Voigtlander 21mm f/4 review and how to nail .5m focus to everytime!

[AncientCityPhoto]

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Hey everyone! I finally got my review up of this little lens. The 21mm F/4 is a fantastic lens. It doesn't change the world over, but for a 21mm lens, it is pretty darn amazing when it's price is factored in.

 

I found a method of focusing to .5m on the M8 that works every time in the field. (even wide open!) I can nail sharp focus. I don't know if this works with other .5m lenses yet...but maybe someone can try it with the new 35 1.2.

 

You can see detailed shot of how to focus to .5 in the write up! Let me know if this works for you as well!

[imperfiction]

This is a cool tip about the focusing to .5 - I will try it with my 35/1.2 later.

[PaulGlendell]

Hello Thanks for the tip about .5 focussing, I too use an M8 with the voigtlanader 21 a great deal of the time and have not worked out the .5 focussing tip. I tried it sat in front of the compture and it seems to work pretty good many thanks. Yes it is a good lens

all the best Paul

[imperfiction]

Just a quick update on the focusing with the new Nokton 35 1.2 - unfortunately, it didn't work with the same positions but the two points should be closer to each other (rather than in the two ends of the focusing square) - somewhat in the 1/3 (from the left and from the right) in order to focus accurately.

[Paolo.Battista]

GXR M-mount module should be a good thing for shots that need very close focusing

[robbie1]

Hi everyone.

I bought this little Voigtlander 21mm lens yesterday, after doing a little test against a used Zeiss 21mm f4.5.

In my very unscientific test the Zeiss is a sharper lens, but seemed to suffer more from colour edges and vignetting. Maybe the lens profile prefers the setting in the M9, who knows? As I said - very unscientific and possibly unreliable. Fairly distortion free too, as most are compared to SLR wides.

 

I've had fun so far, for a good 6 hours anyway wondering around the city all afternoon toward dusk. It's easy to guess distance, frame and shoot quickly. It's sharp in the centre, softish in the corners, as you'd expect really, but not horrible and not that noticable. No big problems with vignetting as some have encountered, even wide open and with quite slow shutter speeds. If it happens it's slight it's easy to remove in Lightroom etc, and probably no more than expected for a wide lens on an M. I even had vignetting with my 35mm summicron on an M6 sometimes, it was rare & depended on the circumstances. Colour was good, I could have done with a stop or two, with the M9 it coped even with the light fading.

 

For the money it's great, half the price of the used Zeiss I saw, slightly faster and much smaller, which is a consideration. The other lenses take such a chunk from your view esp with a hood, in the finders view. I know you should use a wide hotshoe finder really, but I like to just shoot and hope for the best - I can use one, but they are big and conspicuous, especially huge the cyclops 21/24/28 thing I have.

 

If someone offered me a 21 Summilux f1.4 in exchange for the little Voigtlander I'd say, yes please, run away as fast as I could (which is not fast), before they changed their mind, then slightly regret the size of the Leica lens, but never the speed and probably the amazing quality.

 

One thing this lens did make me think me of.

Pre AF, nearly all new Japanese made lenses were like this. Simple, metal, quite well finished plus were small too. Today most new cameras are supplied with rather nasty plastic zooms, most with horrible focusing action and never feel like they're going to last. Obviously, we always had Leica products and some primes to admire, and remind us how well made things can and should be.

But this is a relatively cheap lens, in the right hands it can pack an expensive punch, or if like me - you're a bit lucky, but hoping to learn fast.

All fun.

[robbie1]

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Meant to say, thanks for the great review of this lens too. Will try the 5m focus trick too, good idea.

 

Plus a quick note - the well known 'tester' Ken Rockwell says don't get the 21 Skopar if you have an M9. That's pretty much rubbish, he says it doesn't work, it does, not perfect, but by no means a disaster - if you have the late firmware I suspect.

 

He also says don't use a cheap lens if you can afford an M9. Well, I would love to have the cash to go buy the £4300 f1.4, in addition to an M9 - but that's crazy money to me. We don't all go out and buy a new M body and all the lenses we want at once either. I expect we trade in old cameras, and have a selection of Leica gear already. The current prices are well out of the league for many folk, we all know that, so it's good to be able to buy a 21mm without it costing the earth, or having to wait a year.

R

[MarkP]

Meant to say, thanks for the great review of this lens too. Will try the 5m focus trick too, good idea.

 

Plus a quick note - the well known 'tester' Ken Rockwell says don't get the 21 Skopar if you have an M9. That's pretty much rubbish, he says it doesn't work, it does, not perfect, but by no means a disaster - if you have the late firmware I suspect.

 

He also says don't use a cheap lens if you can afford an M9. Well, I would love to have the cash to go buy the £4300 f1.4, in addition to an M9 - but that's crazy money to me. We don't all go out and buy a new M body and all the lenses we want at once either. I expect we trade in old cameras, and have a selection of Leica gear already. The current prices are well out of the league for many folk, we all know that, so it's good to be able to buy a 21mm without it costing the earth, or having to wait a year.

R

 

Your comments about the 4.0/21 Skopar P anf M9 compatibility are reassuring.

 

I have the 1.4/21 Summilux ASPH, and was seriously considering the Zeiss 2.8/21 Biogon as a lighter lens for when I don't need the extra weight when I know the light will be good. However I've changed my mind as although the Biogon is about half the weight of the Summilux it's really not much smaller, a leas the length is almost identical albeit a bit narrower so it doesn't save much space. , Therefore I don't think I would get the Biogon.

 

So I'm consideriing the Zeiss ZM 4.5/21 and 4.0/21 Skopar P as small compact lenses. There are a few other recent threads on this subject and the colour shift seems to be the only problem even with the latest M9 firmware. However I primarily shoot B&W. Cost isn't an issue for me for choosing between these two lenses.

 

Can an anyone else advise further on the compatibility of these two lenses with the M9?

Edited October 15, 2011 by MarkP

[bocaburger]

The price to performance ratio of the CV lenses was always favorable in context with Leica lenses, but it's even more so as Leica has grossly inflated their prices in recent years while Cosina has not.

[pontus]

I have the old ltm version with adapter and totally love it. This is how happy I get when I use it:

 

 

Neat trick about the close focusing. Forgive my ignorance, but would it be the same on my M4 or does the crop factor of the M8 change anything?

[pontus]

After giving it some thought, I guess the close focus trick should work on any M.

[mirekti]

Great tip for focusing at 0.5m!!!

Shouldn't this thread be under M lenses subforum?

[250swb]

So I'm consideriing the Zeiss ZM 4.5/21 and 4.0/21 Skopar P as small compact lenses. There are a few other recent threads on this subject and the colour shift seems to be the only problem even with the latest M9 firmware. However I primarily shoot B&W. Cost isn't an issue for me for choosing between these two lenses.

 

Can an anyone else advise further on the compatibility of these two lenses with the M9?

 

By all accounts the small 4.5 Biogon is a nightmare even if coded. But I have both the 2.8 Biogon and the Skopar and the 2.8 Biogon is the better lens with no colour problems when coded although it is at lot bigger. The Skopar still has some colour problems and vignetting but it responds well to a bit of experimenting to find the best code (buy a 28mm codable adapter). But I use the Skopar more than the Biogon for its size and because I don't do many colour pictures.

 

Steve

[lct]

Superb little lens that i use a lot on my Fuji X-E2 with no focusing issues thanks to the EVF. For digital Ms i prefer the Leica 21/3.4 and 24/3.8 though but the price is not the same and i miss the lesser contrast of the CV 21/4 in PP.

[TLG]

What was the "great tip"?

The web site no longer exists.

[lct]

1 hour ago, TLG said:

What was the "great tip"?

I don't remember but my copy of the M-mount Skopar 21/4 can focus all the way from infinity down to 0.5m in LV mode, and down to about 0.6m in RF mode. This on the M11.

[UliWer]

I don't know the trick originally proposed in this thread and i don't have a 21mm Voigtländer.

Just an old Super-Angulon from the early sixties.

The rangefinder is coupled down to approx. 0.6m. Though the lenses scale goes down to 0.4m. The trick which was used at the lenses time and still works today is called "depth of focus".  With a 21mm lens it is huge. You may go down to the rangefinder's limit and use f/8 and everything down to approx. 0.48m will be in focus. You might turn the focus to 0.5m and approach a little bit more and come down to 0.4m:

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