Character lenses are all the rage in Hollywood - what is your favorite from the M mount?

[Al Brown]

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The vintage "character" look is exploding heavily on the silver screen... Dune 2 and Poor Things both used Petzval 57 lenses for brutal bokeh swirl, the former movie used IronGlass (Soviet rehoused MIR, Jupiter, Tair and Helios lenses) and the latter movie even did a full on circular fisheye in many scenes. Grain, smeared edges of de-tuned anamorphs (like those custom built by ARRI for Grieg Fraser's The Batman), Zack Snyder rehoused the Canon 50mm f0.95 “Dream Lens“ which was - used ONLY WIDE OPEN - the heart and soul of his set on Army of the Dead... Flaws and imperfections of lens characters are hitting Hollywood DoP's hearts big time. Time for that swirly bokeh of Summarit 50/1.5's wide open look...
What is your favorite ultra character Leica M or LTM mount lens? Mine must be this one.

Edited March 1, 2024 by Al Brown

[Budfox]

Right now the 35mm 1.4 steel rim - with full glow at 1.4.

Original or re-issue no problem.

[fil-m]

Makes up for the poor content 😁 That being said and jokes aside, the Lux 35 pre-asph as well as the (lovely) Summarex 85/1.5 that I have recently discovered.   

Edited March 1, 2024 by fil-m

[Al Brown]

17 minutes ago, fil-m said:

Makes up for the poor content 😁 That being said and jokes aside, the Lux 35 pre-asph as well as the (lovely) Summarex 85/1.5 that I have recently discovered.   

I bet an Academy Award of one guy I mentioned above against a poor content claim in a jiffy 😏...

Edited March 1, 2024 by Al Brown

[Alberti]

My favourite are the Jupiters, 3 first of all, then 8. Soft and still sharp somewhere. Not ‘swirly’ though.
For swirly I have the 35mm v4 ELC. Soft? No. But very handsome and sharp as having a good presentation of a subject.

- I would have liked to buy a Skyllaney ‘M-register distance adapted’ Jupiter lens but they - because of Brexit - have decided to have a lot less international trade. 

I do have a lens with coma wide open at night but that is so-so, is my feeling now.

[costa43]

A shout out for the 21mm f3.4 Super Angulon. Tough for such a wide angle to be classed as a character lens as people tend to label the busier bokeh, sharp fall off lenses as character lenses but I borrowed a friends and didn’t want to give it back. Oozed character and some magenta but with black and white it was cool. Another shout out for the classic, the Noctilux f1. 

[darylgo]

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Some good lenses listed here, it's difficult to say best but if I had to live with just one it would be the the misunderstood and neglected Leica R 50mm Summilux, ver. 1 and 2 with the e55 thread.  I love the soft rendering wide open and when combined with a softar filter it pushes it to near Thambar-like imaging.   

[grahamc]

The 50:1 Noc E58 is my pick  👍

[jaeger]

Recently I watched a German war movie that was shot entirely wide open but I forget its title. 

[John Robinson]

Apologies as this is not the M-mount version but this image from a 1969 Helios-44 2/58, wide-open, shows the "swirly bokeh" that is a characteristic of this lens (based on Zeiss Biotar formula).  There are very similar versions of this lens in L-mount (I think).

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[Robert Blanko]

Pha! Don‘t stop halfway! If you want „character“ which is an euphemism for all kind of flaws in optical quality, I would recommend lomography! Bling-bling factor should be sufficient for Hollywood: https://www.wild-wood.de/pos/kameras/lomography-fisheye-2-gold-edition_467_7994

My M-mount lens with the most significant character among my lenses is the Meyer-Görlitz Primoplan 75/1.9. Unfortunately not rangefinder coupled.

[hansvons]

10 hours ago, darylgo said:

it's difficult to say best but if I had to live with just one it would be the the misunderstood and neglected Leica R 50mm Summilux, ver. 1 and 2 with the e55 thread. 

Precisely what I use for video. Plus, the 35mm SummicronR V2 for its bent focal plane and sharpness at full aperture. There’s a reason why particular R primes prices went through the roof. 
 

I shoot a lot with the Nokton 35mm f1.4 SC Steel Rim copy. Not vintage in age but vintage in look.
 

For @Al Brown, I owned a set of Super Speeds V2 and loved them to death until I had them CLAed, and sold them without regrets with an unseemly premium. I still own the Cook 20-100, beating any modern lens in dimensionality. 

[Al Brown]

33 minutes ago, hansvons said:

.For @Al Brown, I owned a set of Super Speeds V2 and loved them to death until I had them CLAed, and sold them without regrets with an unseemly premium. I still own the Cook 20-100, beating any modern lens in dimensionality. 

I sold my CP.2’s and kept a set of super fast Primes and my Red Pro 18-85/T2.9 zoom. The former are character lenses galore.

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[Smudgerer]

I'm curious Al, what are these Prime lenses, can't say I've heard of "Spotlight" but maybe that's not the make name?

I sold my S16 kit of lenses last year with my Aaton Xtera, a ful set of Zeiss Super Speeds, a couple of Canon zooms but the favourite and hardest to let go I guess was the Cooke 10.5-52 Zoom, such a beautiful lens, wonderful on flesh tones.

11 minutes ago, Al Brown said:

I sold my CP.2’s and kept a set of super fast Primes and my Red Pro 18-85/T2.9 zoom. The former are character lenses galore.

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[Al Brown]

Spotlight is just one of my three brand names for equipment rental, other two being for drone filming and production. The lenses are SLRMagic primes. Luckily I am surrounded with rental houses having anything from Master Primes to IronGlass series II kits so no need for expensive glass (as if Leica is not enough lol).
After selling my Arri Amira clocking 7 years of amazing service we have kept three FX3s for work and rental. But we must not veer too far from M topic, so yes, beside PL mounts one of the popular rental items is strangely a LM-E adapter for using M lenses on ILME series cameras - for those who can get a hold of a M 0.8 Leica set.

Edited March 2, 2024 by Al Brown

[hansvons]

12 minutes ago, Smudgerer said:

I sold my S16 kit of lenses last year with my Aaton Xtera, a ful set of Zeiss Super Speeds, a couple of Canon zooms but the favourite and hardest to let go I guess was the Cooke 10.5-52 Zoom, such a beautiful lens, wonderful on flesh tones.

Who’s buying these cuties today 😉? I still have my S-16mm SRII. In 2008, I swapped my 16mm Super Speeds (those with the triangular aperture) for 35mm Super Speeds, as with the advent of the Red One it became clear that S-35mm will also be the future for TV.
I never sold the Canon 8-64, back then THE S-16mm workhorse (much better than the Zeiss 11-110). It certainly is a character lens showing tremendous defraction from f8 onwards. Beautiful flares too. Never had the opportunity to shoot with the Cooke 10.5-52. Must be an outstanding lens.

[Al Brown]

9 hours ago, John Robinson said:

1969 Helios-44 2/58, wide-open, shows the "swirly bokeh" that is a characteristic of this lens (based on Zeiss Biotar formula).

I am lucky to own the original 1949 black paint, 17 blade T coated Biotar f=5.8cm 1:2 in M42 mount that the Helios 44 was calculated upon and inspired by and am in contact with Skyllaney for a conversion to Leica RF coupling. They want a bizzarely high sum, but if there is one lens I own that I would have the conversion done with it is this one.

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Edited March 2, 2024 by Al Brown

[Al Brown]

Just now, hansvons said:

Who’s buying these cuties today 😉? I still have my S-16mm SRII. In 2008, I swapped my 16mm Super Speeds (those with the triangular aperture) for 35mm Super Speeds, as with the advent of the Red One it became clear that S-35mm will also be the future for TV.
I never sold the Canon 8-64, back then THE S-16mm workhorse (much better than the Zeiss 11-110). It certainly is a character lens showing tremendous defraction from f8 onwards. Beautiful flares too. Never had the opportunity to shoot with the Cooke 10.5-52. Must be an outstanding lens.

Due to popularity for "being different" I remember when Arri did the Amira update where it got the S16 mode... and most cinematographers still say the Cooke zoon is an awesome lens (but many also think the "best" being the Angenieux 7-81 T2.4, which is highly subjective), so there surely still is a cool niche market for these S16 cuties.

[Smudgerer]

3 minutes ago, hansvons said:

Who’s buying these cuties today 😉? I still have my S-16mm SRII. In 2008, I swapped my 16mm Super Speeds (those with the triangular aperture) for 35mm Super Speeds, as with the advent of the Red One it became clear that S-35mm will also be the future for TV.
I never sold the Canon 8-64, back then THE S-16mm workhorse (much better than the Zeiss 11-110). It certainly is a character lens showing tremendous defraction from f8 onwards. Beautiful flares too. Never had the opportunity to shoot with the Cooke 10.5-52. Must be an outstanding lens.

The Xtera sold within a week of letting my friends at Abel Cine in NYC know that I had come to the painful decision to let it all go, it went to a buyer in TX USA, the lenses sold here in the EU, again quite quickly, and yes I was surprised...........But S16 film has been undergoing a small upkick in recent years, it was my favourite cine film format even though I had the Aaton Penelope too, as well as the Aaton A-Minima, an Aaton "Full House"!...........The Canon zooms were great work-horses, 11-138 and the 8-64, they sold quickly and quite well. Your S-16 SRIII should find a buyer I'd think, they were favourites with TV Studio Drama Production in the US, "solid" cameras mechanically, but I always preferred the Aaton form and handling, especially when they came out with the 800' mags!

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[hansvons]

1 minute ago, Al Brown said:

so there surely still is a cool niche market for these S16 cuties

If I ever will lens a proper film it must be on celluloid, which actually is coming back with large steps. So much nicer. When HD became a standard, I wanted S-16mm to become my medium of choice. Unfortunately in terms of resolution it fell short to Sony’s F900R. But I never could convince myself to buy one of these.

The Amira is phenomenal—for digital.

My M lenses project 90% on film. That matters a lot for the character. Some quirks are less pronounced, eg vignetting and corner smear but virtues like swirl, flares, and glow remain.