Gear Talk > Lens Talk

Short MF telephoto for portrait on DX?

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Olivier:
I am looking for a short portrait lens for my newly acquired Fuji X-T1. I guess the dedicated 56mm f/1.2 is close to ideal but I don't want to invest so much now.
On FX (D700) I find the 50 to 150 mm range OK for what I like to do and have mostly used my AF-D 50mm f/1.4 and AIS 105mm f/2.5.
adapted on the Fuji, the 50mm is a bit disappointing from f/1.4 to 2 (soft and lacking contrast although f/2 is somewhat better), it gets really better at F/2.8 but I long for someting faster, in the 50-60 focal range. Any brand will do, as long as it is more than OK around f/1.8 and easy to MF.
Any idea?
I read good things about the Canon 50mm f/1.4 FD and the Minolta 50 1.4 MC but am actually unsure there will be a serious difference vs my current 50 AFD. They would probably be easier to MF although even the AFD is surprisingly easy on the X-T1.
What about the nikkor 50 1.8 AIS?
 
I forgot to mention, I am looking for a cheap lens...

The 105mm is now a bit long but still, it performs so well even fully open on the X-T1!
I am seriously considering a Lens Turbo 2 just for this lens. Central sharpness should still be good and that's all I need.
 

Bjørn Rørslett:
The Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 AIS is an overall excellent performer and pretty good even at the wider stops. Even cheaper of course is a Nikon 50 mm f/1.8 SE. If you are able to source one locally, should cost you < $ 20. Most of these lenses were used by non-professionals and thus haven't seen extensive use so will continue to work for additional decades into the future.

Erik Lund:
The Little Leica C 40mm f/2 is gem of a lens, rather cheap for Leica and fits like a Leica M lens.

Olivier:
Thanks both. I will look for those.
But even the Series E goes for at least 50€ in France (and that's OK of curse, well into my budget)!

Thomas Stellwag:
if you own a M42 adaptor and want to stick with 55-60mm: the Helios 44, it is 2.0  58mm russian copy of the Zeiss Biotar and is in the € 20 range with a little swirly bokeh wide open and Zeiss type of colour rendering, which is nice for portraits
another lens with imo very smooth rendering is the Zeiss/Rollei 1.8  50mm Ultron, the one with QMB mount you should get below € 100, M 42 around 130.-
only the Zeiss version with the concave front element is a real collectors item with a much higher price

the proposed Leica 2.0  40mm is a lens, that is very easy to focus (at least on my NEX, so it shouldn´t be different on your Fuji)

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