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Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 VM III


DMJ

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No....

But they claim it has fixed the colour shift problem to work better on digital cameras and they highlighted the Sony A7. Meaning it should be fantastic on the M240 as the Leica handles colour shift far better than the Sony.

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^Here's a high resolution example from the Sony A7R. From the Australian store Mainline photo in Melbourne.

 

Looks acceptably sharp in the edges, although there is a fair bit of CA. No colour shift! Not bad for something which costs a sixth of the Tri-Elmar.

 

http://mainlinephoto.com.au/content/V15F8-A7R.JPG

Edited by Mornnb
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... although there is a fair bit of CA. ...

Plenty of barrel distortion too, which is something that my first gen CV 15/4.5 doesn't have. It's not clear what aperture was used but it's a nice bright sunny day so it could have been stopped down to f/8 where I'd hope it would be sharp in the corners.

 

Anybody know whether it's rangefinder coupled and whether the close focus is still 300 mm?

 

Pete.

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I was at the Photographic Show at the NEC yesterday where Flaghead (aka Robert White) had one of these.

Here's an image I took

There's only one in the country at the moment.

I said I would get back to them later in the day.

I'm was also looking for deals on a Canon 14mm F2.8 and couldn't find any and so when I retuned, it had been sold, damn!

Is the person who bought it here?

I ordered one anyway and it'll be with me early next month

They were offering £50 off for the show so I paid £449

This one has the lens shade built in unlike the older version.

About 1/3 the price of the Canon but not as fast though.

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I ordered one on Robert White's website on Friday when they indicated that they had 10+ in stock. Today they have 6 left if the website is accurate.

 

It was you then. I had their email & they listed 10 units and by late Friday/early Saturday it was 9.....so I bought that one.

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Plenty of barrel distortion too, which is something that my first gen CV 15/4.5 doesn't have.

 

Where are you seeing that? All the vertical lines on the buildings seem straight. It's just the old wood pole in front the looks bowed out, so I think maybe it might actually be warped.

 

I do see a good 2 stops of corner vignetting at the top corners (blue sky) which my screw mount 15 doesn't have. At least not on the M9 or M with the 21 Elmarit pre-ASPH coding applied.

 

Lens seems sharp asf though. Cosina sure knows how to deliver value!

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Where are you seeing that? ...

The double white line at the bottom of the picture is curved and the frontal planes of the larger buildings to the left and right of the smaller centre building are pushed forward at one edge so teh buildings look like they're coming out of the picture. I agree that most of the lines are vertical but the long right hand vertical wall of the right hand building appears bowed similar to the old wooden pole but it's less obvious. YMMV.

 

Pete.

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Plenty of barrel distortion too, which is something that my first gen CV 15/4.5 doesn't have. It's not clear what aperture was used but it's a nice bright sunny day so it could have been stopped down to f/8 where I'd hope it would be sharp in the corners.

 

Pete.

 

That line was a bad choice for reference, obviously been painted by special car driven by humans and thus crooked.

I have now looked at tens of pictures, put rulers on screen along modern buildings etc, and the amount of distortion is totally negligible, way below 1% for sure. CA is somewhat worse than on previous version, but direct comparison is needed to notice the difference.

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The double white line at the bottom of the picture is curved and the frontal planes of the larger buildings to the left and right of the smaller centre building are pushed forward at one edge so teh buildings look like they're coming out of the picture. I agree that most of the lines are vertical but the long right hand vertical wall of the right hand building appears bowed similar to the old wooden pole but it's less obvious. YMMV.

 

Pete.

 

I put a straight edge against the bottom of my screen and that building line appears to curve near the bottom, not bowed in the middle as it would be if it was typical barrel distortion. I'm thinking it has to do with the fact the shot was taken from a high vantage point with the lens pointed slightly down, ie with the focal plane not plumb to the face of the buildings. To me that's more indicative of the expectable sensitivity of such an ultra wide lens to even a slight tilt. But not having the lens myself to test it out I can't positively refute what you say.

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I put a straight edge against the bottom of my screen and that building line appears to curve near the bottom, not bowed in the middle as it would be if it was typical barrel distortion. I'm thinking it has to do with the fact the shot was taken from a high vantage point with the lens pointed slightly down, ie with the focal plane not plumb to the face of the buildings. To me that's more indicative of the expectable sensitivity of such an ultra wide lens to even a slight tilt. But not having the lens myself to test it out I can't positively refute what you say.

 

Straight lines do not become curved if the camera is tilted. Parallels just become not parallels. There is ample evidence in other pictures that this lens does not have problematic amount of distortion.

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Yesterday they said that they just had the one, the one they had at the NEC

Go figure!

 

Just had confirmation that mine is being delivered tomorrow, so I guess they did have more than just one.

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