Best 50mm Lenses for Nikkormat FT3

[asiafish]

The best 50mm?

Meyer Optik just announced an f/0.95 for only US$3000. At that price, it must be good. At the moment, it's only Sony's e-mount. Or how about Leica's latest f/1.4 for only US$5295? (Sigh, still the wrong mount.) But really, well over five grand for an f/1.4 on a "general purpose" lens?

Nope. At 1/10th of the price, and a 5-star rating, it's hard to do better than the Nikkor f/1.2, even for serious users. (And at (almost) 1/10th of that price, you can get a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.8 for Canon that gets better ratings than the Canon version...) I've not used a Leica, so maybe I'm just not experienced enough to appreciate the difference. But I still have a hard time imagining that it's 10 times or 100 times better than the alternatives.

I love 50mm lenses and have about a dozen. My best is the Leica you mention, the 50mm f/0.95, which I shoot on my Leica M10 (digital) and M5 (film). It is simply stellar, and while outrageously expensive, it is worth the money (for those who have and can spare it).

I also own the Nikon 50mm f/1.2 AIS you mention. It is also outstanding, and is also worth the price.

The Leica and the Nikon are not comparable as they are vastly different animals that both sell for appropriate, and appropriately different prices justified by what goes into making them and what they are capable of delivering.

As opposed to best (Leica), my favorite 50mm is an ancient Carl Zeiss Jena 5cm f/1.5 Sonnar that I had converted from Contax to Leica thread mount. It was made in 1937, has no coating and has air bubbles in the glass (they all did back then).

 

[MartinCrabtree]

I picked up a Nikkor 50MM f1.4 from a member here pretty cheap. Nice lens. I needed to disassemble and lube the helicals as the grease dried up but an hour or so later we're all good. I use it on everything it'll fit on.............which is every Nikon I have. That is the biggest point for me staying with them.

On the F5.