Voigtlander lenses

[Guest imported_torben]

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VC does not sell equipment.

 

Cosina Voitlander does.

 

Who/what is Cosina Voitlander?

 

BTW, the rest of your reply is crap, too!

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[Nick De Marco]

VC does not sell equipment.

 

Cosina Voitlander does.

 

Who/what is Cosina Voitlander?

 

BTW, the rest of your reply is crap, too!

 

That seems a rather intemperate email for this forum. I am sure you can guess the poster meant Cosina Voigtlander, who as I am sure you know, is the name of the maker of the lenses in question.

 

Back to the OP's question, I find all of the CV lenses I use to be very good. I have used many on my old M8, continue to use them on my film M6, and now also use them with adapter on my GF1 and Oly EP2. I have the 15 M fit, which is wonderful, the 21mm f4, nice and small and sharp, the 28mm f3.5 (as before) and 1.9, the 35mm f2.5, an exceptional sharp and small performer, and the larger 35mm f1.2 which shoot great wide open, and maybe a few others. No complaints about any of them.

 

Nick

[Guest imported_torben]

 

That seems a rather intemperate email for this forum. I am sure you can guess the poster meant Cosina Voigtlander, who as I am sure you know, is the name of the maker of the lenses in question.

 

Back to the OP's question, I find all of the CV lenses I use to be very good. I have used many on my old M8, continue to use them on my film M6, and now also use them with adapter on my GF1 and Oly EP2. I have the 15 M fit, which is wonderful, the 21mm f4, nice and small and sharp, the 28mm f3.5 (as before) and 1.9, the 35mm f2.5, an exceptional sharp and small performer, and the larger 35mm f1.2 which shoot great wide open, and maybe a few others. No complaints about any of them.

 

Nick

 

To each his own!

But if a poster redicules a fellow, and cannot spell himself, then.................

BTW, are you a moderator?

[Nick De Marco]

No I am certainly not

Don't be rediculous (wink)

[250swb]

What are the standout VC lenses in an M mount? And how do they compare to the current Leica offerings? Thanks.

 

The 21mm Skopar can be very good if you get a good version, but the outstanding lens in my collection is the 75mm Heliar. I bought it on the back of Sean Reids review and it is superb. His 'bottom line' was that if it cost the same as a new Summarit people would only choose between them based on their prefered rendering. I have used a couple of dogs, both reasonably sharp, but both suffering a lot from focus shift, and they are the 40mm f1.4 Nokton and the 28mm Ultron.

 

Steve

[UliWer]

 

 

But if a poster redicules a fellow, and cannot spell himself, then.................

 

Please try to spell "ridicule".

[jlancasterd]

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To return to the subject...

 

I have an f1.1 50mm Nokton that I use on an M9, which is remarkably sharp even at the wider end of the aperture scale.

 

It is a great general-purpose lens at medium apertures too, sharp and with good contrast. The only downside is that it does intrude into the viewfinder field a fair bit, even with the optional vented hood. I have a CV 50mm finder for when I need to see the whole of the frame. Costing around £5,500 less that the current Noctilux, it represents pretty good value.

 

I also had a CV 28mm f3.5 that I used for about 90% of my work with an M8 - tiny, light, pin sharp and with good contrast. Very good value for money

[Nikkor AIS]

 

 

 

A couple more from the 28 1.9 this time taken with My M6 on XP2.

 

Gregory

[Xmas]

Well a key decision maker for me...

 

Is the 5cm f/2.5 CV with mini hood (36.5mm including LTM adapter), is nearly the same size as the modern Elmar 5cm f/2.8(34.5mm), when it is collapsed, also wearing its mini hood, - and the CV is LTM.

 

I throw either wearing a 39mm filter into gbag without cap, on body, as a fast draw & shoot kit, but telescoping and locking the Elmar is a disadvantage you need to remember and do it blind as the subjects all to readily detect that you might be planning on using the camera, I can set the CV to 11 foot (approx) blind (using the knob), I've loaded the Elmar heliciod with heavy PTFE grease to try & stop it moving inadvertently - no knob.

 

The Elmar is a stellar performer with a slow film, better then the Zeiss ZM Planar or type IV cron in difficult contra jour veiling flare circumstances at /5.6, and lighter when hill walking, but slower to grab from gbag and extend, than the CV, the Elmar is a very high refractive glass 4el/3 groups design, the CV is a strange inverted telephoto design, 7el/6groups. I think CV have compromised a lot of optics for compactness.

 

I use the Elmar for scenics off a monopod on Kodachrome 64, it is the lightest lens(170gm), the CV is substantially glass & brass(208gm), I dont like the weight difference, (a cron IV is 195gm).

 

The 5cm/2.5s were kit lenses for the Bessas, and now available real cheap 2nd hand, some new left still, I don't think Bessas like a lot of use/maintenance, must be cheaper to get a replacement 2nd hand body, than a major service, I'd like another & I'm sure other vultures are in the circuit with me. 2nd hand Elmars are only a bit more expensive, don't think people realize how good they are.

 

Noel

[thrid]

People have been buying and converting the more modern Zeiss Contax G1/G2 16mm Hologon to LTM, some one in Japan replaces the G mount.

 

Noel

 

I heard about that. Pretty interesting idea.

[Xmas]

Well I bought a G1 (cheap) and remaindered (new) Hologon, but (later) also bought the CV 12mm and 15mm(LTM) so I'm trying out all three.

 

If I needed colour (chrome film) I'd sell the Hologon as the filter for the vignetting tends to cause iris images when the sun in in frame, without the filter the lens is pretty good contra jour, need to be cautious with the cloth Leica shutter. Thinking about some way of doing a yellow filter for monochrome, one can photo shop the vignetting in mono, with low contrast film.

 

I need to try the CV extensively before doing anything, acquiring an M9 would muddy the water even more. I still need to get a (the) filter holder for the 12mm CV, to bodge for the 15mm CV.

 

Noel

[dbdotdot]

I have the 50, f1.5 and the 21, f4. While the 21 is a good (albeit not great) lens, it is untouchable at <$400. However, the 50 is a wonderful lens--super sharp, nice 'glow', and has proven to be very durable. I have no plans to replace the 50 because it is as good as I'll ever be, but I am thinking about moving up to the 21 ZM for more speed and better contrast (something the CV isn't any more than average with).

[Mark Pope]

I have a small collection of CV lenses, plus a couple that I sold on. Not all of these have been used on film.

 

12mm - Very nice lens - I got this to replicate the 15mm field of view on the M8. Sadly, I gather that this lens doesn't do well on the M9 - not that I can afford one of these anyway.

 

15mm - I used to use this lens quite extensively on my M6TTL - quite contrasty, sharp and a great field of view. It doesn't get a huge amount of use on the M8. One reason is I get problems with pink corners, even with a coded lens mount and UV IR filter. I may need to revisit the coding and see if I can code it as an 18mm SE.

 

21mm - Again used to get a lot of use on the M6TTL - another sharp, contrasty lens. It doesn't get an awful lot of use on the M8. I guess one reason is I now have the 18mm Super-Elmar, which sits bang in the middle of the two in terms of field of view.

 

28mm f1.9 - I replaced this lens with a 28mm Elmarit. I did get some good results with it, but never really got on with it. One of the reasons was the lens intruded quite a way into the viewfinder as it is quite big.

 

50mm f1.5 - another lens which was very sharp, but there was something about the lens which bothererd me - the bokeh was quite harsh IIRC and when funds permitted I replaced it with a 50mm Summicron

 

50mm f1.1 - I have never used this on a film M or M9. I love this lens on the M8. The Summicron hardly gets a look in now, unless I want to travel light.

 

75mm f2.5 - on film I never really got on with it, but on the M8 I love it.

 

In my experience I would say that generally, CV lenses are great value and offer excellent performance for the price. I haven't read Sean Reid's reviews, but I know that Erwin Puts writes good things about them.

 

cheers

 

 

Mark