[Pioneer]

That darned out of focus area certainly screws around with the sharpness of these lenses in the corners.

[Stagnant]

That darned out of focus area certainly screws around with the sharpness of these lenses in the corners.

Your irony is out of place. In case I decide to buy an F1.2 lens it does not mean, that I will use it wide open only for portraits and to achieve specific out of focus area rendering.

[clackers]

Your irony is out of place. In case I decide to buy an F1.2 lens it does not mean, that I will use it wide open only for portraits and to achieve specific out of focus area rendering.

Just odd that you were insulting the people ("bragging" owners) you expect for some reason will do your homework for you. ???

[pathdoc]

F one point two lens
Spending money all gone now
Lens just sits on shelf...

[Nicolas06]

Your irony is out of place. In case I decide to buy an F1.2 lens it does not mean, that I will use it wide open only for portraits and to achieve specific out of focus area rendering.

To me you buy the lens for whatever reason you want and use it when you want. You own the money Many people here look for particular lenses for particular occasions and that just fine. And being able to do f/1.2 doesn't mean the lens is bad at f/4.

What I wonder (not especially from you) is how much of the lens choice come from the f/1.2 tag and how much come the great characteristics of some f/1.2 lenses and their rendering at that setting.

I wonder if there was say an f/1.7 lens sold today that would render at f/1.7-f/2 like the Pentax 50mm f/1.2-f/1.4 very dreamy and all and was really sharp closed down to f/2.5 onward if people would recognize the lens for its esthetics possibilities or would simply dismiss it as an unconstrasty lens with low resolution ?

Today people are so focussing on resolution tests on reviews and extreme settings (largest apperture possible etc) that a gem without impressive spec cheat could be a total flow and a dull/flat but very sharp lenses with impressives figures would win against it.

[pathdoc]

The other thing to remember is that when they were new, a lot of these f/1.2 lenses arrived as, for want of a better word, the "kit" lens on a high-end professional or semi-professional flagship body, and might be the only 50mm (or in some cases 55mm) lens the user ever bought (with the possible exception of a normal Macro if they needed that). They were not in the situation some of us are today, of possessing multiple "normal" lenses of varying types (f/1.4, f/1.7, AF versus not, DA vs. F or FA, etc) against which it would have to do battle at all apertures. That was that. One and done. And while it would be interesting to look at the sales figures and work out how many of those f/1.2 lenses were bought separately from the body, I doubt many of those records even exist any more (if such data were ever kept).

[Alex645]

The other thing to remember is that when they were new, a lot of these f/1.2 lenses arrived as, for want of a better word, the "kit" lens on a high-end professional or semi-professional flagship body, and might be the only 50mm (or in some cases 55mm) lens the user ever bought (with the possible exception of a normal Macro if they needed that). They were not in the situation some of us are today, of possessing multiple "normal" lenses of varying types (f/1.4, f/1.7, AF versus not, DA vs. F or FA, etc) against which it would have to do battle at all apertures. That was that. One and done. And while it would be interesting to look at the sales figures and work out how many of those f/1.2 lenses were bought separately from the body, I doubt many of those records even exist any more (if such data were ever kept).

Anecdotally I agree with your comment. I always saw it as a marketing tool so that the buyer wasn't just getting a new camera, but a lens that was 'one up' with the kit lens that the competition was offering. My one and only 58mm Rokkor f/1.2 came as the "kit" lens with the Minolta SRT-202 purchased in Japan.

Now that I've experienced the limitations of a typical f/1.2, I can better appreciate the value in the f/1.8, and understand what the f/1.4 has to offer, albeit for a price. I wonder if Leica ever offered their 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux as a kit lens?

[Digitalis]

Leica ever offered their 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux as a kit lens?

They did offer the Noctilux 50mm f/1.2 ASPH with an M3 in 1966. In 1977 the Noctilux 50mm f/1.0 was released, the current M rangefinders produced in that decade were the M4(released 1967) and M5(released 1971) neither were all that well suited to the noctilux, at least not as well as the M3 was with its high viewfinder magnification and larger rangefinder patch. The Leica M6 (released 1984) made improvements to the RF system that allowed for an improvement in accuracy with fast lenses like the noctilux, the M7 ( released 2002) MP(2003) M-A typ127 (2014) are the last film leicas*

*there is the Leica A La Carte Program - which allows you a high degree of customization of the external features of your Leica rangefinder, but in essence it is basically a bling program for M7 users.

[Pioneer]

That set would be worth money.

The lens alone is worth a small fortune today.

[monochrome]

I gladly paid good money for a 1/2 stop of extra light in the viewfinder.

[Kerrowdown]

Then my A50/1.2 must be defective

Mine too, but don't tell her... my "Special Lady" is easy upset.

[Mothballs]

Well, I have a 50mm f1.0.

With no Mount.

Sorta not that useful. Probably going to be a scientist and franken it into a 85mm f1.X


AS far as I'm concerned though, artistic flexibility and subject isolation is as important as overall sharpness. I have a 6mm f1.2 that oddly gets sharper on the edges as you close focus (For the Pentax Q) and it makes for haunting lowlight Road and Pathway shooting. Almost gave it away once, I'm very happy I didn't.

I would love a SMC 50mm 1.2. I almost had a Ricoh made 55mm f1.2 (FOR $80!) but got sniped. Normal luck for me...

It's about what a lens can do that others can't that makes it for me. That's why the Helios and MIR Russian Lenses will always be in my bag. There's just something they do that others can't, and that alone is worth having them for. The 50mm 1.2 would be no different in the regard.