Leica 50mm woes

Sorry for reviving a dead thread but I'm new here :) I was trying to decide between 50mm lenses for my new to me m9. Its a bit overwhelming coming from canon, where the choices are quite limited. I'm leaning towards a nokton 1.5 II since the size is very compact and I'm more likely to use it on daily basis. However, I do shoot a lot of architectural details and the 50mm Voigtlander APO seems to be highly regarded for that sort of thing. How would something like the Nokton 1.5II or even 1.2 compare with the Voigtlander 50mm apo when things are stopped down to say f5.6? Would the sharpenss between the lenses even out between them?
 
One of my Favorite Threads.
Welcome aboard.
Great Camera- the M9. I've had mine for almost 12 years now. Just back from a walk, testing a new 50mm lens.

At F5.6- all three lenses will be sharp enough for any pixel peeping on the M9. Vignetting will not be an issue. Color correction and Geometric Distortion will be the biggest concern.

I would choose the 50mm F2 APO if doing primarily architectural details. I have all three of the lenses mentioned.

The M9 has high sensitivity in the UV range, best to use a good UV filter with any lens on it.
 
One of my Favorite Threads.
Welcome aboard.
Great Camera- the M9. I've had mine for almost 12 years now. Just back from a walk, testing a new 50mm lens.

At F5.6- all three lenses will be sharp enough for any pixel peeping on the M9. Vignetting will not be an issue. Color correction and Geometric Distortion will be the biggest concern.

I would choose the 50mm F2 APO if doing primarily architectural details. I have all three of the lenses mentioned.

The M9 has high sensitivity in the UV range, best to use a good UV filter with any lens on it.
Thanks Brian! The M9 is something as far as colors go. It's so old the idiosyncrasies feel like you're shooting a film camera. It really helped with putting the passion back into photography that has been lost over the past few years.

I'm using a 35mm nokton which has been great but a 50mm is what I enjoy the most. I'm leaning toward the APO f2. I do wonder if I should get at least one leica lens to see if there is anything to them. I hate buying lenses and then reselling them later to "move up", at least leica seems to hold their value or even increase over time.
 
I think I'm going to go with the Lanthar (at least for now), everything I read about it seems to be stellar. Alot of the Voigtlanders are on sale except for the 50mm Lanthar, of course!

Eventually, I would like to get a 90mm and leica prices aren't so bad at that focal length, so maybe I can see about the so called "leica magic" for myself.
 
I think I'm going to go with the Lanthar (at least for now), everything I read about it seems to be stellar. Alot of the Voigtlanders are on sale except for the 50mm Lanthar, of course!

Eventually, I would like to get a 90mm and leica prices aren't so bad at that focal length, so maybe I can see about the so called "leica magic" for myself.
All the glowing reviews online and everyone here also made me select that as my first 50mm for M mount. Should be here in a few days!
 
Eventually, I would like to get a 90mm and leica prices aren't so bad at that focal length, so maybe I can see about the so called "leica magic" for myself.
The stunning one for me on there M9 is the Summicron 90mm F2 from the early 1960s. It smokes the Summilux 75mm F1.4 for output as far as I've seen but is not as famed as that lens, possibly as it can be bought for about a tenth of the price. Alas, the dealbreaker for me was it's large (to me) size on an M which is why I couldn't bring myself to get one. That might not be an issue for you though.
 
The stunning one for me on there M9 is the Summicron 90mm F2 from the early 1960s. It smokes the Summilux 75mm F1.4 for output as far as I've seen but is not as famed as that lens, possibly as it can be bought for about a tenth of the price. Alas, the dealbreaker for me was it's large (to me) size on an M which is why I couldn't bring myself to get one. That might not be an issue for you though.
While I'd agree that any of the early 90mm Summicrons would be a very nice option, the two later 90mm f/2.8 lenses (the Tele-Elmar-M 90mm f/2.8 and the Elmar-M 90mm f/2.8) are both very nice lenses, and they're quite a bit smaller. That said, the short tele I really dig is the modern Summarit-M 75mm f/2.4 - that one offers a really great balance between optical quality (superb), size (completely manageable) and rendering - regarding the latter, it's quite a bit more appealing than even the very nice 90mm f/2.8 Elmarit-M, though I have to say that I prefer the drawing of the Elmar 135mm f/4 over both of them - but that lens is bigger, slower and still harder to nail focus with; it sports a Sonnar formula, though ...

M.
 
I think the "Tele-Elmar 135/4" is the Sonnar design, 5/3 layout. The 135/4 Elmar is a 4/4, astigmat.
Many thanks for the clarification; I do own the Tele-Elmar.


EDIT: And another correction: It's not hard to *nail* focus, it's not possible to focus quickly due to the long focus throw. I much prefer that state of affairs, but you'd probably dislike it for portraiture or quick(er) shooting.

M.
 
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