Recommend a 50mm below 1000$

FWIW I'd say that any Leica lens is a good one although I've no expedience of most of them, especially the f/1 and f/1.4 varieties.

The budget ones are the the Summarit (f'2) and Elmarit (f/2.8 from memory). A good coated one of the early Summarits can surprise you; mostly as people forget it morphed /evolved into the Summicron. Both have a lot of fans on these forums.

Regards, David
 
Godfrey said:
I realized I hadn't used the Voigtländer Color-Skopar 50mm f/2.5 on the M10 Monochrom yet, so today I went for a long walk with it. I fitted a deep green filter, set the lens to f/3.5 and the camera to AutoISO, Aperture priority, and made 90 exposures.

Looking at the photos afterwards: It is a TERRIFIC lens! In some ways, I like its rendering qualities even more than the Summicron 50.

A sample photo:

Ground Cover - Santa Clara 2022
Leica M10 Monochrom + Color-Skopar 50mm f/2.5
ISO 320 @ f/3.5 @ 1/180
​
​
It may well become my 'standard' 50mm lens after this experiment! :)

G
Click to expand...

When I searched for 'the one' 50mm lens, the images from this were probably my favourite for the price. I just struggled to find one and also wanted something a bit faster, even if I didn't really need it.
 
It seems the 50mm F2 Konica M-Hexanon hasn't been mentioned yet; doesn't break the bank, is nicely built and has very decent image quality..
 
Godfrey said:
I thought this might be useful...

I made an album on Flickr.com containing test shots with the Leica Summicron-M 50mm and the Voigtländer Color Skopar 50mm of a static scene (my bookcase, room light only) at all apertures. I set the camera and bookcase at an angle so you could see the depth of field change both near and far in a modest range, and the primary focus distance is about 5.5 feet. The image title shows what lens and aperture was used, the comment field says whether the lens profile was turned on (only for the Summicron) or off.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/gdgphoto/6T90482Ho0

Enjoy! G
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Thanks for that. Interesting to see the vary different brightness between the two lenses at each stop. Did you use manual exposure with a matching shutter speed or did auto exposure/auto ISO play a part?
 
froyd said:
Thanks for that. Interesting to see the vary different brightness between the two lenses at each stop. Did you use manual exposure with a matching shutter speed or did auto exposure/auto ISO play a part?
Click to expand...

Just auto exposure, ISO was locked at 400. But how different AE could have been, given an extremely static subject and lighting, is minimal and the shutter speeds shown in LR are virtually the same from one set to the next.

G
 
gelatin silver print (s skopar 50mm f2.5) nikon s2

nicely sharp and contrasty (and no distortion) at full aperture

Erik.

645-AX-Amsterdam-2023-144.jpg
 
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I have a Voightlander 50mm F2 Lanthar. It is fantastic and flawless. i paid $975 new but you can find one in excellent condition around $800 or less.
 
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