50mm prime?

[Mozim]

Hey, 

 

I need suggestions which manual 50mm prime lens to pick up. 

 

I shoot with an APS-C Canon DSLR and a Panasonic GH3. Right now I have two 50mm lenses, one being the Canon 50mm f/1.8 and the other one being a Rikenon 50mm f/1.7. I also have the MFT Olympus 45mm f/1.8. 

 

Now I know that there's a ton of cheap, old 50mm primes but I don't know which one to pick up. The Canon is alright but isn't really useful when shot wide open because of purple fringing and general lack of sharpness. The Rikenon 50mm f/1.7 is a bit better wide open, so I'd just use this one BUT there's not stops between f/1.7 and f/2.8, which is really annoying. 

 

So I'm looking for a 50mm lens that is fairly useful wide open, has f-stops inbetween wide open and f/2.8, isn't too expensive and has a nice build quality. 

 

A local shop sells the Yashica 50mm f/1.7 for crazy cheap but I've heard mixed things about it. Is the Yashica 50mm f/1.4 better than the f/1.7 version? What about the Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4? How do these compare? And any other option that I should be looking into?

 

Thanks a ton in advance, 

Moritz

[andy lee]

Yashica 50mm f/1.7 is 99.999% practically identical to the Carl Zeiss 50mm f1.7 Planar which is king of 50mm in my book.

they are made in the same factory in Japan - I have both and there is nothing in it. identical !

 

side by side tests here

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1045758

 

The Yashiac 50mm f1.4 is slighly softer wide open

 

PS: we have started a new thread just for lenses please post and look in it,