Best non-Leica fast 35mm and 50mm recommendations

[Life By Stills]

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Hi all,

So, as the title says, looking for your recommendations. I am looking to put together a selection of gear to bring with me travelling, but I am being challenged to not bring any Leica lenses with me, and seeing what I can capture with 3rd party M mount lenses. Annoyingly, this means I will not be able to being my collapsible 50mm f2.8, which I love for travelling.

Still, I am happy to accept the challenge and maybe turn it into something of a blog post too haha.

I was thinking of the Voigtlander 35mm and 50mm APO lenses which are amazing, but I think I'd want something faster than an f2.

Am possibly eyeing up the Voitglander 35mm f1.4 Nokton Classic II SC, and maybe the Voigtlander 50mm f1.5 (not sure about the Heliar Classic or the Nokton II though)

Happy to see what your experiences of maybe the 7Artisans or TTArtisan offerings are also if anyone has used any of them.

But will leave you all to go crazy with your recommendations like you all usually and helpfully do. 😃

[jaeger]

Voightlander is my first choice, second would be Zeiss.

[84bravo]

The TTArtisans 50mm f1.4 is an outstanding lens. It punches way above it's weight class ($$$).

[J S H]

Definitely Voigtlander. If you want to keep the size reasonable, I would look at the VM 35 1.2 and VM 50 1.2. If you want the best performance with less of a concern for size, consider the 50 F1. If you are interested in wides, I would look at some of the Laowa lenses like the 15 F2, 12-24 and 9mm. 

[spydrxx]

I can't imagine why you can't bring any of your current Leica lenses with you and have to now buy 3rd party lenses for your travel. But if you must use 3rd party lenses (which I have a lot of), I'd try to match whatever focal length and aperture you frequently shoot with or feel comfortable with in your Leica lenses. Voigtlander and Zeiss would be my first choice of manufacturers, and possibly Light Lens Labs, although that is merely anecdotal, as I don't own any. If you are looking for vintage rendition, you could consider some LTM lenses (with adapters), either Leica or Canon. As I only have one TTA and haven't really thoroughly given it a workout I'm reluctant to offer an opinion on that mfr. Anyway good luck in your choices.

[Life By Stills]

3 hours ago, spydrxx said:

I can't imagine why you can't bring any of your current Leica lenses with you and have to now buy 3rd party lenses for your travel. But if you must use 3rd party lenses (which I have a lot of), I'd try to match whatever focal length and aperture you frequently shoot with or feel comfortable with in your Leica lenses. Voigtlander and Zeiss would be my first choice of manufacturers, and possibly Light Lens Labs, although that is merely anecdotal, as I don't own any. If you are looking for vintage rendition, you could consider some LTM lenses (with adapters), either Leica or Canon. As I only have one TTA and haven't really thoroughly given it a workout I'm reluctant to offer an opinion on that mfr. Anyway good luck in your choices.

It's because I'm doing a series of articles on how you don't need the "best" gear to create good images. And how you don't actually need cameras with "pro" features either. So far, my editors haven't even said anything and have still just accepted my shots, so my friend wondered if the same could be done with Leica vs non-Leica. I'll also be pitting then against the Q3 and then seeing if anyone can tell the difference / which one people actually prefer in a blind test.

Would be an interesting experiment with the Q3 since I think I read a post on here or on another forum where someone was moaning about the image quality of the Q3 and how that lens wasn't suited for the 60MP sensor.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Life By Stills

[Life By Stills]

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4 hours ago, J S H said:

Definitely Voigtlander. If you want to keep the size reasonable, I would look at the VM 35 1.2 and VM 50 1.2. If you want the best performance with less of a concern for size, consider the 50 F1. If you are interested in wides, I would look at some of the Laowa lenses like the 15 F2, 12-24 and 9mm. 

Ohh thanks for your suggestions. Let me have a look at the 35mm 1.2. I was looking at the Nokton Classic 1.4 because that is just a seriously small package.

The Laowa lenses are already on my radar, although I'll probably pick them up next time I'm in Asia.

[Life By Stills]

4 hours ago, 84bravo said:

The TTArtisans 50mm f1.4 is an outstanding lens. It punches way above it's weight class ($$$).

I've read some good things about that. Although one thing I do hesitate about with TTArtisan and 7Artisan lenses is the whole calibration thing. Did you have to do it with yours?

[01maciel]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb Life By Stills:

It's because I'm doing a series of articles on how you don't need the "best" gear to create good images.

If it's for a semi professional purpose it changes a lot. You probably ought to choose the best of the best 35mm lenses, Zeiss Distagon f/1.4 35mm 

[Life By Stills]

19 minutes ago, 01maciel said:

If it's for a semi professional purpose it changes a lot. You probably ought to choose the best of the best 35mm lenses, Zeiss Distagon f/1.4 35mm 

I'm not sure I'd necessarily say it changes how I want to carry on the experiment. I recently submitted a load of photos which were all taken shot with the 35mm f1.4 v2 wide open, so with all that vintage glow.

I guess I want to really just test / push the limits of when gear stops being acceptable for work. I think for leisure, most things will be acceptable. But it's the idea that you need top gear / expensive gear for professional use that I really am looking to challenge and see how far I can take it.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Life By Stills

[a.noctilux]

Not the best IQ, but this one is fast, light for it's speed, and the best handling over all,

large focus ring that lock can be easily cancelled with what I do appreciate a lot, no viewfinder right-bottom hiding.

the right one Canon LTM 1.2/50mm

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[Bikie John]

To answer a different question from the one you asked - I think the Voigtlander 40mm f/1.2 is a lovely lens. I know it is not a 35 or a 50 but for general use I really like the 40mm field of view.

This probably doesn't help much .... sorry ...

John

[Life By Stills]

2 minutes ago, Bikie John said:

To answer a different question from the one you asked - I think the Voigtlander 40mm f/1.2 is a lovely lens. I know it is not a 35 or a 50 but for general use I really like the 40mm field of view.

This probably doesn't help much .... sorry ...

John

Thanks @Bikie John. It's actually not unhelpful. It sits nicely in between the 35mm and 50mm, and is certainly worth a consideration. I last probably shot with around 40mm having mounted a 28mm on an APS-C, so am not completely against that FOV, although will take some estimating with framelines if not using the EVF. That's probably the reason why my thoughts gravitated to the 35mm or 50mm, but certainly NOT ruling out the 40mm you suggested.

I didn't actually realise they did a 1.2 in the 40mm - I thought they only had the tiny 1.4.

[Life By Stills]

9 minutes ago, a.noctilux said:

Not the best IQ, but this one is fast, light for it's speed, and the best handling over all,

large focus ring that lock can be easily cancelled with what I do appreciate a lot, no viewfinder right-bottom hiding.

the right one Canon LTM 1.2/50mm

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Dang, that's a really tiny 50mm 1.2 on the M4!

[FrozenInTime]

33 minutes ago, Life By Stills said:

I'm not sure I'd necessarily say it changes how I want to carry on the experiment. I recently submitted a load of photos which were all taken shot with the 35mm f1.4 v2 wide open, so with all that vintage glow.

I guess I want to really just test / push the limits of when gear stops being acceptable for work. I think for leisure, most things will be acceptable. But it's the idea that you need top gear / expensive gear for professional use that I really am looking to challenge and see how far I can take it.

What will you be taking photographs of ?

For artistic work, anything goes if the image is interesting ; your challenge beyond composition is then to master the traits of the lens - that requires some time to review, iterate and learn; 'Best lens' might be the opposite of what you are looking for. Stopped down all things will largely equal out.

If you want technical perfection then your modern well corrected Apo-Lanthar pair is the answer, especially on digital, where aperture vs usable ISO is not a challenge ( the 35 Apo-Lanthar seems annoyingly large for a 35, but for a 50, the 50 handles well)

If you just want small, Voigtländer has both modern and classic choices. 7A fast lenses are larger so maybe not such a good fit.

If it is purely for a magazine or blog article, you could pick polar extremes for the 35 and 50 ... or focus on the rendering differences and pick 35/1.4 SC classic and 35/1.5 ; 40/2.8 and the 40/1.2 ; or 50/1.5 Heliar classic and 50/1.2. 

[MarkP]

43 minutes ago, a.noctilux said:

 

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The SBOOI - the best optical VF of all time 🙂

 

[Bikie John]

1 hour ago, Life By Stills said:

Thanks @Bikie John. It's actually not unhelpful. It sits nicely in between the 35mm and 50mm, and is certainly worth a consideration. I last probably shot with around 40mm having mounted a 28mm on an APS-C, so am not completely against that FOV, although will take some estimating with framelines if not using the EVF. That's probably the reason why my thoughts gravitated to the 35mm or 50mm, but certainly NOT ruling out the 40mm you suggested.

I didn't actually realise they did a 1.2 in the 40mm - I thought they only had the tiny 1.4.

A friend tried it and said the 1.2 was much better than the 1.4. I haven't tried the 1.4 myself so can't comment from experience. The 1.2 isn't small but it isn't a monster by any means,  and it is good performer. Here it is, probably around f/8, on an M10 Monochrom:

 

John

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[84bravo]

5 hours ago, Life By Stills said:

I've read some good things about that. Although one thing I do hesitate about with TTArtisan and 7Artisan lenses is the whole calibration thing. Did you have to do it with yours?

I did have to calibrate the lens before use. It's very easy to do if you have a camera with live view.

[kivis]

Voigtlander 35mm f/1.5 Black Asph Nokton Lens

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[kivis]

Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II Nickel MC Nokton