[Leica] MS-Sonnetar 50mm f/1.1 mini-review

[Peter Klein]

The Sonnar family of lenses does funny things to bokeh at wider apertures.
Especially when you've focused close and the out-of-focus objects are also
fairly close. Some people like the look, some people hate it, some people
don't care.  Now I've never owned or tried a Sonnetar myself, but I did a
lot of reading about it and looking at pictures since it became available.
The extra control on the Sonnetar allows you to play with bokeh vs. focus
shift vs. coma. As Dante implies, this way may lie madness, especially on a
rangefinder, where you don't get instant feedback.   A full-frame live view
camera would be the best tool for playing with the overall look "in
situ." But on an RF, you can optimize the lens for a favorite distance
range, and have yourself a rather compact and light super-fast lens.

Super fast lenses all have bizarre bokeh, especially focused close-in.
Some people decided this makes their pictures special. My take is that it
usually makes the pictures more about the lens than the subject.  I have
seen Noctilux 0.95 pictures proudly presented with eye-stabbing double
outlines in the background. I'll keep the ten grand, thank you.

When I want to play with the Sonnar look, I use my Russian Jupiter-8, which
has been optimized for Leica.  And for a swirly "nausealux" look, my old
Summitar wide-open does similar things.  Much cheaper.  :-)

Dare I say this? - The way sensors are going, f/1.4 is quite enough most of
the time. And sometimes even f/2 or 2.8.

--Peter

On Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 10:33 PM, Richard Man <richard at richardmanphoto.com>
wrote:

> I am all for "Photography Made Difficult", that's why I use a 4x5".
> Applause :-)
>
> On Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 10:09 PM, Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu>
> wrote:
>
> > I admire your photography, your writing and the amount of work you put
> > into this review, but as for the lens itself, as I was reading it, I
> could
> > not help thinking, “why bother”?
> >
> > I suppose you either get it or you don’t…
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Nathan
> >
> > Nathan Wajsman
> > Alicante, Spain
> > http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/>
> > http:// <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu
> > PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws <
> > http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
> <
> > http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/>
> > Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator <
> > http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator>
> > YNWA
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > On 12 Nov 2015, at 06:06, Dante Stella <dstella1 at ameritech.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi all -
> > >
> > > I have been working on something while being terrorized into insomnia
> by
> > my 3 year old daughter: about 3,009 words on the MS-Sonnetar 50mm f/1.1 M
> > lens, which is a blast with the M typ 240 and 246. Assuming you get past
> > the first week.
> > >
> > >
> >
> https://themachineplanet.wordpress.com/2015/11/12/ms-optical-50mm-f1-1-sonnetar-magic-time/
> > >
> > > Best,
> > > Dante
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Leica Users Group.
> > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Leica Users Group.
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> // richard <http://www.richardmanphoto.com>
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> // https://instagram.com/richardmanphoto
>
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