voigtlander,the best leica lenses in the world

[pippy]

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1 hour ago, Jeff S said:

Indeed… if on lens, definitely not dust, other than maybe dust stuck to grease.

OK.

In the interests of facts rather than garbage I've just carried out an experiment with two bodies and two lenses. The results from both match so I think we can assume the method used was sound.

Before carrying out the test I cleaned both the front and rear elements of two lenses - a 28mm Elmarit asph and a 40mm f1.4 Vogtlander Nokton. For the test the first thing I did was to deliberately put a small oily/greasy smudge on the rear element of each of these two lenses with the tip of a finger; these appear above-centre on the 28 and below-centre on the 40. Secondly I massaged the smudge off and ensured the lens was once more clean. At each of these two stages I took test frames and these were shot on both the M-D and the M Monochrom to ensure any change in the results were not down to factors concerning any one body.

Here are the results (contrast tweaked massively) shown as two pairs of 'Before and After' images starting with the 28mm;

Before cleaning;

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

After cleaning;

 

40mm before cleaning;

 

After cleaning;

Hopefully this will end all the nonsense which has been written about specks of dust on the rear element of a lens preventing someone from "creating a composition" and we can get back on-topic discussing the many undoubted superb qualities of Voigtlander's lenses.

Philip.

Edited August 7, 2021 by pippy

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[jaapv]

Maybe Mr 135 could post a photograph of the alleged dust on the lens?

[cp995]

vor 14 Stunden schrieb charles tay:

Does it make sense to own my first Leica M Body Camera M10 with Voigtlander APO-LANTHAR 50mm f/2.0 Aspherical Lens? 

For my taste the APO Lanthar is too fat.
I decided to go with the new Nokton 1.5 50 II - Rellay a great lens even compared to an actual  50mm Summilux.

Cosina acually produces one great lens after the other - No need to go for Leica glass!

Edited August 7, 2021 by cp995

[pippy]

2 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Maybe Mr 135 could post a photograph of the alleged dust on the lens?

He has, Jaap, but you might have missed it. Post #160 on page 8.

Philip.

[jaapv]

Ah - I cannot say that I can make heads or tails from those images. 

[Cl35mm]

1 hour ago, pippy said:

OK.

In the interests of facts rather than garbage I've just carried out an experiment with two bodies and two lenses. The results from both match so I think we can assume the method used was sound.

Before carrying out the test I cleaned both the front and rear elements of two lenses - a 28mm Elmarit asph and a 40mm f1.4 Vogtlander Nokton. For the test the first thing I did was to deliberately put a small oily/greasy smudge on the rear element of each of these two lenses with the tip of a finger; these appear above-centre on the 28 and below-centre on the 40. Secondly I massaged the smudge off and ensured the lens was once more clean. At each of these two stages I took test frames and these were shot on both the M-D and the M Monochrom to ensure any change in the results were not down to factors concerning any one body.

Here are the results (contrast tweaked massively) shown as two pairs of 'Before and After' images starting with the 28mm;

Before cleaning;

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

After cleaning;

 

40mm before cleaning;

 

After cleaning;

Hopefully this will end all the nonsense which has been written about specks of dust on the rear element of a lens preventing someone from "creating a composition" and we can get back on-topic discussing the many undoubted superb qualities of Voigtlander's lenses.

Philip.

Now leave the dust from the cotton swab and show the result. With the aperture 8.
When I buy a lens, I buy a camera for it. One lens per camera. And I don't take them off anymore. I noticed a spot in the mountains, came to the hotel and blew it off the rear pat of the lens.  I could clearly see the dust.
You can believe me or not. I do not care.

 

Jaapv,  my nickname is CL35mm,  not 135 (Leica CL 35mm film)

Edited August 7, 2021 by Cl35mm

[Ralf11]

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On 6/30/2021 at 10:06 AM, Simone_DF said:

Why, is Voigtlander a big company? Voigtlander is even smaller than Leica. Leica has cameras, binoculars, smartphones, luxury accessories, t shirts, books, boutiques and all that crap they sell to sustain the company.

Voigtlander has only a bunch of lenses and nothing else.

it is a formerly German trademark of Cosina - I dunno how engineering wages differ or how design (or production) costs are amortized across different product lines for each co., but I am glad we have low cost m mount lenses.

Lens production costs are likely less labor based and more robot based these days.

Edited August 7, 2021 by Ralf11

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[Robert Blanko]

vor 14 Stunden schrieb Cl35mm:

Now leave the dust from the cotton swab and show the result. With the aperture 8.
When I buy a lens, I buy a camera for it. One lens per camera. And I don't take them off anymore. I noticed a spot in the mountains, came to the hotel and blew it off the rear pat of the lens.  I could clearly see the dust.
You can believe me or not. I do not care.

 

Jaapv,  my nickname is CL35mm,  not 135 (Leica CL 35mm film)

Uh, that sounds like a serious investment. But if I would spend about 90k€ for the required additional M10s or M10Rs to complement my existing pair, maybe I would get one for free.

[AceVentura1986]

On 8/7/2021 at 7:57 AM, pippy said:

As a matter of interest, AceVentura, have you checked your Summicron for back-focus accuracy at those same settings and which version of Summicron do you use? I ask because I have a v4 Summicron and, when I tested a number of my lenses under studio test conditions, it exhibited pretty much the very same (and very slight) back-focus issues as does my 40mm f1.4 Nokton.

Just curious!

Philip.

Actually, no, I haven’t. I did have use of a 35 Summicron and tested it for sharpness against the Nokton. While I thought the Summicron was sharper at f/2 than the Nokton, I didn’t think it was substantially so. 

As to backfocus, I think it’s really overblown. 35 is more commonly used to capture scenes and thus at a bit of a remove from the subject. I found that once the subject is beyond 6 feet (2 meters) the depth of field becomes large enough to overcome the backfocus.

Backfocus was a greater problem for those of us who used the Nokton on M8s as a substitute for a 50mm. In that case getting close to a subject is expected and can result in backfocus. However, once used on a full frame camera, such as an M9, the Nokton reverts back to its intended use to capture scenes and the backfocus issue is much reduced. 

[pippy]

1 hour ago, AceVentura1986 said:

...As to backfocus, I think it’s really overblown....Backfocus was a greater problem for those of us who used the Nokton on M8s as a substitute for a 50mm. In that case getting close to a subject is expected and can result in backfocus. However, once used on a full frame camera, such as an M9, the Nokton reverts back to its intended use to capture scenes and the backfocus issue is much reduced. 

Hi, AceVentura, and thanks for your reply.

I agree with all you wrote. I, too, bought my 40mm Nokton to use as a 50mm on my old M8 back in the day. As I've written previously I had never noticed backfocus issues until I started reading posts from many folks mentioning it and, once I searched for it, did find it but it just so happens that with the type of photographs I used the lens for it simply wasn't an issue as I never used my 40 under the neccessary circumstances for it to rear its head.

Even although I've been using FF for a long time the 40 Nokton is still my #1 to this day.

Philip.

[AceVentura1986]

21 hours ago, pippy said:

Hi, AceVentura, and thanks for your reply.

I agree with all you wrote. I, too, bought my 40mm Nokton to use as a 50mm on my old M8 back in the day. As I've written previously I had never noticed backfocus issues until I started reading posts from many folks mentioning it and, once I searched for it, did find it but it just so happens that with the type of photographs I used the lens for it simply wasn't an issue as I never used my 40 under the neccessary circumstances for it to rear its head.

Even although I've been using FF for a long time the 40 Nokton is still my #1 to this day.

Philip.

Incidentally, I also found that backfocus is virtually eliminated at close distances if you avoid using f/2.8 and f/4. 

[pippy]

26 minutes ago, AceVentura1986 said:

Incidentally, I also found that backfocus is virtually eliminated at close distances if you avoid using f/2.8 and f/4. 

Yes, thanks, I know!......

In fact the reason I'd never noticed it as an issue was that if I was shooting near min. focus I would normally be shooting at f1.4 / f2 so there was no issue and anything beyond a couple of metres would be shot from f4 down so, again, not an issue. As I wrote earlier it was only having undergone thorough tests in the studio I understood where the issue existed and, of course, I know to stay away from those parameters.

I think I am correct in saying the 40mm suffers less acutely than does the 35mm (v1). I'm not much of a fan of the 35mm f/l and have a Summaron (M) for those occasions where I fancy using one but having read so much good stuff about the 35mm f1.4 v2 I might be tempted to pick one up to see what it's like for myself. who knows; I might become a convert!...

Philip.

[AceVentura1986]

On 8/9/2021 at 8:28 AM, pippy said:

I think I am correct in saying the 40mm suffers less acutely than does the 35mm (v1). I'm not much of a fan of the 35mm …

The 40mm FL is def interesting. Sally Mann is quoted as saying it is exactly the right length for her, and I think I agree w her. I have a 40 in Canon EF mount and use it fairly often because of its pancake size. I have to say, I like the 40. Still, I tend to shoot my 50 Cron most often on the Leicas. 

[pippy]

7 minutes ago, AceVentura1986 said:

The 40mm FL is def interesting. Sally Mann is quoted as saying it is exactly the right length for her, and I think I agree w her. I have a 40 in Canon EF mount and use it fairly often because of its pancake size. I have to say, I like the 40. Still, I tend to shoot my 50 Cron most often on the Leicas. 

The 40 Nokton has been my favourite f/l on the full-frame body since day one.

It was sort-of serendipitous that I chose the 40 over the 35 to use on the M8.2 because otherwise I'd never have discovered how much I love that focal-length. The other happy discovery was how excellent is the dedicated Voigtlander hood. With the M8 I could use a generic vented hood but this caused vignetting with the M9 so I handed over the folding and am delighted with the quality. As it is a bayonet-fit on the outside of the front of the lens it slips over any filter which might be fitted and so maintains the overall very short extension from the body-plane.

Couldn't be much happier!

Philip.

[Matlock]

I too have a 40mm Nokton and forked out for the generic hood, couldn't be more pleased. However on my second M10 body I keep a Leica Elmarit C 40mm f2.8 (much maligned lens). It is tiny and with a 39x0.75 Heliopan filter the M10 becomes a pocketable camera to carry at all times, (don't whatever you do try to attach an E39 filter, wrong thread pitch). 

[Dennis]

I don't know nothing about the 40FL, I never used it on any camera system.  For example, is the CV 40/1.4 II MC very similar to the its brother 35/1.4  II MC? Same glow wide open, same sharpening and character? Focus shift? The filter thread is the same 🏆

Does it bring the 50mm frame lines, right?

Edited August 10, 2021 by Dennis

[charles tay]

I just got my 2nd Leica Camera M10 and pair it with Voigtlander 50mm APO f/2 VM Lens. 

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[pippy]

On 8/10/2021 at 5:39 PM, Dennis said:

I don't know nothing about the 40FL, I never used it on any camera system.  For example, is the CV 40/1.4 II MC very similar to the its brother 35/1.4  II MC? Same glow wide open, same sharpening and character? Focus shift? The filter thread is the same 🏆

Does it bring the 50mm frame lines, right?

Hi, Dennis! Didn't see this until now.

The 40mm f1.4 Nokton, unlike the 35mm f1.4, hasn't been updated so there is only the original v1. This lens exists in two variants; as single-coated ('S-C' for a more 'vintage' feel) and multi-coated (I'm sure you are way ahead of me here...).

AFAIK the 40 didn't suffer quite so much from the focus-shift issue. As mentioned several times now it only manifests itself under certain conditions which were / are, for me, not a problem.

The big benefit, for me, of the 40 over the v1 35 was the almost complete lack of barrel-distortion which was prominent on the 35.

Apart from that the 40 and 35 are both very similar animals. If (as I believe to be the case) the v2 35 has addressed the focus-shift and distortion issues then it might be a very attractive proposition for me. As far as YOU are concerned if you find that sometimes 35 is too loose and 50 is too tight then perhaps, like me, you will discover that the 40mm is the Goldilocks focal-length.

Honorary mention goes out to the only Leica 40mm ever made and that is / was the 40mm f2 Summicron released in the mid-1970's for that era's Leica CL (Compact Leica) film body.

Philip.

[Dennis]

3 hours ago, pippy said:

The 40mm f1.4 Nokton, unlike the 35mm f1.4, hasn't been updated so there is only the original v1

Good to know.

3 hours ago, pippy said:

The big benefit, for me, of the 40 over the v1 35 was the almost complete lack of barrel-distortion which was prominent on the 35.

Great! Because yes, distortion on my 35 Nokton v2 is a lot.

.

Thank you Philip. It's not on my radar soon, but I would love to know how it feels like to shoot with a 40mm FL. And yes, it's somewhere between 35 and 50, the perfect "normal" FL. Time will tell. Before to try a 40mm, I want another 35mm and the 21... Please. Then I will see.

3 hours ago, pippy said:

Honorary mention goes out to the only Leica 40mm ever made and that is / was the 40mm f2 Summicron released in the mid-1970's for that era's Leica CL (Compact Leica) film body.

I don't know nothing about this lens, but a Summicron usually sounds always interesting 😉

Edited August 13, 2021 by Dennis