Comparing Vintage 55mm Lenses

I've been wanting to do this for a while: a side-by-side comparison of my collection of vintage 70s normal lenses — 50-55mm lenses — from popular film cameras of the day.

All of these lenses were well regarded in their time. The one exception here is the Yashica ML 50, an under-appreciated 80s lens sold during the years of Yashica's manufacturing partnership with Carl Zeiss.

In this case I was able to take essentially the same image with relatively similar lighting and the same camera settings. I hope this highlights the differences in character between the lenses.

All of the following shot at f2.8 except the Micro-Nikkor, which was shot at the widest f3.5 aperture.

Camera is a Panasonic Lumix GX7.

Asahi (Pentax) SMC Takumar 55mm f2 @ f2.8

SMC Takumar 55mm f2 @ f2.8

Asahi (Pentax) Super Takumar 55mm f1.8 @ f2.8

Super Takumar 55mm f1.8 @ f2.8

Mamiya Sekor 55mm f1.8 @ f2.8

Mamiya Sekor 55mm f1.8 @ f2.8

Yashica ML 50mm f1.9 @ f2.8

Yashica ML 50mm f1.9 @ f2.8

Nikon Nikkor 50mm f2 AI @ f2.8

Nikkor 50mm f2 AI @ f2.8

Nikon Micro-Nikkor 55mm f3.5 @ f3.5

Micro-Nikkor 55mm f3.5 @ f3.5

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