kreuznach777

f2, 1.9, 1.8, 1.7 - all pretty much the same lens (marketing tags). Konica Hexanon 50/1.7 - very sharp. Meyer Oreston 50/1.8 - contrasty, nice blur. (pre-zebra. Avoid zebra DDR build quality) Konia Hexanon 57/1.4 - beautiful blur. KMZ 44-2, 58/2 - 00 serial (mid 1970s, gloss black barrel) very sharp and contrasty. 44-Ms better bokeh IMO. Ricoh Rikenon 50/2 XR - very sharp, good colour. CZJ Biotars (1960s, aluminium barrels - lubes getting old, haze problems common rear group). Voightlander Septon, Schneider Xenon, V Ultron (50mm in that order of preference). DKL mounts. Minolta 50/1.7 MD - inexpensive and good modern coated lenses. I like the bokeh of SMC better than Super-Takumar 50s. The 55/1.8 is a great lens all round. Tessars are good stopped down. A bit wider, nice lenses: Hexanon 40/1.8, Yashica ML 35/2.8 (great lens). You know the very fast apertures of these lenses were for accurate manual focussing not 'low light' as such. It's distance to the subject/from subject to background that gives the separation as much as aperture. Lenses that are over-corrected are giving the nervous back blur. Slower, simpler, old lenses can make beautiful portraits.

Rezzo, you'll get 35e FOV but with the cropped perspective of a 23/24mm. You know how you can get very close with a super-wide, or with more foreground than a normal lens? It's a different image result than from a 35mm on a film camera.

I agree. Fuji are making some sensational glass. The adaptors help those of us who own legacy lenses and need to devote available funds to acquiring one or two X camera bodies.

50/1.8 HFT Planar - same as Zeiss 50/1.7 T*. Same coatings (same factory even). Vulnerable to flare, very sharp, good colour. 40-80/3.5 Vario Sonnar - not used it but C/Y Sonnar zooms are great, very low CA, sharp, contrasty. 90/2.8 G Sonnar - very nice lens, 5 star. Leica Elmar-C 90/4 similar price. I prefer Sonnar rendering. 135/4 Tele-Tessar - ok lens. Abrupt transition from sharp focus to blur at wide aperture. Not so nice IMO. 200/4 Sonnar - probably great; 300 Tele-Tessar not so great for the price. Yashica ML or Hexanon etc would probably be better value.