benny
Senior Member
Realized that although there are some people who are occasionally interested in this old cult classic, there wasn't a specific thread about it. With vintage optics, its no surprise that opinions about this lens can also be quite varied.
This lens is my favorite amongst all the Canon LTM lens in Canon's RF portfolio. Although a little heavy, it has a small form factor and a real jewel for the images that it can produce.
Canal Cafe by benny ng, on Flickr
Sunset over Structure by benny ng, on Flickr
They were everywhere! by benny ng, on Flickr
In my opinion, this is one of the smallest sub f/2.0 50mm lens of the sonnar design. The all brass construction makes it a little heavy, but resulting images from the optics are worth the little extra weight. When used wide open, the images produced exhibit a bit of veiling glare in the highlights, but not excessive. Some refer to this as the "glow", and it's a character very complimentary for portraiture. Sharpness are better in the center than the corners of the frame, but when stopped down, it improves dramatically across the frame, especially from f/4.0. However, the images are not clinically sharp, which some users have come to prefer. The out of focus rendition is a relatively subjective matter, so I won't go into it. However, "creamy" and "smooth" are often words associated with the Bokeh of this lens. With decent copies of this lens, color is relatively accurate with no specific bias. Contrast is medium high, which gives good shadow details. The only thing you will need to take care of for this lens is shooting into the light. Flare can be an issue as the coating during that time isn't quite as good at suppressing flare as the lenses of today. A hood will solve most of the problem in this area. This lens has no focus shift issue associated with the modern Sonnar currently still in production.
Perhaps some of the the other users can share their experience/pictures from this lens here.
Cheers,
This lens is my favorite amongst all the Canon LTM lens in Canon's RF portfolio. Although a little heavy, it has a small form factor and a real jewel for the images that it can produce.
Canal Cafe by benny ng, on Flickr
Sunset over Structure by benny ng, on Flickr
They were everywhere! by benny ng, on Flickr
In my opinion, this is one of the smallest sub f/2.0 50mm lens of the sonnar design. The all brass construction makes it a little heavy, but resulting images from the optics are worth the little extra weight. When used wide open, the images produced exhibit a bit of veiling glare in the highlights, but not excessive. Some refer to this as the "glow", and it's a character very complimentary for portraiture. Sharpness are better in the center than the corners of the frame, but when stopped down, it improves dramatically across the frame, especially from f/4.0. However, the images are not clinically sharp, which some users have come to prefer. The out of focus rendition is a relatively subjective matter, so I won't go into it. However, "creamy" and "smooth" are often words associated with the Bokeh of this lens. With decent copies of this lens, color is relatively accurate with no specific bias. Contrast is medium high, which gives good shadow details. The only thing you will need to take care of for this lens is shooting into the light. Flare can be an issue as the coating during that time isn't quite as good at suppressing flare as the lenses of today. A hood will solve most of the problem in this area. This lens has no focus shift issue associated with the modern Sonnar currently still in production.
Perhaps some of the the other users can share their experience/pictures from this lens here.
Cheers,
