The Greatest Lenses Ever

[John]

Thinking about lenses, there are some designs that have a legendary reputation. If you really thought about the absolute cream of the range, what lenses would you nominate for an all time Hall of Fame?

Here's some ideas to start us off:

SMC Pentax-FA 200mm f4 Macro
SMC Pentax-FA Limited lenses 31mm/43mm/77mm
Nikkor 50mm f3.5 Macro
Carl Zeiss 75mm f3.5 Planar (Rolleiflex)
Canon 50mm f0,95 (not for its quality, more for its desireability)

I'll leave it to Leica experts to nominate their classics - any others?

[pammie]

Well logic says the two lenses you were born with ......because without those we'd all be scrambling in the dark - literally !!

[John]

Pammie, I like the way you think....

[sunsworth]

Leica 24mm Elmarit (that's f2.8 max aperture).

An absolutely astounding lens on either a film or digital body.

Second choice would be a Leica 35mm ASPH Summicron (f2 max aperture).

Does that mean I'm now an expert at something <grin>.