Looking for help on a lens selection...

[jfirneno]

I know this is a little like throwing gasoline onto a fire, but I could use some opinions on selecting a fast (1.4 or faster) 50mm lens.  I am looking for something that is extremely sharp wide open.  It is for use with a NEX camera so the mount can be either SLR or rangefinder due to the flexibility of the adapter choices.  Good OOF apearance would be a plus but as long as it isn't terrible that would not be a disqualifier.  Price would be a factor but sharpness would come first.  Thanks in advance for any help.

Regards,
John

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

http://photozone.de may be helpful. Myself, I have never seen an f/1.4 lens that was really sharp, but I have not seen a lot.

Best regards
Erik

I know this is a little like throwing gasoline onto a fire, but I could use some opinions on selecting a fast (1.4 or faster) 50mm lens.  I am looking for something that is extremely sharp wide open.  It is for use with a NEX camera so the mount can be either SLR or rangefinder due to the flexibility of the adapter choices.  Good OOF apearance would be a plus but as long as it isn't terrible that would not be a disqualifier.  Price would be a factor but sharpness would come first.  Thanks in advance for any help.

Regards,
John

[jfirneno]

Erik:

Thanks for the reference.  I looked up the Voigtlander 35 1.4 and 50 1.1 there and it was interesting how prominent was the issue of focus shift.  Interesting, but my use would typically be at the wide open setting so not important.

Regards,
John

[JohnBrew]

If you are looking at strictly wide open performance I don't see that focus shift would enter into it. That said you could look into a Leica M mount 50 1.4, but they are very hard to find at the moment and quite pricey. The old Nikon 50 1.2 also comes to mind. Note: both of these are manual focus only.

[jfirneno]

John:

Thanks very much for the reply.  Is your experience that the Nikon is very sharp?

Regards,
John

[Brian Hirschfeld]

Erik:

Thanks for the reference.  I looked up the Voigtlander 35 1.4 and 50 1.1 there and it was interesting how prominent was the issue of focus shift.  Interesting, but my use would typically be at the wide open setting so not important.

Regards,
John

the 50 f/1.1 is a huge lens on an M camera, this will be exaggerated on smaller light cameras like the NEX's......

[schrodingerscat]

Either the legacy(pre AF) Nikon or Canon 50/1.2 will give good results, depending on sample quality.

If absolute image quality wide open is the target, regardless of cost, then it's the Leitz 50/0.95 Noctilux. Voigtlander has a 50/1.1 Nokton that has been getting good reviews and costs a fraction of the Leitz.