I Found The Best 50mm Lens For L-Mount Cameras

I just tested a 50mm lens that cost $7000. I got to compare it directly to five other 50mm lenses starting at just $225. How do you think it stacked up? 

To get the full story, please watch the video above, but I'll give you a quick summary of how each lens performed. 

7Artisans 50mm f/1.8 AF Lens

At this $225, this lens was by far the cheapest. As expected, this lens had the worst image quality and sharpness of the bunch and it came in 5th place in the autofocus speed test. Although this was the worst performing lens of the bunch, because of it's incredibly low price, it's still absolutely worth considering if you're looking for an affordable, compact option. 

Panasonic LUMIX S 50mm f/1.8 Lens

At $500, this is the second cheapest lens of the group but its plastic housing made it feel the cheapest. This lens came in 5th place for image quality, but again, for the price, this lens is still worth considering. 

Panasonic LUMIX S PRO 50mm f/1.4 Lens

This is the largest 50mm lens I've ever held in my hand. Build quality is fantastic, but the manual zoom doesn't feel as nice as it should for a $2300 lens. This lens has the most impressive image quality of the bunch with the sharpest images from edge to edge, and the least vignetting. 

Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG DN Art Lens

Both Sigma lenses are the most feature rich of the bunch, with an aperture ring lock switch, clicking or smooth aperture ring switch, manual to auto focus switch, and an AF-Lock button. This, slower and cheaper f/1.4 version came in third place for image quality, but does suffer from purple fringe chromatic aberration (which I didn't notice in the f/1.2 version. 

Sigma 50mm f/1.2 DG DN Art Lens

For $500 you are getting more than a half-stop of low light performance. The Sigma f/1.2 was extremely close to having the best image quality of the bunch, especially at f/1.4. Although this test was specifically testing "L-Mount" lenses, Sigma makes this lens for every major brand and mount. 

Leica Summilux-SL 50mm f/1.4 ASPH. Lens

I've always wanted to know how Leica can justify such high prices. This $7,000 lens was my first experience using an Leica product, and I'm sorry to say that it did not perform well. This lens was not extremely sharp in the center or edge of it's frame wide open. The color and bokeh out of all of the lenses looked exactly the same. This lens also had the worst minimum focusing distance and the slowest autofocus speed of all of the lenses tested. Clearly this lens is not worth $7000, but even if it were priced at $1000, you'd have a hard time choosing between this lens at the Sigma f/1.4. 

Ironically, the B&H page for this lens now says that it is "discontinued," so I'm afraid you can't buy it anyway. Maybe I'll be the first and last person to review this lens.