Everyone has different priorities, and to many, the priorities of some seem like utter foolishness. In the last year, I have spent nearly four thousand dollars on my camera lenses. To many, that seems just plain stupid. To me, every penny was worth it. And in this entry I’ll be talking a bit about that.
What I’m going to do here is give a quick comparison between two of my lenses. One is the Panasonic-Leica Nocticron, which still retails for $1,600, and which I spent a little under $1,200 for. The second lens is a Russian made copy of the old Zeiss Sonnar, called the Jupiter 8, which was made in 1968, and cost me a total of $80. The Nocticron is nearly twice the size of the Jupiter any way you measure it, and a good deal heavier as well, but gives an 85mm field of view compared to about a 100mm field of view on the Jupiter — as such, both of these are primarily used as portrait lenses for me, but aside from that they are so vastly different in every way, especially cost, that I wanted to give a comparison between the two and talk about them. I love my gear, so for those who are like me, I know this will be a fun entry.
NOTE: For those of you less familiar with camera lingo, I’ll be writing in footnotes to help explain things that I write about. Hopefully that will make this entry not only more enjoyable for you, but also educational.
the Nocticron
First off, let’s talk about the Nocticron. This is a Leica-designed* lens, and it shows it. Super sharp right from f/1.2*, and with a beautiful bokeh* — super creamy. With an 85mm full frame equivalent field of view*, this is the perfect portrait lens for Micro Four Thirds*. It does offer auto focus (and is at the time of writing this the fastest auto focus lens in the MFT* world), as well as image stabilization, though since I shoot with an Olympus body, I don’t need it — since the five axis image stabilization in the camera itself is much better than the IS of the lens. The auto focus is lightning fast in any normal light, though I can’t speak much for it in really dark environments, as I haven’t tested it that extensively. The Nocticron is big, and heavy, exactly what MFT shooters are not fans of, but it does offer something that no other lens for this system does, and it renders images more beautifully than about any other native lens in this focal length. If you’re a portrait photographer who shoots MFT, you’ll want this lens.
unedited self-portrait taken with the Nocticron
unedited self-portrait taken with the Jupiter 8
the Jupiter 8
And now we’ll have a closer look at the little Russian bit of glass, the Jupiter 8. There isn’t much really to say about it. It’s small and light, as basically all rangefinder* lenses are, and gives a reasonably fast f/2 maximum aperture. (This lens is also available in an f/1.5 variant, but that costs a little more and I didn’t want to spend the money at the time.) It’s a native Leica M-mount lens, so to mount it to my OM-D I bought a $3 adapter from eBay. Being a 50mm, the Jupiter on MFT will give you a 100mm field of view, which is good for portraits. I can truthfully say this is the sharpest lens I’ve ever bought for $80. In fact it’s the only lens I’ve ever bought for $80. Which is to say, it is pretty sharp, all things considered. But it’s a vintage lens, and produces a vintage look, and if that’s what you want this will be great for you. Where it is soft, it’s a pleasing sort of softness, not like what you get from a cheap, plastic kit lens or something like that. Also, using it in combination with some VSCO Films can give you awesome retro results, which I love. I rarely use it, but have produced a few images with it that I really like. The Jupiter 8 gets the job done, and in a much smaller and lighter package than the Nocticron.
So on the one hand you have a nearly technically perfect, state-of-the-art, native MFT, super fast lens that will give you rich contrast and colour along with a signature creamy bokeh, that will run you anywhere from $1,200 to $1,600 new. And on the other hand you have a light, compact Zeiss copy made in the USSR in the late ‘60s, which gives a true vintage look to your photos while still being reasonably sharp and fast, offers manual focus only, and goes for around $100. Is one lens actually better?
Yes. The Nocticron is better. No question about that. But, is it necessary? Probably not. (Especially when you consider the other, cheaper options in this focal range, but that’s a whole other post.) The Nocticron is unique in the MFT system: it’s a monster — a beautiful monster. And the Jupiter 8 is a super cool, cheap, fun little lens to shoot with, easy to carry around in your bag. Both will give you a different look. What this entry is really for is to show the differences between the two, and to remind you that lenses make the image, and they all do it differently. What one photographer wants may not be what another wants, and that’s great; it’s great having different styles, and it’s awesome that we have so many options to explore them. For myself, many of my favourite images came out of the Nocticron, so and it has justified its cost over and over again. The best products always come at a cost, but depending upon who you are, that cost won’t deter you.
Nocticron portrait with VSCO Film Agfa Portrait XPS 160 applied
Jupiter 8 portrait with VSCO Film Agfa Portrait XPS 160 applied
So whatever you shoot with, enjoy it. Take photos with whatever lens you have, try different lenses, try old lenses and brand-spankin’ new lenses. Try manual focus lenses! Take photos, and enjoy your gear, because having any of it is a blessing, whether it’s a smartphone, a pro level DSLR, a consumer level mirrorless, or anything in between.
— Joel
footnotes…
*Leica-designed — Leica Camera is a German optics company, renowned primarily for their lenses, which are regarded by pretty much everyone as some of the best in the world. And for the price, they ought to be.
*f/1.2 — A camera lens’ “speed” is measured in f stops. The smaller the number, the larger the opening, or aperture, of the lens. The larger the aperture, the more light the lens can take in. Being able to pull in more light means that the shutter doesn’t have to be open as long to properly expose the image, which in turn means a photographer can use a faster shutter speed. This is what is meant by calling a lens “fast.”
*Bokeh — This is a Japanese term used to refer to the quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photo.
*full frame equivalent field of view — Smaller image sensors have what’s called a crop factor, meaning the field of view of the lens, expressed in millimeters, is multiplied by a certain number, which is determined by the size of the sensor in relation to full frame. Micro Four Thirds sensors have a 2x crop factor, meaning that the Nocticron, at 42.5mm, gives an 85mm full frame equivalent field of view.
*Micro Four Thirds — When talking of camera sensors, three main sizes will be brought up in normal conversation with a photographer: full frame, which is the same size as 35mm film; APS-C, which is a bit smaller than full frame, giving a 1.5x crop factor; and Micro Four Thirds, which has a 2x crop factor.
*MFT — Micro Four Thirds, also written as M4/3, and M43.
*Rangefinder — Most cameras today are SLR type cameras, meaning single lens reflex. This basically means that you look through the lens to compose your shot. But rangefinder cameras use a rangefinder system to focus, leaving the photographer to compose using an offset window with frame lines in it. Rangefinder lenses do not have autofocus, so they tend to be very compact.