Canon f/1.2 Leica Screw Mount lens
Sunday 13 November 2005 @ 4:01 am



Canon 50mm f/1.2 Leica Screw Mount

Construction and handling

Before receiving the lens I was a tad worry about its size. I saw some pictures of it on the web and it seemed huge ! I was relieved when I opened the package. I had in my hand the biggest 50mm I’d ever held but it was definitely not as big as I thought. It’s bigger in diameter than my Voigtlander Nokton f/1.5 but smaller in length. Definitely manageable on an M body. I hope these pictures are useful to you to judge the size of this lens. The construction is definitely top quality. The focusing ring is not as smooth as a Leica lens. Actually, it’s pretty tight. Maybe it’s this lens. I might have it CLAed by Sherry Krauter at some point. The aperture ring is really small and I have a tough time getting a hang at it. Definitely more difficult to turn than a Leica or Voigtlander lens. Maybe I’ll get use to it. The good thing for my first test is that I’ve tested principally f/1.2 and f/1.4 aperture. So I didn’t have to turn very far.

This lens has an annoying infinity lock. I don’t know how I’ll get use to this thing. I might get rid of it somehow. I really don’t understand the purpose of this lock. Maybe someone can help me here … As yo might already know, you need a screw-to-bayonet adapter to operate the lens on a M body.

Here are some pictures of the lens mounted on my MP and M3.


 

Picture quality

I don’t take pictures of ruler or chart. When I test a lens, in order to decide if I’m going to keep it or not, I shoot a few rolls of my favorite subject: My daughter Manon :-) As you can see from the pictures, this lens has its own fingerprint. It has low contrast wide open but the color are magnificent in my mind. The following picture were taken with the MP with Fujifilm NPH 400 exposed at 320. As you can see, the depth of field is very limited at f/1.2 and it’s kind of tough to get the right focus. My MP 0.72 was maybe not the best tool for such wide open lens. I’ll shoot another roll with my M3 which has a larger base.

I think I’m going to like this lens. It’s definitely a bit big and you might not want to use it as your all around lens. But indoor, it’s a real pleasure and the fingerprint is quite pleasing. I’ll shoot other roll of film, especially black and white and get used to this one. But after one day of test, it is a keeper !


Update - November 14th - Black and white

Here are some shots taken between f/1.2 and f/2 using Ilford XP2. Definitely a keeper !!!

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