Articles
Don't Discard The Elderly - Like most things in life, the Canon LTM 50mm f1.2 has much to offer!
As I take more photos and use more formats I benefit from increasing exposure to some superb products that are now as old as 60! Some of these out-perform so called "latest and greatest" photography products.
Specifically, here I refer to lenses and how some middle aged and even elderly optics hold great discoveries at even ridiculously low cost - the Canon LTM 50mm f1.2 Leica M mount lens.
In my search for a very fast (f1.4 or faster) lens with classic lens style out of focus attributes for my Leica M7 rangefinder camera, I discovered the wonderful Canon 50mm f1.2 from the 1960s in an M-mount. I say wonderful because in summary this lens proves one does not need to be young to impress; one does not need to be the latest and greatest at a huge cost to produce outstanding quality images!
In summary the images taken in normal shooting (both colour and B&W) at apertures from 2.8 to 11 are sharp, medium contrast and provide strong definition of small detail with good control and performance from axis to the edges.
This lens’s performance is especially significant for two key reasons to do with its age and speed – keeping in mind that f1.2 is a ultra-fast lens as can easily be seen by its huge front element. The only lens faster is the beautiful Leica Noctilux 50mm f1.0, which comes at a price of nearly ten times more!
1. Age – just like in life generally age does not necessarily mean “has-been” and the Canon 50mm f1.2 is certainly no has-been. Bearing in mind the limited glass technologies available in the 1960s and the absence of today’s mind-blowing number crunching computer tools that were not even dreamt of 30 years ago, the designers achieved remarkable performance attributes in this lens design.
2. The challenge – it’s a fact of optical physics that the faster a lens’ aperture the greater the challenge for lens designers to address the various optical aberrations. These aberrations only increase exponentially as the widest / fastest aperture increases by just one stop. So, companies like Leica are indeed rightly lauded for achieving the performance levels of the Summicron f2 (what should be described as a standard fast aperture) designs as each new generation appeared.
Indeed they are rightly praised for their even more remarkable design achievements with the Summilux f1.4 designs – the most remarkable being their most recent in the new Summilux-M 50mm f1.4 ASPH. Here the performance was optimized through the use of aspherical lens element surfaces and the results is that this lens is not only absolutely outstanding in its wide open performance; but, by f2 it is the equal or master of the current Summicron-M 50mm f2, which is one of Leica’s finest lenses ever designed.
My point here is to highlight the challenge faced by lens designers - that these Leica examples come at enormous and justifiable cost. The brilliance of those designers’ work is that because the optical aberration challenges are so complex, even some of the best f1.4 designs never reach the performance standard of their f2 or f2.8 brothers at any aperture!
Now, I am certainly not saying that Canon achieved such lofty heights in the 1960s, indeed not although they are certainly credited with some outstanding optical performance achievements. And, I’m sure that its lens designers’ “parameters” were not just the challenges of optical physics itself, but moreover included size, weight and cost constraints.
And here is my great surprise – that a 1960’s lens, designed and made by a relatively “non-specialist” and un-glamorous camera and lens maker should perform comparatively so well today. More particularly, so well that in my humble opinion it out performs the Leica Summilux 50mm f1.4 lens of that era!
COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE
To my eyes the fine Canon lens out-performed the Summilux 50mm f1.4 lens example I tested. I found the Leica example prone to flare; produced mediocre colour rendition and tonality; produced rather disappointing out of focus blur which became quite ugly when the astigmatism was obvious.
By contrast the Canon rendered colour quite attractively albeit at a lower contrast overall; was only sensitive to flare when one would expect the risk of flare was high due to the light and angle of the camera; produced very sharp images at more optimal apertures that held fine detail quite well to the edges; was sharp at axis at f2, f1.4 and even f1.2 (especially so when the light enables accurate focusing of the rangefinder patch at f1.2); produced attractive softness as sharpness dropped off from axis to the outer field; did not show any strong signs of astigmatism.
In all, the balance of optical aberration corrections was very clever and resulted in a very usable general purpose ultra-fast 50mm lens.
But, most notably its very “special” performance is at f1.2 – just where I wanted it – no, not super sharp with incredible definition of detail, But, visibly sharp with good definition around the axis and a lovely creamy progression into the field and edges as sharpness, contrast and definition fall off – so sweetly progressive and attractive. The bokeh is superbly attractive (as you’d expect from a Japanese designer!).
IT’S ROLE IN MY 135 FORMAT RANGEFINDER KIT
Although this excellent lens produces good quality “normal” images (from f2.8 down) it’s hardly an outstanding 50mm lens. That description must be reserved for my superlative every-day 50mm – the Summicron-M 50mm f2 (Leica’s current and universally lauded 50mm), which enjoys a reputation as arguably the finest 50mm 135 format lens ever made.
But, there is no issue in this – different horses for different courses. My Canon f1.2 lens is reserved for low light photography – colour as well as B&W. In low light using f1.2, 1.4 or f2 this lens has lovely tonality. The lens coatings and optical design as well as element design do not lead to what may be called “harsh” contrast – biting contrast that produces a rather abrupt change as the image moves into the field and extreme edges.
Such a “biting” characteristic is often commented on about the Leica Summicron-M 35mm ASPH and less so about the Summilux-M 50mm ASPH. What these lenses have in common is the use of ASPH element design, something Leica designers adopted as they searched for ways to optimize already excellent lenses. The Leica commentator, Urwin Puts, recently stated that it seems that Leica’s designers had reached the end of the optimization road and then moved towards the aspherical element design to get just that bit more out of already outstanding lenses.
So, in low light I get the nicest attributes of this Canon lens, which compliments the low light scene with a gentle imaging treatment not often available in more modern lenses. It is as if the Canon designers optimized this lens for low light performance.
IN USE
I'm VERY lucky that my example is in mint condition complete with its original hood (I am very grateful to David at The Camera Exchange in Melbourne - see “Links” section for more information and a link - for alerting me to this lens after I rejected the Summilux 50mm of the same era), which itself now can bring larger sums of money.
On first sighting the lens intrigued me - wow it's one big piece of glass but great to use and makes an impressive statement; fantastic value for money these days still (being under AU$500) and a wonderful low light lens to have.
I have read that the f1.2 and its brother the monster f0.95 Canon 50mm RF lenses need very careful focus alignment with the Leica M bodies or they produce softer images than they are really capable of and I totally agree. Additionally, as with all ultra-fast lenses it can need great care with focusing in very dim light. But none of this is a hassle.
My purpose was specifically to find that "analogue sound" in a lens - pretty progressive OOF; creamy bokeh; tactile footprint and very very good low light speed and the f1.2 has all of that.
The human senses are more tactile - our ears hear warmth in sound; our eyes see texture in images. Digital imaging loses much of that just as digital sound processing does. Hence the re-growth of analogue sound systems and soon we will see niche revival in imaging. Leica remains at the forefront of this in imaging.
My first test images were with Provia and it was very sharp at all apertures at the plane of focus. I even found that the resolution of very fine detail around the axis was surprisingly good and as it softened towards the edges, I was still impressed. In fact it is a lens that I would be generally happy to use in all situations. The correction of all aberrations is to a high standard.
At the time I was searching for such a lens I got the opportunity to trial the new Voigtlander Cosina 40mm f1.4 (fully coated version rather than the "classic" version), which was a sheer delight to use and the images were superb - VC really does produce some wonderful gear at remarkable prices. It had all the characteristics I was seeking and in such a compact package. But, I could not adjust my eye to not having a 40mm frame-line even though I really like a 40mm focal length's angle of view and this lens in particular.
What amazes me is that when I first got my M7 nearly two years ago, I said to myself that like all camera gear the most valuable component is the optics and that I would always prefer to use a Leica-M optic and that what I could not afford I would save for over time. So in the back of my mind I was very hesitant about both the VC and Canon lenses only to discover the truism in the saying: "different horses for different courses!".
This Canon f1.2 lens has an interesting foible. It defies normal convention in the way the focus/aperture “dot” is not located in the top centre position when the lens is mounted.
There is a difference between "being lined up correctly on the mount" and the location of the aperture "dot" on the lens barrel and how that centres on the top of the lens barrel when mounted on the Leica.
Part of Leica’s mystique is the brilliantly high quality of the Leica-M lens mount that results in remarkable focusing accuracy. Certainly the Leica-M mount is said to be the best engineered and manufactured mount going. The accessory mount fitted to my Canon f1.2 is perfectly aligned and produces pin sharp accurate focus alignment in the rangefinder patch and the resulting image. This is something many users find needs very careful adjustment or risk disappointment from less that exactly sharp-focused subjects.
That un-conventional positioning of the barrel markings as the lens barrel sits when mounted to a Leica M is a little annoying at first. It's made a bit more annoying by the fact that the rings upon which the markings are made (on the f1.2 example and maybe similar on the f1.4) are very narrow so the markings are small and crammed. BUT, like everything else, one overcomes that quite quickly.
I am not sure if this un-conventional barrel positioning is an outcome of the lens having a Leica M mount fitted to it and the same lens mounted on a LTM or Canon rangefinder would have a conventional placement of the "dot". I do not know much or enough about the lens' history to be able to tell you.
My f1.2 mounts very very close to the body and as you can imagine by its speed is quite fat (significantly "fatter" than any f1.4 50mm due to the 1/2 stop more light). This means that getting my finger in to push the lens release button is very very very tight! Anyway, I love the lens and don't complain about those foibles.
The lens hood is excellent (very excellent) – while huge it has perfect slots to lessen the impact of viewing through the viewfinder. It has one of those “clamp” type fitting mechanisms whereby you twist a prominent screw which closes in the collar against the lens. I’d give that design only 5/10 because the hood can easily slip off especially as you put it in and out of a camera bag. But, who cares – it works a perfect treat. And Leica could learn a thing or two here, having a propensity to annoy users with pithy little hoods that are more easily lost or hardly effective.
I do keep a top quality B&W UV filter attached to enhance imaging through more modern coating as well as to protect this very exposed dinner plate like front element.
CONCLUSION>
But, most of all – I was seeking an affordable very fast 50mm lens with pretty “classic” imaging characteristics and competent performance wide open as well as in the normal aperture range - and I found all of that and much more in Canon’s nearly forgotten, old but very useful 50mm f1.2 LTM lens.
This main image accompanying this essay is a simple one to demonstrate the low light characteristics I refer to. It was shot on Fuji Superia 200asa consumer film; there is no manipulation of the image; f1.2; hand-held at 1/30 second. The point of critical focus was the centre candle's wick. You will also see from this sample no visible vignetting. In daylight shooting I was pleasantly surprised by how well vignetting is controlled at f1.2 and f1.4 - excellent by any standard today.