50mm f1.4 Vintage Pick: Canon FD or Nikkor or... Rokkor?

50mm f1.4 Vintage Pick: Canon FD or Nikkor or... Rokkor?

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exttreem

Active member
Title says all... 50mm f1.4 in Canon FDs or Nikon Nikkors or Minolta Rokkors?
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Which lens do you like considering the difference in the Sharpness, and the Look.
Which lens maintains good Sharpness at Wide Open f1.4? And what about the Film Look?

Let us know your Favorite!
Please don't be Bias in the Poll... :undecided

Lets Wait and Watch!
 
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They are all good, I personally like the Nikon 1.8, and the later model Rokkor MD is very cool, the colors and bokeh are very pleasing. They all have different colors. That Nikon is pretty sharp. There are a ton of primes to choose from. Lucas is right--they are sharp enough!
 
You can see real MTF data for a lot of primes in different focal lengths here:
http://jimdoty.com/learn/Tips/Equipment/Lens_Testing/Photodo_Tests/photodo_tests.html

And you can see Nikon only here:
http://jimdoty.com/learn/Tips/Equipment/Lens_Testing/Photodo_Tests/nikon_tests.html

For Nikon, the 1.8 is rated higher than the 1.4, but there are other things to consider, like lens curvature, color, etc. Lots of ppl like the 1.8.
Both Canon and Minolta are tied for top in the 50/1.4, but the difference is very small--not to mention sample variation. Even higher rated is the Minolta 50mm prime macro.
I have both the Rokkor 1.4 and the Minolta AF 1.4, they are sharp enough. The Rokkor has something few lenses have, lens presence. The AF is buttery and smooth--they are different is subtle ways. The Nikon 1.8 is like *sharp*, it conveys sharpness. When looking at actual video, the contrast and the color are just as important. Real sharpness combined with slightly drab color does not look good--and you might get more aliasing.
You should also see the prime lens comparison at dpreview.
I recently took a bunch of old glass and shot photos of a street sign 100 feet away. Using 100 percent crops, I compared these letters and numbers which were not even visible un-enlarged, and, sure enough, tiny, tiny differences in purple fringing, sharpness, etc. The differences were so small I wondered, why bother? But on the big screen, it was the color that popped out as the big difference.

One thing about old lenses is they get kind of cruddy after a while. Maybe the coating ages unevenly, whatever. If you want super, super clean, super contrast edge to edge, wide open, go with the Panasonic 20mm. Having said that, the old primes do deliver, and a little edge softness is often a nice effect. To get that edge and contrast evenness, they have to be stopped down to 2.0--5.6.
 
I voted nikkor but I have never owned the minolta.

My little friends

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some of my amateur home comparison test shots of the above four lenses done a while back -->> http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...non-vs-Nikon&p=1718559&viewfull=1#post1718559
 
Well, both Canon and Nikkor 50mm f1.2 costs 3 time more than f1.4 anyway.
Do we really see the significant difference in the results of both f1.4 and f1.2 lenses?
 
Lucas Adamson said:
Rokkor - for the bokeh. They're all plenty sharp enough for HD.
Click to expand...

I think it's the 58mm MC Rokkor that has that specially creamy bokeh. That said the 50mm Rokkor would be sharper.

I stick with my 58mm helios 44m-2. Wonderful bokeh, sharp as a razor.
 
exttreem said:
Well, both Canon and Nikkor 50mm f1.2 costs 3 time more than f1.4 anyway.
Do we really see the significant difference in the results of both f1.4 and f1.2 lenses?
Click to expand...

If you spring for the Noct-Nikkor which costs more like 30 times more I can promise you you will lol.
 
johnnym said:
I think it's the 58mm MC Rokkor that has that specially creamy bokeh. That said the 50mm Rokkor would be sharper.

I stick with my 58mm helios 44m-2. Wonderful bokeh, sharp as a razor.
Click to expand...

Yes you're absolutely right. The 58mm Rokkor is the one with the lovely (I mean really special) creamy bokeh.

The PG f1.2 is super expensive but among the finest lenses ever. The PF f1.4 has 95% of the qualities - it is stunningly lovely for a £50 lens. Highly recommended!
 
i like my nikkor 50mm f1.8 and I just got the 85mm nikkor f1.8 both are super sharp @ wide open, next will be the nokton 25/0.95 and then I will start looking for a good tele preferably nikon around f2
 
The People who have used both FDs and Nikkors can move this topic more to the Conclusion.
I really wish Nokton was here.
~ Merry Christmas ~
 
Nikon lens quality is great, I just wish they would focus in the "right" direction like all the cine lenses. I use vintage Canon and Leica still lenses.
 
Do you mean that focus is not right with Vintage Nikkors?
or Do you mean it's in "Left" direction, other than Canons?
Is it sharp enough after focus?
 
[QU，focus direction

OTE=exttreem;2197880]Do you mean that focus is not right with Vintage Nikkors?
or Do you mean it's in "Left" direction, other than Canons?
Is it sharp enough after focus?[/QUOTE]
 
Now that's odd! :shocked:

I thought there are more FD people in this Forum, since FD glass is much famous for GH1.
But looks like Nikonians are in Majority here. :huh:
 
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