(UDPATED) micro four thirds infinite lense choice…
Today I found the time to google around the web looking for a fast lens to buy for my future Olympus m4/3 camera. So far as I know Olympus want release a very fast micro four thirds lens this summer (but I hope I am wrong). So I started my searching adventure from the very good cameraquest website. You can find almost every information over rangefinder cameras and lenses.
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What exactly am I looking for?
The most important thing to know is that…
1) I have a very limited budget (less than $1.000).
2) I need a very fast lens preferrable faster than 1.7.
3) I will use this lens mostly as portrait lens that’s why 28mm (keep in mind the Olympus x2 factor) would be my preferred choice. But there is no fast enough lens (only the voigtländer 1.9 comes close to my required limit). So I am looking for lenses between 35mm and 50mm (at this focal lenght you have the widest lens options).
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The 35mm lenses
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Voigtländer 35mm f1.2 lens (M-mount)
At 35mm you can find some fast Voigtländer modern lenses (Canon and Nikons counterparts are very old and difficoult to find, Leica is to expensive). There is the Voigtländer 35mm f1.2. It seems to be a very good lens with no weaknesses. Sean Reid reviewed the lens for Luminous landscape :”The aperture ring, beyond F/1.4 has click stops in 1/2 f/stop increments and each stop felt distinct and precise. The focus ring moved smoothly and was well weighted.” The only thing I do not like is when I compare the lens size with the size of the Voigtländer 35mm f1.4. WOW! This lens is available at adorama.com for $899.
Voigtländer 35mm f1.4 (M-mount) on a Bessa R2A
At first I thought this is THEÂ lens I need! But after reading some reviews I began to fall in troubles. It seems the tiny f1.4 lens performs not very well compared to the f1.2 lens. You can find a very good comparison at luminous landscape. For the record, there are two versions of the lens. One is single coated and one is multi-coated.What does change? Theoretically the single-coated lens should have lower-contrast and to quote Cosina’s President Mr. Kobayashi “The 40 f1.4 SC lens was produced for those who believe single coated lenses give more beautiful imagery in Black and White.” But people seems to not see any visible difference. I found a usefull review of the 35mm f1.4 lens here. You can buy the lens at amazon.com
We make a very short Voigtländer break and we take a look to Canon’s alternative: The Canon 35 f1.5 ! Again from luminous landscape: “In terms of absolute sharpness and contrast it isn’t in the same league as the Voigtlander…“. This lens is an older one and it seems to suffer from ghosting effects when used wide open (you can read the thread inside rangefinderforum where the problem has been discussed.).
I skip the Voigtländer 40mm f1.4 lens which is similar sized like the 35mm f1.4 and seems to have the same performance. I preferr the 35mm focal lenght.
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The battle begins, the 50mm lenses
Nikon 50mm f1.1 (for Nikon SP cameras)
The 50mm f1.1 Nikon Rangefinder Lens is probably the hugest 50mm lens ever made. I hear only good things over it but the problem is the price.
Looking for cheaper lenses the Canon 50mm f1.2 seems to be a good choice. It is a cheap lens, and like the expensive Konica 50mm lens it has a very interesting f1.2 aperture. At photo.net you can find some threads where people share their opinions. It seems most of them like the lens. So may it will be an option for me…
What really appeals me is the new NEW Super Fast Voigtländer 50mm f1.1 ! Incredible fast, incredible small (if compared to Konica, Canon and Nikon counterpart). It costs me exactly $1.149. This is the most interesting option I found.
In fact there are many other lenses, the old Nikon 50mm f1.5 for example. Than we have exotic lenses like Soligor ‘ITV’, Carl Meyer ‘Moviar’, Angenieux ‘Type M1′ but I believe with such a big palette of good lenses may I should go for modern lenses only.
Sonnar T* 50mm f1,5 ZM
Finally I found a very well made review at rogerandfrances.com. With this kind of reviews I can have a very good idea over the strenghts and weaknesses of the Zeiss Sonnar lens. I invite you to read the article. I find that the strenghts of the lenses far more important to me than the limits the lens has. So may this Zeiss is an option for me! The lens isn’t to expensive at ebay.
Canon megafast 50mm f0.95 lens! M-mount
May you don’t know it, Canon made a hole range of M-mount lenses. You can see the list at cameraquest. When I saw the f0.95 lens I thought I have to buy it only because of the f0.95 aperture! I found an ebay auction (it ends tomorrow) and it seems to be not sooooo expensive. The image quality seems to not be bad at all!
Coming back to Voigtländer I could go for the 50mm f1.5 lens. It seems to have a better image quality than the 35mm f1.4 Voigtländer. The only thing I do not like is the size. It is bigger than the 35mm f1.4 ! It s a really cheap lens (more or less $300),
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UPDATE: Some readers gave me some more tipps. There is the Zeiss Planar 50mm f1.4 which should be sharper than the Zeiss Sonnar. Than we have the Leica D Summilux 25mm f1.4 ASPH (after a quick look the lens seems to have as only downside the bigger size compared to some of the other lens I mentioned in this article).
Frank sent us a very interesting link: http://www.outbackphoto.com/
It seems in some cases you have to be carefull using a M-mount lens on a m4/3 camera.Not every lens performs well on m4/3 sensors!
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I stopped here. There are other lenses I could look for but this are my preferred options. As you have seen I skipped all the Leica lenses only because of the price. It will be a difficoult and long trip in Oceania and Asia, and I risk to loose, break or see stolen my equipment. I can’t afford to loose $2.000 on a single lens.
Summa Summarum I have some nice options, the Voigtländer 35mm 1.4 (tiny and cheap) the Voigtländer 50mm 1.1 (fast and good image quality) the Zeiss Sonnar (tiny and very good image quality). 35mm would be my preferred focal lenght the 50mm could probably be to close in some cases.
May you have experience with some of the lenses. Would be nice if you can write your opinion as comment on this article.
See you!
Alejandro
UPDATE: Where can you buy the lenses?
Voigtländer lenses are available at adorama
Zeiss lenses at adorama
Harold Glit
4 years ago |This article contains a few misleading pieces. I am not sure as you wrote it that the Ultron 1.4/35mm is inferior to the 1.2/35mm the review of the lens in the link is USELESS as the images shown in the article are so harsh and underexposed that it comes from the lack of knowledge of the photographer , not from the lens
I would suggest you look at the 2/35mm zeiss lens which is one of the most praised 35mm rf lens currently available
admin
4 years ago |Hi Harold! I agree with you that the Zeiss lens is a very fine lens. The only “problem” is that it has 2.0 aperture. I normally shot medium format with 2.8 as fastest lens. That’s why I am looking for a very fast lens for very low light situations.
I havn’t tried any of this lenses yet so I only report what other users wrote over the Voigtländer 1.2 and 1.4. I will update the post with some other links.
Thanks for your comment!
Harold Glit
4 years ago |On the 50mm front , it is strange that you left out the 1.5 /50mm nokton and more importantly the 1.4 zeiss planar
The sonnar lens , while very good is designed to be very soft at wider apertures as a portrait lens. People who want maximum sharpness should know that the planar is a better option
admin
4 years ago |The best thing would be to try all the lenses before making some conclusions. I left out the Voigtländer and the Zeiss planar only because of the size. I preferr the tiny Voigtländer 35mm 1.4
Othzén
4 years ago |Why not the 25mm f1.4 four thirds leica lens?? You’ll get AF with that one too.
admin
4 years ago |Havn’t considered! I will take a look on it! Many thanks!
Frank
4 years ago |Thanks for your article, very interesting. I did the same as you did, and came to the conclusion that the Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 is the one. Fast, small and cheap. Hopefully Olympus and Panasonic come soon with some fast AF prime lenses for m4/3. I do like AF. Also you must watch out with wide angle thirth party lenses. It seems they don’t work together properly with the m4/3 sensor. An interesting read ’bout this is at outbackphoto. They say this: “Unfortunately using M lenses on the G1 is not without issues:
We heard on the web that there are issues using wide angle M lenses on the G1. We only had used so far our Leica 50mm Summicron and love this combination. We also now tried the Leica 28mm Elmarit and have to report that this combination is not usable at all. The corners are just horrible.
This is likely due to the light angle hitting the sensor. M4/3 sensors are made so that the light hits nearly vertical the sensor.
Conclusion: You need to test the lenses on your G1. This means buying new lenses for the G1 makes only sense if you test it carefully. Lenses with a focal length of 50mm or longer seem to have no issues. Still it can vary lens by lens.”
the link is here: http://www.outbackphoto.com/CONTENT_2007_01/section_gear_cameras/20081119_Panasonic_G1/index.html
Now I hope that the Voigtlander 40mm is ok, if someone knows more about this, we will all want to hear this. Thanks for the information.
admin
4 years ago |You are right Frank! The best thing would be to try them all before making any choice! Thanks for the link i will now read the article…
Bye
chris
4 years ago |whats up with a canon fd 50mm 1.4?
i have one and it is a very good lens.
i like the canon fd lenses because most of them are mechanical well build and run smooth even after 20 years!
nada
4 years ago |Did everyone forget the 20mm f1.7 pancake with AF?
admin
4 years ago |Of course it would be my first choice. But it has not been released now. And I can’t use this lens on my M-mount voigtländer rangefinder.
Mike
4 years ago |Hope that Olympus knows we need some decent compact fast primes on mFT camera (due to no built-in flash, better low light AF performance etc.), so there will be no need to using legacy lenses. With a heritage to classic PEN cameras I expecting something worthy.
Olympus can return Golden Age of film photography with the mFT to contemporary digital era. Hear this wise man for better understanding (in this case it is not about the camera brand, it is about philosophy): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFT-duedoV4
Thanks
Nokton
4 years ago |What about vintage Summicron 35mm or 40mm. Very sharp lenses and easy to focus. I personally like the Summicron 50mm – I just bought one in perfoect condition for $700. For portraits the 35mm is more practical. These lenses are also small and stay in proportion to the size of the m4/3 camera.
Full crop of shot w G1 and 50mm Summicron: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nokton/3535473243/
You also should think of how easy to handle the lens is. For example the Nokton 35 f1.2 is a great lens, but the focal ring is not all that smooth and needs quite some movement for focusing. It also has quite some bulk. So you will be handicapped to quickly get your subject in focus. This is where the Summicrons and Summilux lenses excel and copies of these by Voigtlander should be considered. The f1.2 on the other hand is not a bad choice as you will have a wide light range to play with. The 50mm 1.1 is not out yet and bet it will be in short supply.
Though you mentioned it, you should check out the new 28mm Voigtlander f2 as well.
http://www.voigtlaender.de/cms/voigtlaender/voigtlaender_cms.nsf/id/pa_fdih7hvczh.html
There’s no such thing as an easy choice when it comes to lenses
Nokton
4 years ago |Response to Frank on G1 and wide angle combination:
I have used the G1 with a wide number of lenses including the Leica Summicron 28mm, Zeiss 21 2.8 and Voigtlander 15mm 4.5. In all cases I have had great results and no problem with corner sharpness. Further as the G1 only takes light from the center of the lens, the falloff in corners is almost non existent while one gets great sharpness.
For recent example, please see this shot. You can see it in full resolution:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nokton/3517736543/
Your milage may vary!
Mistral75
4 years ago |You could also consider Pentax lenses:
- SMC Takumar 50 f/1,4 (not the Super Takumar, far inferior), which has a superb bokeh; M42 screw mount
- SMC Pentax-A 50 f/1,2 if you want a larger aperture than the Takumar’s’ K mount (bayonet).
Duarte Bruno
4 years ago |I think if your priorities are super fast and sharp, you should consider the Konica Hexanon 57mm F1.2. This lens coupled with a diffuser filter makes an incredible combination.
You can save a lot of money too, as of right now there 2 ver y affordable ones on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/1624-Konica-Hexanon-1-2-57mm-f-Konica_W0QQitemZ350205510606QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCamera_Lenses?hash=item5189e003ce&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:570|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50
also:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Konica-Objektiv-1-2-57mm-AR-Hexanon_W0QQitemZ230344284563QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCamera_Lenses?hash=item35a196d993&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:570|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50 )
There are already kits on ebay to mount them on 4/3 (even though making it at home is much more fun): http://cgi.ebay.com/Konica-Hexanon-AR-50-57mm-f-1-4-OM-43rd-Conversion-kit_W0QQitemZ220419012887QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCamera_Lenses?hash=item3351ff3917&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72:570|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50
While you are at it buy also a Konica Hexanon 40mm F1.8. You just can’t beat them in portability and sharpness (even though they suffer from CA wide open). I recently bought one for 4€!!! You can easily get them for under 40€.
BTW, modding them for continuous aperture (think video) it’s so easy it hurts! http://www.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1022&message=31197252
Now I feel I should overwhelm you with some samples:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1033&message=30709791
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1022&message=30878786
Happy choice!
admin
4 years ago |Thanks Bruno! This are very usefull links. The picture posted inside the dpreview forum looks wonderfull. It will be definitely an option for me. The only downside is the size.
Bye
Frank
4 years ago |In respond to Nokton:
This is great, but when you see your photo in full res, the Heliar 15mm at f5.6 is super sharp in the middle, and in the corners it is a bit muddy and blurry and soft. I think it is not the lens, and certainly not the G1, I think it is the combination of the two. This photo should be sharp from the middle to the corners, there is no big DOF required. With a film camera it should be sharp.
This is a bit disappointing to me, many thanks for showing us your photo. I wished we could see such photos of the G1 with 35mm and 40mm lenses attached. This should give a better sharpness from center to corners.
Agent00soul
4 years ago |That Voigtländer 50mm f1.1 really looks like the most interesting of the lot. That and the Panasonic 20/1.7 would make a good combo.
I’ll certainly await report from people who have actually used the 50/1.1 on a m4/3 camera before buying though.
Godot
4 years ago |I’m really enjoying the Voigtlander Nokton 40/1.4. (I know this lens is more or less at the bottom of your list, but…) I chose it because it delivered the most bang for the buck in a fast lens, and is also quite small. (If speed weren’t an issue, the 35/2.5 pancake would have been my first choice — very cheap and truly tiny and, from samples I’ve seen, very good optical quality.)
I haven’t done any detailed pixel-peeping, but my subjective impression is that the 40/1.4 is a well built, easy-to-use portrait lens with pleasing bokeh, but not a very good landscape lens. (Not a problem for me.)
And of course if you’re shooting portraits wide open in low light, any problems with corner sharpness will be largely moot. A good thing, because the corners do not seem particularly sharp.
Like many G1 owners, I’m eagerly awaiting the Panny 20/1.7. But who knows when it’ll arrive or how much it will cost? In any case, knowing that it’s on the way helped me avoid the temptation to opt for a wider, slower lens or a wider, fast(er), more expensive one.
All that said… the new 50/1.1 looks like it will be a very tempting lens. I realize it’s a bargain for what it is, but at around 3x the cost of the 40/1.4, I expect to wait a good long while.
Olympus and Panasonic rumors » Blog Archive » private E-P1 choice
4 years ago |[...] month ago I was in doubt which kind of lenses I should buy for my E-P1. I needed a fast lens for low-light photography. I have choosen to buy the Voigtländer 35mm f/1.4 [...]
r
3 years ago |For the truly cheapstakes
1. Pentax CCTV lens 25mm f1.4 with 1″ image circle $90 at B&H but availability is shaky. As per my research, this lens produces circular bokeh and no modification is required. Due to the 1″ image circle (1″ = 25mm approx) the whole sensor should be covered
2. Fujion CCTV lens 25mm f1.4 with 1/2″ image circle $50 (shipping included) at your local ebay store. This lens also produces circular bokeh and no mod is required. However the 1/2″ image circle (12.5mm) there will be blackouts in the corners