm f4 Macro is insanely sharp, good for B&W but can't do night portraiture. 

I'm struggling with 50mm and 75mm FL. Albeit this question is highly based on personal preference, but still be very helpful with some suggestions. 

 

 

Many thanks

 

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[pippy]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

The 75 APO will be the perfect lens for your needs.

Going forward it might be that you find the 75mm becomes one of your favourite focal-lengths.

Best of good fortune!

Philip.

Edited May 14, 2021 by pippy

[jaapv]

I think that 50 mm is too close to 35 to give you sufficient gain in portraiture. The 75 APO will fit perfectly. The 50 Summilux asph is a fantastic lens in its own right, but I am not sure whether you would be completely happy with the OOF rendering. The older non-asph lens might fit your wishes better.

[Yihong]

1 hour ago, pippy said:

Hi and welcome to the forum!

The 75 APO will be the perfect lens for your needs.

Going forward it might be that you find the 75mm becomes one of your favourite focal-lengths.

Best of good fortune!

Philip.

Thanks, Philip. 

The only concern is that I saw tremendous comments on 75mm f2 regarding its sharpness and unflattering results. Never tried either of them,  maybe I can only made my decision after giving them a try in Leica store.

[jaeger]

Summilux for moon, APO for sun

[Yihong]

41 minutes ago, jaapv said:

I think that 50 mm is too close to 35 to give you sufficient gain in portraiture. The 75 APO will fit perfectly. The 50 Summilux asph is a fantastic lens in its own right, but I am not sure whether you would be completely happy with the OOF rendering. The older non-asph lens might fit your wishes better.

Thanks, Jaap.

I agree, 35/75 can be a very good combo for me. As far as I knew from the preceding posts in the forum, 50mm f1.4 is one of the most praised lens and got fabulous bokeh over other lens. May I ask that what's the difference of OOF rendering between 50mm Asph and non-Asph? If I choose 50mm, I would probably just go for the present 50mm lux. I do notice that many people choose 35/50 for daily shoot.

[aksclix]

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85 is a universally accepted portrait focal length... so, you can’t go wrong with a 90 or a 75.. I would lean towards a 90 though.. 

[benqui]

The answer is very easy: try both and see what feels good for you. The difference between 75 and 90 is not much. I do a lot of portraits and I think almost 90% are with 50mm. I am very happy with it, you are very versatile with 50mm. 

Good luck with your choice

[Dennis]

Get the Voigtlanders 50/1.5 II MC and the 75/1.5... FWIS, both are excellent and modern lenses. Just released. Total investment of $1,850. And you see how it feels to shoot with both focal lengths. When you know which one you like best, you will buy your brand new Leica 50 or 75. Then you decide if keep one of the two lenses because you love it. Or sell them. It's a win win.

Edited May 15, 2021 by Dennis

[jaapv]

5 hours ago, Yihong said:

Thanks, Jaap.

I agree, 35/75 can be a very good combo for me. As far as I knew from the preceding posts in the forum, 50mm f1.4 is one of the most praised lens and got fabulous bokeh over other lens. May I ask that what's the difference of OOF rendering between 50mm Asph and non-Asph? If I choose 50mm, I would probably just go for the present 50mm lux. I do notice that many people choose 35/50 for daily shoot.

I think it is too smooth for your use. You want to do night street portraits, which means that you don't want to eliminate the environment by drawing a veil over it. I think that the imperfection  of the hint of CA in the older lens will be more atmospheric. A lens can be too perfect. Personally I would prefer the Summilux 75 over the 75 APO for the same reason. At night it gives an inimitable 3D look by its imperfections.

 

[Jon Warwick]

I would also consider if one likes the 75mm frameline (it is just inside what is a more prominent 50mm frameline).

My main lens has always been 50mm, but I have used the 75mm (in my case a Summarit 2.4) for portraits. I can’t fault the images that I got at all.

However, I’m not sure the 75mm perspective added much for me. I think I could have got very similar output with my 50mm AND had a nicer time photographing with the more prominent 50mm framelines.

 

[didier]

35 minutes ago, jaapv said:

I think it is too smooth for your use. You want to do night street portraits, which means that you don't want to eliminate the environment by drawing a veil over it. I think that the imperfection  of the hint of CA in the older lens will be more atmospheric. A lens can be too perfect. Personally I would prefer the Summilux 75 over the 75 APO for the same reason. At night it gives an inimitable 3D look by its imperfections.

 

I think the 75 is a very nice focal length well suited for portraits and a lot of other situations. As said earlier in the thread, it is quite different from 50, but rather close to the 90 focal length.

Personally, I am not bothered by the smaller frame lines, but I must admit it is not as comfortable as the 50 framelines.

I’ve had the ‘lux 75 for 15 years. The best portraits I made were shot with it. It has a painterly look with smooth transition to OOF areas @1.4 that are perfect for portraits. And as @jaapv said, the 3D look is amazing.

But I am slow with this lens, and use it only for relaxed moments. When my kids are around, there is too much action to get one sharp shot  

I recently added the ‘cron 75 APO for other uses. It is sharp and has a nice bokeh, though not as magical. It is also much lighter and smaller, which is nice to carry around, which can be a decision factor as well.

Didier

[otto.f]

9 hours ago, Yihong said:

75mm f2 Apo

I don’t think that your subjects will all be very pleased with the unforgiving sharpness of this lens. IMO it’s not a portrait lens in how it draws, whereas the angle of 75 is essentially perfect for portrait, a remarkable paradox. Unless you work with professional models and keen make-up artists.  Benqui, on this forum, makes a lot of nice portraits with the APO50, the sharpness of the 75APO comes in that direction. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by otto.f

[SiggiGun]

I agree 75mm is fine as portrait lens. The Apo75 is tricky to focus due to the FLE design. The 75Lux is easy to focus, is less sharp at 1.4 or 2.0 and heavier. Apo75 is perfect in color, rendering. 

Here some examples, unfortunately no portraits... 

75Lux https://www.flickr.com/gp/siggigun/e16GP4

Apo75 https://www.flickr.com/gp/siggigun/Vsf996

 

[a.noctilux]

75mm is for me a good companion of 35mm.

Currently, I can not choose between Summilux, Summicron, Summarit-M.

Those 75mm have each one strong personality.

 

So don't overlook the "lesser 75mm" (which gives very nice pictures in my use) Summarit-M 75mm ( like this 2.4 or 2.5 variety )

as side note, talking about "Ninja Stars", in my use the Summarit-M wins the other two bigger brothers,

with rounder aperture when close down a bit (for spot lights "blobs" from ugly to smooth, if that matters).

Edited May 15, 2021 by a.noctilux

[Narsuitus]

10 hours ago, Yihong said:

90mm f4 Macro is insanely sharp, good for B&W but can't do night portraiture. 

For night portraiture, I use the 90mm f/2.

Given a choice between the 50mm f/1.4 and the 75mm f/2 for night head & shoulder portraiture, I would pick the 75.

[a.noctilux]

Yihong,

have a nice read, here 75mm lenses opinions

[T25UFO]

Both 75mm and 90mm are the recognised portrait lenses and if you didn't already have the 90mm then I would also recommend the going with the combination of a 35mm and 75mm.  I agree with @a.noctilux that the 75mm Summarit is great value and many find this easier to focus than the Summicron.  However, you already have the 90mm and there isn't much difference between 75mm and 90mm so, just to be contrary, I will suggest something different.  

You're using the M10-R and cropping a 50mm to the equivalent of 75mm will produce excellent results.  Here are two examples of the same photo.  First, 'little brother, big brother' at 50mm and then 'big brother' cropped probably closer to 90mm equivalent.  M10 Mono and 50mm APO.  You would get similar results with the M10-R and a 50mm Summilux.  The Summilux is a great lens and, as Mr. Karbe always says, you should always shoot wide open.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[Yihong]

On 5/15/2021 at 10:15 AM, a.noctilux said:

Yihong,

have a nice read, here 75mm lenses opinions

Thanks. There are many useful insight for me.

[Yihong]

On 5/15/2021 at 10:18 AM, T25UFO said:

would get similar results with the M10-R and a 50mm

Thanks for the picture, T25UFO.

I can feel that I'm more inclined to 50mm, which is versatile than 75mm. 35/50/90 lens set is also the traditional photojournalist kit.