Everything is illuminated, the Voigtlander 50mm f1.5 ii MC VM

[colonel]

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The latest lens in my collection, forms a perfect coupling with the Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 ii MC VM.

This is not a review, merely my usual ramble, and more verification that Leica M can be a good value digital platform (once you get past the body price  )

Both lenses are well proportioned, light, very well made and are sharp with beautiful rendering

The characteristics are slightly different. Although sharp, the 35mm doesn't start biting until f2.8, although contrast is almost all there wide open. The 50mm however is almost biting from f1.5 and also has unusual corner sharpness from wide open, no doubt aptly contributed to by the new design double APSH elements. In fact unlike the 35mm ii, which is a much improved development of the v1, the 50mm ii is totally redesigned.

Rendered colours are saturated pleasantly and micro-contrast is high. The focus ring is stiff but smooth, with no tab, and the aperture ring clicks easily but doesn't feel like it would click by mistake.

It excels in weight, the first bright (below f2) 50mm lens I have used that the camera can sit on its bottom with without falling over. This is important to me as I don't carry a tripod, and often use a wall or other object as a stand for long exposures.

It is optimised for my shooting almost perfectly. Super sharp at any aperture from 2m away, slight dreamy wide open under 2m, infinity sharp from f4. Which makes sense, as my landscape/building shows would all be stopped down f5.6 or over anyway. The sharpness of the corners is simply much better then you would ever expect for a bright lens full stop, and especially at this price. The main drawbacks are the higher then averaging vignetting, a downer for astral photography, but Lightroomable out for all other occasions, and the good but not class leading flare control. 

In some ways it makes the 50mm f2 lens somewhat redundant, expect for the APOs of course. In terms of brighter lenses, if you want one you need one, although, as well known, some lenses appear to have a thinner DOF by the focus fall off speed, and this lens does seem to accentuate that. 

Voigtlander has shown that new design software and techniques have somewhat leapt over previous generations of lenses, in many ways leapfrogging its own stablemate, Zeiss. This is a very interesting trend, and the willingness of established players to continue to invest in the M mount market is great news for the present, and the future of this minority but timeless mount system.

Edited April 19, 2021 by colonel

[Danner]

Thank you for this report, it looks like a fine lens indeed.  It would be interesting to see a comparison with the Zeiss 50/1.5 as well.  The combination with the CV 35/1.4 seems like a natural.  Compact, fast, affordable.

[colonel]

26 minutes ago, Danner said:

Thank you for this report, it looks like a fine lens indeed.  It would be interesting to see a comparison with the Zeiss 50/1.5 as well.  The combination with the CV 35/1.4 seems like a natural.  Compact, fast, affordable.

personally I wouldn't compare them directly, as the Zeiss is more of a classic rendering with alot of focus shift, making it difficult to use below f2.8 (depending on the optimisation of the lens), but here you go:

Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f/1.5 Asph. II vs. Zeiss C Sonnar 50mm f/1.5 — Photography by Thomas Eisl

 

[astrostl]

On 4/19/2021 at 8:52 AM, Danner said:

Thank you for this report, it looks like a fine lens indeed.  It would be interesting to see a comparison with the Zeiss 50/1.5 as well.  The combination with the CV 35/1.4 seems like a natural.  Compact, fast, affordable.

https://www.47-degree.com/focus-shift/leica-m-50mm-lens-comparison-part-4