How Good Really is the Nikon 5cm f1 4 LTM?
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- ...in which I test a 1958 Nikon 50mm optic to the limits, asking the question, can this legendary lens, favoured by war photographers from the last century, live up to its reputation as a sharpshooting combat veteran? Or should it just settle down for a nice photographic nap and let the youngsters take to the trenches?'
Cameras: Zorki 4k film Rangefinder, Nikon Z 6
Lens: Nikon Nippon Kogaku Nikkor 5cm f/1.4 LTM
Film: Ilford HP5 Plus at ISO 400
Location: Scarborough Beach and Hillarys Boat Harbour, Perth, Western Australia
Date: July 2023.
web: markmcmahon.me
instagram: @patternsinsand
Hi Mark. Thanks for another entertaining video!
Just to be really nerdy, the schemetic shows a lens with 7 elements in 5 groups - maybe it's not the right diagram?
'Real' 5cm Sonnar design has two cemented triplets, which seem to be not that uncommon back then. As an aside, I don't know why it's often claimed the 8 element Takumar 50mm f1.4 wasn't economical to produce because it had one cemented triplet?? I guess that's just a myth.
Pinned. Thanks for the correction and your impressively nerdy attention to detail! The diagram came from a generic discussion on Sonar designs - can't find the specific one for this so maybe someone else can comment.
I love how you employ the wonderful 'Rule of Third' & 'Looking Room' for your image composition.
Bravo ! So many amateurs and even so called professionals ignore those critical rules...👏
Thanks for the comment and for watching.
I have the Nkon 50mm f/1.4 on a Nikon S2. It's my favorite rangefinder lens. I love it wide-open for black-and-white work.
My copy is quite soft and dreamy wide open but that works well when you're wanting B&W portraits.
I do the same. Beautiful duo.
Great lens, great pictures, great footage! 🤩
Thanks!
Great lens review also in comparison to a modern 50 mm lens! Owning the same lens, I agree with your assessment from own experience. I am fortunate also having the Canon 50/1.4 LTM and Leitz 50/1.5 Summarit LTM lenses. All of them are very different wide open. The Leitz lens has the most unique bokeh wide open and glow to it, the Canon is special for its vignetting and some circular bokeh at f/1.4, whereas I really like the painterly background blur of the Nikkor wide open. Regarding usage of Zorki and FED LTM cameras: their rangefinder focusing relies on a different mechanism compared to Leica LTM and M cameras. Therefore likely the small deviation in accurate focusing at f/1.4.
Thanks for the feedback. I sometimes feel quite schizophrenic, putting my Nikon lens on a Canon P and have hankered after the Canon and Leica Summarit. They all have their unique qualities.
You instantly made me a subscriber by kicking against quite a few boxes of current myth and glorification. I love to use classic fast lenses myself but I also know how to work with and around their downsides which is spherical abberation and coma in heaps. Stopping down helps but then, what's the point of using a fast lens if you have to and when it also counteracts the picture you had in mind? And I'm also very happy to have alternatives at hand which I can use without their limitations. 😊
They say you date your camera bodies but marry your lenses. Fortunately, bigamy is allowed in camera optics so we can have the best of everything!
Your obviously a fine experienced photographer very impressed! Thank you!
Thanks!
Very interesting video
Thanks!
Video @ 25:42 "Seven elements and three groups" - Pretty sure the proper count for that optical formula drawing is 7 elements in 5 groups...
Yes, I've noticed differences between lens block diagrams and descriptions of the lens so can't really confirm whether it's the diagram or the description that's off.
I thought Chariots of Fire was better. I actually like that overexposed landscape look. the 400ISO film did well... f/2 + f/2 = Testicles
Thanks. The overexposed landscape look is pretty much an accurate depiction of how I see the world.
Thanks for this video . Where is located this place you took pictures?
Thanks. The pictures were taken at my local university campus - Edith Cowan University Mt Lawley, Western Australia.
Great video. It’s a nice lens but just get the Zeiss c sonnar Leica M Mount, you’re welcome.
Possibly a better lens but I don't own an M mount camera so unless there's a practicable adapter out there, I'm stuck with LTM.
@ m Mount is probably the most adaptable Mount out there unless you’re using ltm cameras exclusively
@@arrangearrange which I am for now - keeps me from being tempted by all that amazing M glass and I figure I can adapt my LTM lenses if I do 'upgrade'.
Can you tell me which adapter I should buy to use my Nikkor 500 LTM with my M240? Thank you!
LTM is the same as M39 and there are lots of adapters around - much easier to put LTM glass on an M rangefinder than the other way round because M glass sits closer to the focal plane so usually won't focus to infinity. Only gotchas I can think of is that 1) there are a few rare 'm39' lenses that are SLR rather than rangefinder - though they're rare and I doubt you'll find an adapter for them and 2) if your Leica automatically registers different frame lines for focal lengths you might need to buy one that's specific to the 5cm/50mm. Haven't tried to do it myself but Urth.co do have some M39 to M adapters with specific frame lines for your Leica. Good luck.
Interesting: This "3 lenses in one" is exactly what I use to describe the Leica Summarit 1:1.5/50mm (I still own), and even more so the "original" Summilux-M 1:1.4/35mm (that I had to let go and still miss). The Nikon 5cm f1.4 LTM is clearly a better performer than the Leica Summarit.
Nikon's LTM lenses were what brought the company into broader consciousness, though of course, these days most modern lenses outperform them technically. But as you say... 3 lenses in one!
How you compare to canon 50mm f1.4 LTM?
Haven't had a chance to use that one. I suspect, based on comment from @MB-or8js above that there are differences. In example photos online, it does appear that the Canon vignettes a bit more. I wouldn't expect either to be sharp wide open but the Nikon is bitingly crisp when stopped down and has a smaller form factor (albeit still a very heavy brass lens).
Hey I thought this was nikon sc1.4 test?
Don't think the cat was dead. Don't think the cat was alive.
Have to disagree. I think it was dead, I also think it was alive.
@manugenn The car was a cat was a bat was a box containing a cat that was a car that was a ... my brain hurts.
Tell me that aint a 'Bill Gates' 🍏 lookalike..
😮
Not a fan but if I had that kinda money...