Native Primes that you love to Focus Manually

None of the native lenses even come close to the feel of a manual focus lens.

 

The Olympus lenses with focus clutch feel pretty OK, but they're still focus by wire.
The Olympus 12-40 in particular is not bad given its larger size.
That said they don't feel nearly as nice as the Nokton lenses...
Rudy

 

The Pl25 is very nice for this purpose.

 

The best native lenses for manual focusing are the Voigtlander lenses. None of the AF m43 lenses have MF rings that feel good enough for me to bypass AF unless it's for macro work, especially when AF is super quick and reliable. YMMV.

 

oh, I was thinking of the autofocus focus by wire lenses and not the manual focus only native lenses (which are designed for manual focus so feel good in use).

 

PL15. The action and placement of the MF ring versus the weight, balance and focal length of the lens is pretty spot on.

 

I'll repeat my sentiment. If you're looking for the "feel" of older MF legacy lenses, IMO, no native AF lens has the same direct feel and action. If you're solely going to be using these lenses in MF mode, buy some nice MF legacy lenses with the cash instead of paying for a nice AF native lens with AF that you won't use. I haven't used any of the Samyang/Rokinon/Mitakon native MF lenses but the Voigtlander native MF lenses are superb in terms of MF quality, IQ and overall build. There are plenty of choices in the used legacy lens market and I suspect as you mentioned, much of the joy comes from manual focusing your lenses. If that's where your joy lies, then acquiring actual MF lenses will give you more joy in focusing than any fly by wire AF lens used as a MF lens. While a lot of the better fly by wire AF lenses may have a "buttery smooth" MF feel, there is still a disconnect between rotating the focus ring at different speeds and focus achieved. This isn't a criticism of a specific lens but rather "fly by wire" in general.

As for the O12/O17/P15/P25/P12-40 that have all been mentioned, while they're all optically very nice lenses, IMO none of them compares to a quality legacy MF lens in terms of focus action. Also, with the clutch focus mechanism on the O12 and O17, when in MF mode, the focus is stepped which may or may not annoy you depending on how sensitive you are to this.

 

Not quite native, but the 50-200 SWD has by far the best MF of my AF lenses. Otherwise, none of them come close to MF lenses, including the 25/1.4 and 12-40/2.8. I haven't tried the 15/1.7.

 

I agree with tyrphoto, if you want MF look at Voigtlanders.

 

I have agree about the 50-200 SWD. It even manually focuses better then my little tuna.

 

I so completely agree with this and is why I own and use several manual focus lenses.

 

The 75mm f/1.8. Granted, totally focus by wire, but the telephoto compression, narrow dof, and sharpness of the lens still makes it a pleasure to use in MF.

 

We started with the Olympus OM-1. An E-M5 ii with a Voigtlander lens is eerily familiar.

 

I'd also have to agree with this. The MF focus clutch on the 12-40 is decent and very handy in macro, or when setting focus to infinity, and I'd give the "nicest-manual-focus-out-of-the-native-AF-lenses-I've-used" award to the PL 25, but it's not so nice that I would prefer it in any situation where AF would work just as well. The O75 does have a smooth ring, but in use, I've personally found the FBW focus action isn't as smooth as the ring itself

I did however own a Voigtlander for a time and I never thought I would describe MF as a "pleasurable" experience, but there really isn't a better word for it. If you want a native lens and you don't plan on needing AF for that lens, definitely consider the Voigtlanders. Very premium quality and a joy to own and use.