M mount 50mm 1.1 for $368 new! (made in China by 7Artisans)

"For about the same money, you can get an early Summicron 50, which produces outstanding image quality at f/2" Ed.

 

I purchased, again on impulse a Canon LTM 50mm 1.8 for my M2. I don't really need f1.1.... and since receiving it in love with the build quality .Sort of think there's a Art there of hand built made to last quality. Hey, nope its not going to make me a better photographer..

Real solid quality build and just for a few hundred coins.

I used the 50/1.1 today with a Leica M240. Lens and camera are new to me. I took 250 photos, and I like the way this lens works with the Leica camera. I used the lens mainly with apertures 1.1-2, but I also had to use it at smaller apertures even though ISO was set to 200. Edited August 6, 2017 by pensacolaphoto

Using this lens wide open may produce strange looking bokeh that some will like and others will dislike. I am still working on getting images in fcous when using the lens wide open. I will try using the EVF with focus assist 10X to improve my odds ...

Else, this lens is a bargain.

I started to be able to get in focus images with this lens!

The depth of focus is so shallow wide open, even with my 55 1.2 Nikkor that it is difficult to get an entire face in focus. One trick is to get the eyes or an eye sharp, and most viewers will think it is in focus. Apparently the brain adjusts.

One trick is to get the eyes or an eye sharp, and most viewers will think it is in focus.

In the above image, the eye(s) are most definitely not in focus. I am not particularly fond of these shallow DOF headshot images, IMHO they make the face look flat, without any depth whatsoever. Many often state that headshots taken with "too long" a focal length flatten the facial features; I think using the "correct" focal length but too shallow a DOF gives worse results.

It was a test of the lens. I usually use for portraits a 50mm lens at 2.0-2.8 indoors and at 5.6-8 outdoors.

The OOF looks wild here.

 

Interesting -- worth the effort to explore a lot further.

This lens when used at aperture 1.1 is like a special effects lens.

Wide-Open on the M9:

 

Endless Caverns, 7Art 50/1.1, Wide-Open by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

 

Skate and Fun Zone, 7Art 50/1.1 Wide-Open by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr