[Leica] Recommendations? I never want to buy another 50mm lens again as long as I live.

[kyle cassidy on the lug]

Hi Folks —

I have a lot of half-assed Leica lenses I’ve bought over the years for dumb reasons and I want to stop this. I want to get rid of a lot of useless junk (Oh f3.5 lens, why did I ever buy you?) and replace them with The Right Lenses. 

I have an M9, if that matters.

So far my (used) 50mm options seem to be:

Zeiss 50mm Planar f2 — $860

Voigtlander M 50mm f 1.5 — $900

Voigtlander 50mm 1.5 screwmount — $550

Summilux f 1.4 — $1300


Important to me: Focusing closer than 1 meter. Not terribly important to me: super fast speed (because I can’t focus the 1.8 I have — unless someone wants to sell me a diopter). I’d just buy the screwmount Voigtlander, but the close focusing is kind of wrecking that one. I think the summilux only focuses to 1 meter too. which leaves the voigtlander M and the Zeiss — it seems the extra XYZ many stops might throw this to the voigtlander, but I’m wondering if y’all have any advice (or a 50mm in a drawer that I should be considering). I’m told the older 50mm Summicron’s, while affordable, aren’t any better than the Canon Serenar I already have, and I’m not going to drop $3,000 for a new version.

Thanks,

kc