Voigtländer 15 vs. 12 (v.III): recommendations

[james.liam]

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Seeking opinions regarding the (im)practicality of one over the other and overall performance of each. Would imagine that the 12 must offer considerable framing challenges over the 15, not least of which is keeping your feet out of the image.

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[spydrxx]

I had trouble keeping feet out of the image with the 15...I'm sure with a 12 it would be a real challenge. Regarding the 15, which I bought after seeing Al Kaplan's (now deceased) fun with the 15, I initially found it a challenge keeping things level and making sure that verticals near the perimeter weren't keystoned. Also vignetting initially proved a challenge. The lens was much more bitingly sharp than I originally expected, and I used it less often than I originally intended. Attached is a selfie on my really small deck

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[james.liam]

The lens was much more bitingly sharp than I originally expected, and I used it less often than I originally intended. 

 

 

That's the part I'm wondering about....

[Peter H]

I've owned both and now neither.

 

The 12 was probably the technically better lens though both are very good, and I certainly wouldn't choose one over the other for that reason unless I was totally indifferent to their large focal-length differences.

 

The problem for me was that the I found what I should have known already, that the ultra-wide view not only made the background almost immaterial because it was always so tiny relative to the (over) dominant foreground, but it had the effect of making me compose for the benefit of the lens rather than the subject. I'm maybe not explaining this well, but it interfered with the way I saw the world to a degree that I found intrusive, even though some of the photos were quite fun in a novelty sort of way.

 

For someone better attuned to the possibilities of ultra-wide-angle lenses, I'd suggest the 12 just because it's so good and so very wide. Pico likes the 10mm very much, by the way.

[jankap]

+1

I have the LTM 12mm. On FF (film) it was an excellent but somewhat difficult lens. 12mm is very wide.

Now on APS-C it is a heavily used 18mm. See my avatar at the left side.

Jan

Edited January 20, 2018 by jankap

[mdemeyer]

Have the 15 vIII. Also find any lens that wide somewhat of a challenge to my seeing, but it serves well on architectural work where I’m not carrying TS lenses or the Actus and I crop the (usually) lower part of the frame and use the (usually) top half, eliminating the need for massive convergence correction with something in the 21-24 range.

Edited January 21, 2018 by mdemeyer