The Greatest 50mm Lens Ever Made

[@WingWongDingDong]

I work in camera retail and I desperately tell L-Mount shooters about this lens whenever I can. Such an incredible render and the AF motors are engineered for Depth by Defocus, so lighting quick and responsive. Absolute monster of a lens

[@CartyCantDance]

I feel like the summicron 50mm or the sigma 50mm f1.2 are better buys (and much easier to carry) But what do you think?

[@WingWongDingDong]

@@CartyCantDance I have a sigma 35mm f/1.2 and I’d prefer the LUMIX lens. The street price is very similar between them. Also, as Matt said, the Sigma has chrom-abs where the LUMIX 50mm is flawless wide open Edit: sorry I thought you said Sigma 50mm f/1.4. Still I prefer the colour rendition of the Lumix over the Sigma lenses. And the lumix lens is cheaper than the sigma at street pricing. I also found the sigma 1.2 lenses shift a lot of glass internally to focus, and much slower in comparison.

[@AlexGPark]

Hi, you seem like the guy that may have answer to my question. I just got my Leica SL3 and sold my 50mm apo summicron M due to the lack of autofocus. I agree with you on the Sigma lens likes to breathe the focus and its colors look flat. I considered APO Summicon SL 50mm, but its autofocus isn’t looking very promising due to the fact the lens being announced long time ago, but I do like the colors pop. Then I somehow read someone mentioning this lens in the comments section of another video. Since then, I fell into that rabbit hole of searching hours and hours for the answer. Do you think this will satisfy my needs? I don’t really care about weight.

[@WingWongDingDong]

@@AlexGPark I’ve never been disappointed by the AF speed on the Lumix Leica. The motors seem over engineered and so tend to work as fast as the body can push it. If I were you, I would try my best to get to a camera store which has one for you to try, take some photos home and see how you feel. I like it a lot, and I consider it over the Sigmas and the Leica lenses.

[@AlexGPark]

@@WingWongDingDong Thank you so much for the blazing fast response. From what I am reading online, I think Lumix checks all the boxes. Unfortunately the camera stores where I live don’t stock so many lenses anymore and also a lot of in stock items are sealed in box. I just placed an order for one. I don’t think I will regret. Thank you so much 😊

[@slows728]

I'm crazy about 50mm lenses, I had 25mm f1.2 Olympus, 50mm FE Planar, 50mm GM 1.2, 50mm Summilux SL, 50mm RF f1.2 and of course this S Pro. In the end I only kept the S Pro, it has the best rendering I've seen, fantastic depth, nice colors and ultra sharp. The 24-70mm S Pro is also the best 24-70mm ever, the depth and contrast are outstanding. It's a shame Panasonic never advised these lens as they should. I still have doubt about the Nikon 50mm f1.2 because I never used it but I'm pretty sure the S Pro is better.

[@rudermanphoto]

So glad to hear this! I seriously couldn’t believe the images this thing is capable of, it makes the 50 1.8 which is a pretty damn good lens look mediocre by comparison, it’s just nuts. Interesting about the S pro 24-70, I recently got the Sigma 24-70 2.8 DG DN II as the S-Pro was a bit too big (and expensive) for me but now I’m curious to try it and see how good it is as you can find a used copy for around what I paid for the Sigma new.

[@bushfriend2718]

As a Leica user actually a noctilux user that lens looks superr interesting for tougher conditions and commercial work, also on some days I just don’t fell like using manual focus, had the lumix 100 macro for while fantastic lens for the money. Ps first time I’ve seen a video, great work and I loved the ratio of technical specs to testshoots and opinions!

[@rudermanphoto]

Thank you! The Noctilux is an exceptional lens and you can’t beat that 0.95 for lowlight but there is something to be said about having great autofocus and not to mention the affordability aspect too!

[@igottheshaft]

Size matters! 130mm long...you don't need a tape measure for that 🤭Just kidding 😉 I just watched this and the S1R video. You've taken declarative stances on what's best, and you know what, I think that you're right. I am shooting with an S1, and everything from the build quality to image quality is so good. I am in love with it. Now I am going to get the 50mm 1.4 S Pro and an S1R for a 2nd body. The value is just so good right now, it's wild. Thanks for the heads up, and keep up the great work. Subscribed.

[@rudermanphoto]

Thank you for the kind words! You won’t be disappointed, that 50 1.4 is something else. I had a chance to shoot with it again on my S1R and the files left me speechless they’re that bloody good!!!

[@igottheshaft]

@@rudermanphoto They look amazing. Looking forward to it, and thx again o/

[@Bichitos4215]

Thank you for this video, this is what made me cancel my order for the Canon R5 M2 and go buy a S2Mii with this beast of a lens plus the 24-70 2.8. Can't wait to try it out and all for the same price the Canon was going to cost me.

[@rudermanphoto]

You are going to love it!! I hear the 24-70 2.8 S pro is one of the best 24-70’s ever too, I’m yet to try it out though, but that 50 1.4 is just a masterpiece!

[@MrJapanforce]

Yes. It is!

[@stevenwaldstein2249]

Sounds great and I’m a fan of 50mm lenses but unfortunately I shoot Sony and Canon and no L mount bodies. Interesting video would be the best 50mm lens on each lens mount. FE, Z, RF, EF, XF, F, K, L, etc. Thank you and take care.

[@rudermanphoto]

That does sound like a good video idea! I hope to one day make that in the future, lots of lenses ahead of me to test though haha

[@the_black_douglas9041]

Excellent vid Matthew :) People scarcely know how far ahead of all the other 50s this lens is. I’ve got this lens. It IS a beast in every sense. My work is mostly video, though I’m getting a little bit more stills work here and there. Stills are where it really shines, especially in terms of useability in comparison to video. Though I use anamorphics a bit for some jobs and it is one of the few taking lenses that works absolutely stunningly with the Sirui 1.25X anamorphic adapter. If you shoot with that combo in 6K 3:2 open gate, the squeeze gives you close to 16:9. It is the most beautiful 16:9 image you’ll ever see, with just slight and pretty anamorphic character that gives it a je ne sais quoi, as the French would say. Anamorphic adapters are very much a try-and-see thing. This combo is a winner.

[@rudermanphoto]

I would love to try it with an anamorphic adapter! Really interested in giving anamorphic lenses in general a go, I have so many cool ideas that would look great shot with one, just unsure where to even start, although that adapter plus this lens sounds like a great combo haha

[@JaapKroon]

Interesting, thanks. I am still in love with my Sigma 50 1.2.

[@rudermanphoto]

I really would love to try the Sigma 1.2 out - especially as it is much smaller then this lens!

[@CartyCantDance]

Have you compared it the otus 55mm? I have the Zeiss classic 50mm 1.4 and the lumix s 50mm 1.8 In fact I have over a dozen vintage 50mm primes. This lens looks interesting, but I think either the sigma 50mm f1.2 or the Leica 50mm f2 summicron would beat it for my eyes and workflow.

[@Chips-Lab]

I’m actually testing side by side, Zeiss OTUS 55mm and this Lumix 50mm S. So far…they are the same. I’ll keep pushing both lenses but even the coating seems the same

[@LucaBono.Studio]

@@Chips-Lab this sounds great!

[@Princeton_James]

This may be my next lens. Ive tested so many Sigmas in the L mount and they are good but every S pro that ive tested against the Sigmas are better in every way.

[@rudermanphoto]

It’s big and heavy but so bloody good!

[@nicocastillo2099]

Based on your thumbnail, the girth matters. The girth of the lens.

[@jwanger142]

But what about fuuuuuuuuji 35 1.4 magic!

[@Leonardo-mu2xj]

What are you shooting professionally? LUMIX or Fuji ?

[@rudermanphoto]

I have switched to Lumix for all my pro work now - no regrets. Fuji is still my go-to holiday camera and if I want to have fun taking photos but the AF especially with recent firmware has been far too flakey to trust with paid work and the much better low light performance of the S5ii is really great for my paid work too.

[@Leonardo-mu2xj]

@@rudermanphoto do you shoot video at all or just stills ?

[@rudermanphoto]

@@Leonardo-mu2xj yes I have started doing video a lot more as well as these KZbin videos and for that the lumix is much better then the XH2s I had before too.

[@SilatShooter]

Interesting, this lens was off my radar as a Sony shooter. I have say shot the Zeiss Otus and that was amazing. I have shot the Sony GM 50mm f1.2 and GM 50mm f1.4 and both were outstanding. The Voighlander 50 APO is also very well regarded. So there are a bunch of amazing 50mm. But have to also add that size does matter. If a lens is too big and too heavy, I won't use it regularly. So all that wonderful optical quality goes underappreciated. So I would likely pass on this.

[@rudermanphoto]

I’ve heard lots of great things about the Sony 50 1.2 GM! Would love to try that lens out in the future. Very fair point regarding size, no matter how good the lens is if it’s too big to comfortably use it’s not going to get used haha

[@keronf2]

I wonder how well it will do on a ronin gimbal

[@rudermanphoto]

Would be fine on a Pro but not the regular RS or Mini, way too heavy for these.

[@Finkysaki]

This gave me flashbacks of when my dad shot me with his 50mm

[@the_black_douglas9041]

@@Finkysaki HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. 😐

[@cameraprepper7938]

I will start saying the I do not like the focal length 50mm, it just "feels" wrong, always either too long or too short, so nearly any focal length other than 50mm ! Fx 55mm and longer or 45mm and shorter ! That said "the greatest" 50mm Lens ever made, I think can be the Voigtländer APO-Lanthar 50mm 2.0 Aspherical, yes it is "only" manual focus, but for me who does 99% of all photography with manual focus, because I like "perfection", I like to nail the image 100% where I want the focus, AF do not always nail that 100% !!! The Voigtländer are second to none in optical image quality and the build quality are maybe the very best you can get, it will last your life time and longer.

[@meijboomm]

I concur with the 50mm APO, that lens is perfection from F2 with beautiful sunstars!!