That's it! I've had it with the af 50s. Bring on the manual glass recommendations.

I like the old Nikkors in manual focus and have tried lots of Takumars, Contax in a C/Y mount, Olympus, various M42s.

This is an interesting perspective on collecting 50mm lenses.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/​sm-02-09-22.shtml

I had an old Nikkor 50mm f/1.4. Very nice lens for $80. Very sharp at f/2 and up. I sold it when I figured out that I missed AF too much.

themadman wrote in post #11413104
Since we are talking about MF lenses, what mounts can be used with a glassless adapter on a Canon camera? I heard Nikon and M42 can, what others?

Any M42, Contax/Yashica, Nikon, Pentax (but you'll often need to hack off the auto-aperture flange), Praktica B (but finding adapters can be hard), Olympus OM, and Leica R-Mount.

Minolta MC/MD can be converted, and probably the finest fast 50 ever, the Rokkor-PG 58mm f/1.2 is convertible. The process isn't too complicated and the results are absolutely incredible.

Be careful with some MF lens and FF camera. Some of them will protrude into the body and the mirror will hit the rear of the lens. I was a bit scared to try those M42+SMC Asahi 50mm on my 5d2.

Zeiss MP 50 f/2