Introduction

Like several of the 50mm lenses available in Leica M mount, the Zeiss Planar doesn’t really have any significant flaws. It’s sharp, compact, affordable, and makes beautiful photos. I bought mine when I realized I missed having a 50mm lens, and wanted one that delivered excellent performance without breaking the bank. The Planar has been a very useful lens to have for travel, landscapes, and portraits.

The Planar is a simple double-Gauss design and is almost identical in design to the Leica 50mm f/2 Summicron.

Build quality

The Zeiss features all-metal construction and feels very solid. On my copy, the focus and aperture rings both feel great. The mechanical quality overall feels a tad less deluxe than the much more expensive Leica Summicron, but it’s very close and they’re both excellent.

Size and feel

Perfect size and great handling. I only have a few tiny complaints. First, the aperture ring is in 1/3rd stops, and I prefer the 1/2 stops of Leica and Voigtlander lenses. Second, this lens has the standard Zeiss focus “bump” and I’ve never understood the point of these. Third, unlike the Leica version, the Zeiss doesn’t have a built-in hood; if you want one, you’ll have to purchase it separately and attach it to the front bayonet.

Image quality

Distortion: Unlike the Leica 50/2, the Zeiss has a detectable amount of barrel distortion (1.5%). I’ve never noticed it in my photos, and it’s very simple to correct in Lightroom.

Vignetting: Minimal.

Chromatic aberration: Minimal/none.

Bokeh: The Planar has very smooth and pleasant background blur. If you want to see a detailed close-up of the bokeh, you can find that at the Voigtlander 50 APO review.

An f/1.4 lens will give you more bokeh, but personally I think a 50mm f/2 lens already has plenty. For most people, I would recommend against going for a wider-aperture 50mm lens since you sacrifice size, image quality, and price.

Sharpness, infinity:

Already tack-sharp in the center and mid-frame at f/2, with some smearing/haze in the edges and corners. I didn’t show results from stopping down to f/2.8-f/4, but it becomes bitingly sharp corner-to-corner. You can see a comparison with a reference lens, the Voigtlander 50 APO, at its review page. In summary, this lens isn’t perfect at infinity but its performance is plenty good for almost all applications.

Sharpness, mid-distance (2m):

Similar to at infinity, there’s some wide-open haziness in the edges and corners but the center and mid-frame are already plenty sharp at f/2. This isn’t quite as good as the Voigtlander 50 APO but the Planar will deliver razor-sharp images in almost all real-world circumstances.

Sharpness, minimum distance (0.7m):

There’s a slight lack of micro-contrast here at f/2, which sharpens up by f/2.8. I don’t see any significant focus shift.

Sharpness, real-world:
Test shots aren’t everything, so here are some real-world examples of sharpness at f/2:

Here’s an example that illustrates the slight lack of micro-contrast at f/2, 0.7m. The resolution is there; it’s just not bitingly sharp.

Focus shift: I haven’t noticed any significant focus shift.

Summary and recommendations

The Zeiss 50/2 Planar is a fantastic standard lens. It’s tack sharp throughout almost the whole frame even at f/2, which is way better than your classic nifty fifty from Canon/Nikon/etc. The edges/corners don’t get sharp until around f/2.8 or f/4, but this almost never matters. The Planar delivers this excellent image quality at a very reasonable price and is the perfect size for an M lens.

Although the Planar is useful for all applications, I particularly enjoyed having mine for portraiture, travel, and landscapes. I ended up selling mine after about a year of heavy use, in order to make space to try some other 50mm lenses. The 50 Planar is such a nice balance of cost, quality, and size that I may end up buying another one some day.

There are a lot of alternatives to the 50 Planar, and many of them are excellent so it’s hard to go wrong. The most tempting might be the Voigtlander 50/2 APO-Lanthar (review), which offers truly perfect performance. But it’s slightly heavier, larger, and more expensive than the Planar. I think it’s a close call between the two, and it will ultimately be a personal preference whether compactness or extreme performance are a higher priority. The Leica 50 Summicron non-APO (review) costs about 2-3x as much as the Planar and is practically identical. It’s an OK choice if you are willing to pay more for the Leica design, which also includes a built-in hood. If you want a wider aperture, your best choice is probably the Voigtlander 50mm f/1.5 II (review) or the Leica 50 Summilux ASPH. Neither of those have quite the same corner-to-corner sharpness as one of the 50/2 options.

Good
Image quality
Build quality
Size and feel
Price

Bad
None

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Other alternatives

Leica 50mm f/2 APO-Summicron ASPH
This lens offers similar performance to the Voigtlander APO and is a bit better in terms of size and ergonomics. But that’s not enough to overcome its price of over $8000.

Voigtlander 50mm f/3.5 Heliar
This lens offers optical perfection with a fairly limited f/3.5 aperture in a tiny but odd-looking package. For a similar price you can just get the Zeiss 50/2 Planar, so I’m not sure who this lens is for.

Zeiss 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar
This is a very compact lens with a vintage optical design. It’s never interested me as it has a lot of focus shift, which makes it a pain to use on rangefinders.

Additional reading

Comparison vs Voigtlander 50/2 APO
Review by KJ Vogelius
Review by PC Mag
Massive 50mm comparison by 47 Degrees
Comparison vs Leica 50/2 APO by Steve Huff

More sample images