Which is the best 35MM Voigtlander lens?

[JulyLL]

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Which is the best 35mm Voigtlander lens for a M10R?

Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 II MC Lens

Voigtlander APO-LANTHAR 35mm f/2.0 Aspherical Lens

Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical III Lens

Or the NEW 

Voigtlander Nokton Vintage Line 35mm f/1.5 Aspherical Lens

 

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by JulyLL

[Product Details]

Complete Overview 35mm Leica M-Mount Lenses

35 mm F1.2 Nokton (Amazon | B&H) - 35 mm F1.4 Nokton II MC (Amazon | B&H) - 35 mm F1.5 Nokton (Amazon | B&H) - 35 mm F2.0 APO Lanthar (Amazon | B&H) - 35 mm F2.0 Ultron (Amazon) - 35 mm F2.0 Ultron II (Amazon | B&H) - 35 mm F2.5 Color Skopar P-Type (Amazon | B&H)

[Huss]

What do you want it to be best at?

[JulyLL]

20 minutes ago, Huss said:

What do you want it to be best at?

Sharpness 

[Huss]

7 minutes ago, JulyLL said:

Sharpness 

Where?  What distances? What apertures?  Across the frame?

See the thing is some lenses are really sharp in the center, at a certain aperture, at a certain distance.  But lose sharpness going to the side.

But the simple answer for ‘sharpness’ would be the APO.

[rramesh]

The lenses you are comparing are all different in aperture range, design and hence, rendering. These are my thoughts and others may feel differently.

The Nokton f/1.2 would be great for close up portraiture with its smooth bokeh. The Lanther APO would be sharp across the frame and clinical. The Nokton f/1.4 has an old world rendering, soft and with a classical bokeh. The Nokton f/1.5 is a modern design and is a compromise between the Nokton f/1.2 and the Ultron f/2. They are each good in their own way and has their uses.

Suggest you take more pictures with what you have. You will at some point realise what you need to to improve on. Composition, use of camera settings, choice of camera or lenses. At which point knowing what you need and you can make changes to the tools you use.

Each lens has its strengths and weaknesses. 

[JulyLL]

More for street photography and shooting open 

[Al Brown]

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The best FAST 35mm lens IN GENERAL for Leica M is the Zeiss Distagon 35/1.4. Not Voigtlander, but THE.BEST.IN.SHARPNESS.PERIOD. and priced very very nicely.
It has the big drawback of, well, being big and no close focus like the Voigtlanders. But that sharpness tho...

Edited December 9, 2022 by Al Brown

[Ba Erv]

8 hours ago, JulyLL said:

Which is the best 35mm Voigtlander lens for a M10R?

Voigtlander Nokton Classic 35mm f/1.4 II MC Lens

Voigtlander APO-LANTHAR 35mm f/2.0 Aspherical Lens

Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical III Lens

Or the NEW 

Voigtlander Nokton Vintage Line 35mm f/1.5 Aspherical Lens

 

 

None of the above...Voigtlander 35mm f1.7.

[Otuseleven]

apo

[rramesh]

For street a lens with a tab focus would be useful for zone focusing. Since you also want usable wide open, you could consider the following: Nokton 1.4, Nokton 1.5, Ultron 2.  

Edited December 10, 2022 by rramesh

[cboy]

Is the Op doing street portraits or close up urban still life / landscape, which is more appropriate for fast glass? But if the op is doing fast action street then i dont think wide open will do them any good, in which case even having the f2 ultron or even the heliar 3.5 would be better compromise for compactness and crisp detail. Not that the faster glass (f1.2/f1.4/f1.0) will render less detail stopped down, but i believe they're optimised for more wider apertures.

If its an all rounder lens then im assuming the new f1.5 would be best the compromise between the other three lenses mentioned. But its still early days on how well the lens overall performs.

Whatever you do eventually chose just be happy with it and go out and shoot since a good or bad photo cannot be purely be just the lenses fault😉

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by cboy

[RexGig0]

On 12/8/2022 at 11:31 PM, JulyLL said:

Sharpness 

Ah, sharpness. The quick-and-easy answer, among the lenses listed in the original post: The APO. My actual choice: Zeiss Distagon 1,4/35mm ZM. Both of these are manufactured by Cosina, in Japan. Cosina has licensed the use of the Voigtlander brand name. Zeiss has commissioned Cosina to make most of its M lenses.

Having said that, a shooter may prefer a lens that is sharpest in the center, and less-sharp in the mid-zone and/or edges. This look can be pleasing, to most viewers of the final images. (“Pixel-peeping” is fundamentally different from sitting/standing back, and looking at the entire image.)

A “street photographer,” especially, may benefit from a lens that is smaller, even though it compromises in its sharpness. I have a Leica Summaron 3.5cm f/3.5 lens, that is tiny, and provides a completely different “look” than my much larger Zeiss Distagons. (Yes, plural. I have two of them. I started with a pre-owned black Distagon, and loved it, but wanted the silvery finish, to use when out in the Texas sunshine. During a Black Friday promotion, I bought my silvery Distagon, which I also love. I could not bring myself to sell the black Distagon, and, well, sometimes I shoot with one on a Type 246 Monochrom, and one on an M10. So, two Distagons.)

I also love images I have seen posted on-line, captured by the Nokton Classic f/1.4, and the Nokton Vintage f/1.5 lenses. I may, eventually, accumulate these, too. I would rather get the “look” that I want, in-camera, than spend time at a computer, manipulating the images. So, as an artist may use multiple paintbrushes, I tend to accumulate different lenses, within the same focal length.

Edited December 11, 2022 by RexGig0

[microview]

APO Lanthar +1

[Jon Warwick]

I own the 50mm and 35mm APO Lanthar lenses and I’ve been hugely impressed at just how good their image quality (and build quality) are. I use the APO Lanthars on my M10 Monochrom, and have printed images to 50-60” wide.  Really incredible image quality, and even more compelling for me given the price. Reid Reviews did an in-depth review of the 35mm APO Lanthar vs the M 35mm APO Summicron, which I personally found enlightening and well worth his annual subscription. I used to own an M 50 APO, and have also demo’d the M 35mm APO.

The Voigtlander Lanthars are longer lenses than the Leica equivalents, however, especially the 35mm APO Lanthar vs the M 35mm APO Summicron, which is more problematic in terms of cutting into the framelines. So it’s a factor to be taken into account imho.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Jon Warwick

[stohmax]

I can highly recommend the new 35 1.5 from Voigtlaender. Its very sharp / smooth bokeh very well corrected coma. I also have the 1.2 III which is way larger performance is the same. I also had the Zeiss which is a bit sharper but the bokeh from both voigtlaender is smoother. If you want less coma the 35 Lux is the winner. But its 5x the price.  I would go for the 1.5 the bokeh is smoother than the one from the Summilux. Also its smaller.

[JulyLL]

Thanks everyone, I decided to just pull the trigger on the Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH FLE

I really wanted to try the new 35mm 1.5 Voigtlaender but it's still out of stock and I'm leaving the country soon. 

I also got a good deal on the Summilux for $3500 and could not pass it up. 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2022 by JulyLL

[Andreas]

i love the Ultron 35mm 1.7

 

[mark r.]

Yes JulyLL I have 50 Summilux and feel same way about buying that one, it's special at all apertures and worth every penny, also 28 Lux on Q2M gives me same confidence shooting it. Any Leica Summilux it seems is top-shelf.

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[mark r.]

I also have older 35/2.5 Skopar and 35 Summicron v3.  Both are excellent on my M10 while v3 is better at f/2 than Skopar at 2.5. Used Skopar is 1/3 cost of v3 and a touch lighter weight.  v3 is easier to nail hyperfocal at f/8 than Skopar since you can bump focus throw and still nail focus from infinity to a couple nudges over, while Skopar is not as forgiving if bumped out of hyperfocal position even slightly (even stopped to f/8). 

So my Skopar is less forgiving hyperfocal @f/8 than v3 and easy to bump out of focus without realizing it. I know thread is about Voigtlander but throwing in what I learned about my v3 I found recently testing several of these 35 lenses. v3 Canadian from the 70s is great but 1/5 cost of new 35mm ASPH Summicron..and I don't see a $5-6k difference. I'm actually pleasantly surprised how good v3 renders on M10 and almost gave up on it. And one I haven't used sounds like 35 APO is even better but it's bigger. I also have 50 f/2 APO Lanthar for Sony and know how good that lens is (but still not same league as 50 Lux). Afraid if I try 35 CV APO another hole in wallet will appear based on what others are saying about it.

Edited February 2, 2023 by mark r.

[Bruno CL]

JulyLL the last three are pretty good. The f 1.2 V III is really sharp but bulky. The Lanthar f 2 is less bulky but only f. 2, I find the f. 1.5 a nice compromise between the two and I like it’s compactness (not obstructing viewfinder).