This is one of those vintage lenses that makes you wonder why you would spend very much money on a manual-focus 50mm. The MD Rokkor-X 50mm f/1.4 is small, solidly built and, once stopped down a little, an excellent performer.

Wide open at f/1.4 it’s perfectly usable, although it’s not at its best. Stop it down a little and things improve considerably, with very good sharpness and an overall rendering that I found quite pleasing. For a fast, brand-name 50mm that can often be found relatively inexpensively, there’s not much to complain about optically.

It’s also remarkably compact for an f/1.4 lens. The mechanical construction feels excellent, focusing is straightforward, and the small 49mm filter size helps keep the whole package compact when adapted to a modern mirrorless camera.

My biggest complaint is the 0.45 m (about 1.5 ft) minimum focusing distance. That’s fairly normal for a 50mm SLR lens of this era, but in actual use I found it limiting. More than once I wanted to move closer to a subject and simply ran out of focusing range. If you like photographing small objects and details, that’s worth keeping in mind.

Otherwise, this is a very easy lens to recommend as a vintage 50mm to actually use: fast, compact, well made and very good once stopped down slightly. Wide-open performance isn’t perfect, but that’s a relatively small compromise for an inexpensive f/1.4 normal lens.