I just acquired a Hexanon AR 52mm f1.8 at a reasonable price. Is this a good lens or is the 50mm f1.7 a better lens? I use the Hexanon AR 40mm f1.8 on my E-P1 and getting great results.
From what i could understand the 52 1.8 is a good lens, nothing wrong about it. As opposed to the 40 1.8 and the 50 1.7 that are just legendary , a lot of photographers consider them as the sharpest 40 and 50 mm lens ever made. I personally think a bit different . They are great lenses, in my opinion the sharpest lense that you can get is the helios 44 , and if you want a minolta lense it is definitely the Rokkor 50 1.4. So to conclude the 52 1.7 is good not great.
hmmm I've had the 50/1.7 and 52/1.8 to compare side by side and just got a 40/1.8. The 52/1.8 is not as highly sought after as the other two, but in practice the 52 is sharp, contrasty and is a real bargain. I suspect that the differences in these lenses might have more to do with individual copies differences than design. Of my copies the 40/1.8 is sharpest. That said, the 52 is a very nice lens.
