Portrait lens, small, old or new?

[cosmonaut1959]

Now that I into the NEX system I need a lightweight lens for candid portraits of my daughter. Old or new give me some ideas. Even if it's an older Minolta. I certainly don't mind manual focus as long as it is lightweight.
And what about the new Noktor Hyper prime?
I may first try my Summicron. Maybe it won't have those nasty color shift that Steve Huff got with his Leica glass.

[artington]

I have had some good results on my NEX-5 with an old Minolta MC 58/1.2 which is a good focal length given the NEX crop factor. It is not that hard to focus wide open either because of MF assist. It is quite large though, especially with the MD adapter. The easier to find MD 50/1.4 might be a better bet in this regard but still not small. I have not tried one yet but the Zeiss Planar 50/2 ZM is supposed to be stellar and the Leica-M to NEX adapter is very small (I use the excellent Metabones adapter). Alternatively, and smaller, is the Zeiss 50/1.5 C Sonnar but this is more expensive and some users complain of focus shift issues, not that I would have thought that was a problem using a NEX where you can focus visibly rather than with a rangefinder. It is more suitable for portraits than the Planar but also more expensive. Then there is the Voigtlander VM 40/1.4 but this may be a little short for portraiture at 60mm equivalent on the NEX. Or you could try a Zuiko lens, or ... The list is long.

As for colour shift, i have found this to be an issue on the NEX-5 with wide VM lenses although it has largely gone by 28mm so may not be problematic for normal view lenses but I have no experience of that. In any case, this is easily rectified in pp with Cornerfix. I have seen no colour banding with the Minolta 58/1.2 lens.

[David Kilpatrick]

If you can find a good one, the Helios 58mm f/2 42mm thread manual lens made for Zenith is a very nice focal length for portraits on APS-C.

David

[pakodominguez]

At the PPE last October, I played with the SEL 50 f1.8 and I found it surprisingly good. The lens is not available yet...
Otherwise, On the manual focus options, the Minolta MC 58 f1.4 is quite good after f2.8, but it is not "light". I do prefer sometimes to pay extra and buy a Macro lens that even if start at f 2.8 or even 3.5, it will perform better wide open than a f1.4/f1.8 lens at f2.8

regards

[InTheSky]

Like Pako, I think the SEL 50 f1.8 when available will be the lens to take for this task (price, weight, size, stabilized, fully supported by NEX system : AF, aperture, ...).

In the manual focus world (lens I own or tried/test on the Sony NEX):

So far the best lens I use was the 58mm 1.2. In good condition, this lens is very good even wide open on the Sony NEX 5 (thanks to the manual focus zoom function -> but little bit hard when kid are running in the house ...). (~600$ on Ebay, too expensive if you don't have it always on your camera ...).

50mm 1.2 MD sharper than 58mm , but little less kindly out of focus effect (but almost half the size and weight) (~500$ on Ebay). more flare resistant than the 58mm.

58mm 1.4 MD last version is a very good lens too (~100$ on Ebay now).

50mm 1.4 MD last version is very good, I have gave the lens for a friend to play with and until now very satisfy. (~80$ on Ebay now).

With the MD-NEX adapter, those three last lens are comfortable and the weight is mostly in the lens, the Sony Nex become almost absent in the weight balance.


In the search for the perfect small portrait lens, you can go in the Leica mount:

40mm 2.0 (Leica or Minolta: better ) : very small, sharp. Kind of difficult to adapt to this very tiny focus ring system. 2.0 kind of short to get the perfect out of focus subject for a good portrait shot to my taste for the moment ... (~400-600$ depending of the condition).

50mm 1.2 Canon LTM : Very interesting lens, very not as sharp as the two Minolta MD wide open, but killer sharp when stop down to 5.6 and more (5.6 portrait ... ? ). The only very unbeatable advantage of this lens is the size and the fact that it take my 55mm filter suite usually on all my other Minolta lenses. Ho I forgot, this lens really don't wants flare ... ouf !


Too expensive option : is to buy the Contax RF adapter and get the old Zeiss/Contax 50mm F1.5. For the moment I'm thinking if I will not sell it once my friend give me back (yes ... I'm sharing too much lens...)

The 50mm 2.0 is very less expensive and there is good Kiev copy also (mostly in the same category of the proposed 50mm by David).

On lens I never touch is the Kiev 53mm F/1.8 that looks interesting


If you cannot wait for the SEL 50 f1.8:
In the AF world with the NEX to AF Minolta Adapter or this great invention (that sometime work better than the automatic one) :http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Sony-Minolta-MAF ... 3873wt_952

50mm 1.7 Minolta AF : Very good, but focus manually (~115$ on Ebay)

50mm 1.8 DT : can focus on the Sony adapter but very slowly. Good performance for the price. (~150$ on Ebay)

other option : Minolta old 50mm 1.4 (good !) (~250$), or the Sony/Minolta RS 50mm 1.4 (good but more expensive and don't justify the difference).

In the world I know (trying or owning) the winner in the price is the 50mm MD 1.4.

If money is not a problem ... there is VERY good Leica for ~5000$ out there ... and also some in the ~1500$ for smaller aperture.

For signature picture, I recommend the 58mm 1.2 MD and the Canon LTM 50mm 1.2.

Regards,

Frank

[cosmonaut1959]

Thanks all. I'll look around on EBay, KEH ect for the lenses you suggest. I see that you are all in the 50mm range.

[Birma]

Hi Cosmonaut - congrats on the Nex 7. I have no way near the lens experience of the guys above but I can say that I have really enjoyed the MD 50/1.4 that I got for my Nex 5. It is probably the favourite lens in my kit bag right now. It is heavy though, compared to the SEL offerings. (I have a MD 45/2 which is great size wize, but doesn't have the 'zing' of the 50.) Don't skimp on the adapters would be my advice. My current MD adapter cost about the same as the MD 50/1.4, but cheap alternatives had a sloppy fit.

[artington]

Don't skimp on the adapters would be my advice. My current MD adapter cost about the same as the MD 50/1.4, but cheap alternatives had a sloppy fit.

I woul definitely second that. I tried a Chinese adapter for MAF to NEX and there was definite wobble - may not have affected performance but certainly felt bad. I've relented and bought the LA-EA1, which is very nice and even reasonably priced by comparison with Novoflex (I'm not bothered by slow and selective AF as I only want it for my MInolta AF 50/3.5 macro which I focus manually, mainly on a rail). As i said above, I have found the Metabones M-NEX adapter to be a great item and i use a Novoflex for MD-NEX (had to swallow quite hard at the price, which is outrageous for a tube, but it is beautifully made and there doesn't seem to be much alternative of decent quality).