Opticallimits

Hello zoners,



I'm looking for a 35mm lens f/1.4 for my E-P1 camera. I currently have the very fine Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 which is definitely not a portrait lens and an OM Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 which I find a little long for my tastes.

So quite logically, I'm looking for something in between that stays fast : 35mm f/1.4. (I had a 50mm on APS-C and found its 80mm equiv. was still a tad long so I think the 70mm equiv should be spot on)

I'm open to both new & legacy lenses with a preference for the latter for costs reasons.



Of course, the lens has to have a creamy bokeh, good contrast and sharpness wide open and a good build quality. Did I mention it should be relatively cheap too?



I had my eyes set on Voigtländer 35mm f/1.4 Nokton. It's very small, seems well built but I'm not sure about its seemingly very nervous bokeh and its sharpness wide open wrt its price.



Any recommendation? It can be OM, Canon FD, Nikon, etc ... anything but Leica (except if you're willing to discount it) and C-mount lenses. Of course, you can also move a few millimetres longer or shorter and some thirds of stop slower in your suggestions !



Thanks in advance,



Greetings,

S.

Can you bear f1.7?



If so, the 35mm CV f1.7 Ultron in M mount might be your best bet.



It's a lot sharper than the CV 1.4; it's cheaper, it's smaller. It's be fine wide open for portrait work.

Thanks David, I'll look into it. At the moment, I haven't found so many samples on MFT cameras. If you have references, feel free !



f/1.7 would be fine. It appears to be quite a tad larger than the Nokton 1.4 though...but still smaller than the Nokton 1.2 yes.



Looks like it's a 300-350€ price tag depending on the condition. Sounds right?

[quote name='Sylvain' date='19 June 2010 - 11:49 AM' timestamp='1276944598' post='602']

Thanks David, I'll look into it. At the moment, I haven't found so many samples on MFT cameras. If you have references, feel free !



f/1.7 would be fine. It appears to be quite a tad larger than the Nokton 1.4 though...but still smaller than the Nokton 1.2 yes.



Looks like it's a 300-350€ price tag depending on the condition. Sounds right?

[/quote]



Hi Sylvain, there are some samples on Sean Reid's Reidreviews pay site; don't know of any others. I only ever played with one for a weekend when a friend visiting from the Netherlands lent me his M8 and a few lenses for a weekend...I was pretty impressed. I couldn't pick it from summicrons.



The Reid review compares it against the 1.4 and 1.2, and finds the 1.4 the weakest of the bunch.



Another possibility (slower still and longer so maybe outside your parameters) might be the Ultron 40mm f2; I have one of those and it's amazing in almost every way except slightly nervous bokeh if there is detail in the background (though it's fine if the background is 'broad brush'. Also being designed for an SLR there'll be no problem with angle the light hits the sensor.



One negative recommendation is the Oly Zuiko 35mm f2; I had one of those during the day of film, and it was the least impressive of the Zuiko lenses i had. Really hazy wide open, and never sharpened up tremendously (of course it might have been a sample issue, but I have heard others say the same)

Although it's a bit out of your sweet spot, here are some pics shot with the Nokton 40 f/1.4, which has some favorable reviews on 35 mm:

[url="http://www.flickr.com/groups/1260358@N21/"]40mm NOKTON on micro 4/3rds on Flickr[/url]