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VC 35 1.2 v2


mustafasoleiman

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Hello there

 

I am considering the Voigtlander 35 1.2 v2 for my M9 and I was wondering if there are any comments and advice.

After the initial flurry of threads about it I have not seen any more discussions about it.

 

I am hoping to read some more now that some time has passed and people have had a better chance to evaluate it... Anything?

 

Many thanks

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Here is a recent photo as a comment. You won´t be disappointed with this lens,

although my LEICA-lust for a 35mm Lux ist still around.

 

 

best

GEORG

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Edited by k_g_wolf
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As I said, you won´t be disappointed, in fact, it is a very good

performer without - for me - detectable focusshift.

 

Here are two more samples, of what the lens can do. It is

better than many photographers, better than me as well.

 

 

Best

GEORG

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As I said, you won´t be disappointed, in fact, it is a very good

performer without - for me - detectable focusshift.

 

Here are two more samples, of what the lens can do. It is

better than many photographers, better than me as well.

 

 

Best

GEORG

 

I can see some purple fringing on the chairs' highlights... Do you think it is more than usual with this lens?

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Could be, but it needs a better expert to answer this. I just take it as it is

and don´t care a lot about it.

 

For me, it´s part of the present camera-lens-performance, perhaps you get it

with the LUX as well. It might be gone with the M10, but so far I´am pleased with what

I have here. All three shots were taken at f1.2

 

I should add: the images are bitingly sharp on my sreen, reduced to +/- 400 KB for

the L- Forum they appear much poorer.

 

 

best

GEORG

Edited by k_g_wolf
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I recently picked up this lens about 2/3 weeks ago and have been shooting it exclusively, but to be honest, I've only had about a half dozen intense shooting sessions. And let me sum up my experience:

 

Optically wide-open at f/1.2 - the lens is soft and dreamy, very similar to the ZM 50/1.5 in many ways. Fringing is pretty severe. Out in bright daylight, you'll see some pretty nasty blue fringing, interiorly with florescent lights, I've seen some pretty nasty green fringes. While this is annoying, you can resolve it easily with post-processing. Despite these problems, this lens is still pretty awesome wide open.

 

6265746724_882b4884e7_z.jpg

 

That's pretty sharp for wide-open. And as soon as you begin to stop down, the sharpness improves substantially. Even just at f/1.4, the lens becomes very crisp; and then by f/4.0 it exhibits all the characteristics of a "modern lens" - tack sharp. Corner-to-corner sharpness is not great, but I doubt you'll notice it in practice. I did a "brick-wall" test and noticed that the outer ~10% of the frame gets a little weak, but in all seriousness I doubt it's noticeable without purposefully testing for it. (On a FF M9 this might be more noticeable.)

 

Focus shift! - There is NONE! Well, none that I can detect anyways. I'm sure you can read a tech review on how the lens focuses 0.0000x % at f-whatever and how that makes the lens totally a piece of crap. But I did not see any focus shifts. f/1.2 through f/5.6 (my usual range) and it's always spot on. This is a HUGE improvement over the f/1.4 version of the Nokton.

 

Bokehs and OOF rendering is extremely pleasant at normal focusing distances (1.5m and out), but at "macro" distances 0.5 - 1.0m the bokehs can be a little busy. But it is considerably and noticeably better than the 35mm Nokton f/1.4. I also find the bokehs to share a lot of similarities to the ones produced by my 24mm Summilux.

 

6265746942_c1708f9452_z.jpg

 

Great subject separation here. The two people sitting behind the laptop were probably (my guesstimate) within half a meter of the laptop screen. I love the blur on them. Also, notice the rows of lights in the background? That's pretty well handled bokeh if you ask me.

 

Contrast/other optical quality-wise, I didn't notice anything exceptional. Pretty average I suppose. But that's not a bad thing. It's consistent, and the workflow for this lens falls in conveniently with the rest of my lens range, so no complaints there.

 

6275496908_5e163f245c_z.jpg

 

Color rendition is pretty stellar and very accurate. Might hinge a little on the cooler side, but shooting RAW with auto-WB means I can adjust it to be whatever in post, so no biggie here for me.

 

Mechanically, the lens hinges on the large side. But it's not obese like the Noctilux. The 52mm filter thread is approximately the girth of the lens and that fits very quaintly to the size of my hands. The wavey old-school focusing ring is a joy to use. Nice finish on the lens, black paint(?) is nicely done. No complaints there. Aperture ring clicks solidly in place, the f-stops are not evenly spaced apart like on modern Leica lenses, but instead is "exponentially" spaced - which in my mind makes more sense.

 

Things that bug me (and these are somewhat idiosyncratic):

 

Silver accessory ring on the lens (for the hood) is annoying for me. I like black, black does not reflect. So the fact that the whole lens is black but there is this silver chrome ring for the lens hood is kind of silly to me? Why must they do this? Fortunately a nice filter solved this problem for you. (Again, I shoot on the M8, so the IR-cut filter kind of saved the day here).

 

Another thing, the lens focuses down to 0.5m - but Leica rangefinders only go down to 0.7m. This is a double-edged sword. The ability to go lower than 0.7m allows for some pretty interesting shots, but without the rangefinder it's a trial-n-error game. But then again, how often do you really shoot within 1m at f/1.2? Not that often.

 

Overall, this is probably my favorite 35mm lens. Not just in the Leica M mount, but EVER. This is better than the 35 Summicron ASPH in my opinion (faster), it's better than the original Summilux ASPH (no focus shift), it's better than any Canon/Nikon lenses I've tried, and it's definitely better than the f/1.4 version Nokton.

 

6286053375_150603de8d_z.jpg

 

And at ~$1500, what great value. I know some of you will still lust after the new 35mm Summilux FLE, but I'm done. This is the 35mm lens for me. A "rest-of-your-life" purchase for me. Won't be in the market for a 35mm lens. Ever.

 

Thanks Voigtlander. Now I'm just waiting for you guys to re-introduce the 50mm f/1.1 - haha

Edited by ezc203
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I recently picked up this lens about 2/3 weeks ago and have been shooting it exclusively, but to be honest, I've only had about a half dozen intense shooting sessions. And let me sum up my experience:

 

Optically wide-open at f/1.2 - the lens is soft and dreamy, very similar to the ZM 50/1.5 in many ways. Fringing is pretty severe. Out in bright daylight, you'll see some pretty nasty blue fringing, interiorly with florescent lights, I've seen some pretty nasty green fringes. While this is annoying, you can resolve it easily with post-processing. Despite these problems, this lens is still pretty awesome wide open.

 

it all sounds very good except for this part... How do you get rid of these issues in PP?

Many thanks for great review.

 

I currently have a 35 summicron v.4, which I love for its weight and size, which is replacing a chrome 35 summicron asph which is very good but too heavy for daily use and I might end up selling it,

I am looking now for a faster 35 to complement the cron at night, and this CV might do the trick. I'd love the new 35 lux fle, but it is difficult to find and very expensive.

 

So again thank you for your reply, I just might get one.

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If you thought the 35mm Summicron is heavy/big you might not like this lens. It is at least double in size/weight.

 

In terms of eliminating fringe, what I do is select the effected area in PS and then desaturate in color and bring up in vibrance. It makes is look like blown out highlights and blends into the whites. Not the BEST solution, but works for my post editing style.

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If you thought the 35mm Summicron is heavy/big you might not like this lens. It is at least double in size/weight.

 

In terms of eliminating fringe, what I do is select the effected area in PS and then desaturate in color and bring up in vibrance. It makes is look like blown out highlights and blends into the whites. Not the BEST solution, but works for my post editing style.

 

I'm planning to use it only for low light shooting, not everyday use, when the v.4 is great for size and weight...

 

I find the v.4 almost as good as the asph, but much lighter and smaller, so I'll keep the v4 in tandem with the VC.

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Reid Reviews include the Voigtlanders, Zeiss and Leica. Quite thorough, he includes many examples of photographs taken in the field besides the technical photos to show center/corner resolution etc. Just as an aside, the other day I was evaluating center resolution on a lens wide open, compared to two stops down it was soft. Sharpening in photoshop rendered the wide open photo crisper than two stops down (without sharpening)....so this leads me to think that a lens need not be tack sharp.

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Reid Reviews include the Voigtlanders, Zeiss and Leica. Quite thorough, he includes many examples of photographs taken in the field besides the technical photos to show center/corner resolution etc. Just as an aside, the other day I was evaluating center resolution on a lens wide open, compared to two stops down it was soft. Sharpening in photoshop rendered the wide open photo crisper than two stops down (without sharpening)....so this leads me to think that a lens need not be tack sharp.

 

I read Reid Reviews but he has not reviewed this lens.

 

With respect with sharpening in PP please keep in mind that it is artificial.

Actual lens resolution contains information that PP sharpening cannot add as it doesn't exist in a lower resolution image.

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I read Reid Reviews but he has not reviewed this lens.

 

With respect with sharpening in PP please keep in mind that it is artificial.

Actual lens resolution contains information that PP sharpening cannot add as it doesn't exist in a lower resolution image.

 

In theory I would agree with you, but in practice the results are quite another story. If the subject being sharpened is in proper focus and quite detailed, sharpening in photoshop for all intents and purposes will give a result that is extremely difficult to tell from a more natively sharp photo. But without getting into this further my intent is to indicate that this lens despite slight softness can be pushed slightly in post processing to be sharper if necessary, and render more softly when not, maybe the best of both worlds.

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it all sounds very good except for this part... How do you get rid of these issues in PP?

 

Use the defringing tool in ACR (best), or the colour replacement brush in Photoshop (workable). Sometimes a bit of both works OK.

 

Steve

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I agree with you about 35mm f1.2.

 

35mm cron asph non 6-bit was my lens while I wait for faster lens. I got my 35mm f1.2 just before I traveled. During my trip I found 35mm cron 6-bit so I bought it to replace my cron non 6-bit. The next day the shop told me they had 35mm f1.4 FLE. I thought I was lucky so I bought the lux also. I started taking pictures then I knew 35mm f1.2 was very good and the 35mm f1.4 only major advantage I found was smaller size.

 

Should I keep 35mm f1.4 to be the only lens or VC for f1.2 + cron for small size?

 

I recently picked up this lens about 2/3 weeks ago and have been shooting it exclusively, but to be honest, I've only had about a half dozen intense shooting sessions. And let me sum up my experience:

 

Optically wide-open at f/1.2 - the lens is soft and dreamy, very similar to the ZM 50/1.5 in many ways. Fringing is pretty severe.

 

And at ~$1500, what great value. I know some of you will still lust after the new 35mm Summilux FLE, but I'm done. This is the 35mm lens for me. A "rest-of-your-life" purchase for me. Won't be in the market for a 35mm lens. Ever.

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Some people will disagree with me here, but I'm not a big fan of redundant lenses at the same focal length. Yes, you can't reduce a lens down to just it's aperture, size, etc etc, each lens is unique in character, the way it "draws" blah blah blah. But for me, one lens per focal length is plenty.

 

That said, I would consider doubling up at the 35mm just because that is the focal length I shoot 80% of my pictures with. So I can justify owning another lens at that focal length.

 

With regards to 35 Lux FLE vs 35 Cron ASPH + Nokton f/1.2 -- This is an extremely tough decision. I would have to sleep on it. I'm leaning towards just the FLE because of the reasons about (I don't like redundancies) but to be completely honest I don't have enough experience with the lens to vouch for it. So.... ... I don't know. Haha.

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Well... I got the vc 35 1.2 v.2

So far so good... It is big and heavy as expected, so I will definitely keep my 35 cron v.4 for use during the day.

 

The two lenses are so different that I don't mind having two of the same mm, actually I might consider it an advantage as a form of lens backup...

 

I'll let you know how it goes

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