Is the 15mm worth the money?

I've got a hankering for 15mm Vs 21 mm. What do guysthink of it?

Thanks,
Bill

The Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 LTM is an excellent lens, if that's the 15 you mean. A 15 is great for capturing context and interiors.

It depends on your shooting style. I have not used my Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 LTM for ages, but it is a great lens. The reason I bought it - it came together with the Bessa R4M I bought on ebay, but I probably would never have bought it separately. P.S. I have just realized I mixed it up with ultra wide heliar… 🙂





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I love my Voigtlander 15mm. It makes for an excellent travel lens. When not used on a film camera, more often than not it's attached to my XPro2 via an adapter. It has been with me on all my overseas adventures. Ive used it a lot on the street (zone focus) and for landscapes, building etc. Plus it's tiny.

15mm is a completely different beast when compared to 21mm.
Worth the money? It is very specialized, but if you know what to do with it, then it is great.
If you are debating between 21mm and 15mm without having owned either, I would definitely recommend to try the 21mm first.

I had one (15mm) when the Leica CL was my main camera. I did not bond with it and sold it.

The 15mm Super wide Heliar is a special purpose lens, therefore I use it seldomly but will not part with it!

15mm is special. You have to try, recommendations don´t get the decision job done.

Just get one. The 4.5/15 Super-Wide Heliars are very good and easy to find. You could also try the excellent Zeiss Distagon 4/18 ZM.

Out to Lunch said:

Just get one. The 4.5/15 Super-Wide Heliars are very good and easy to find. You could also try the excellent Zeiss Distagon 4/18 ZM.

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For considerably more money, yes 😄

I love the look of the VM 15mm but I get more use from my 21mm lenses. There's a considerable difference in these focal lengths.




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Assuming we're talking about the Voigtlander lenses (which are the only real options in LTM at these focal lengths) I'll second what everyone else is saying: the 15mm Super Wide Heliar is a fantastic lens, but that focal length is ludicrous. It's not an every-day lens for most people, but the 21mm Color Skopar is much more manageable in most circumstances.

That said, the most impressive thing about the Super Wide Heliar to me is how good it is edge-to-edge and how little distortion it has for such a wide lens. You'll typically get some smudging at the corners, but if you're careful about your composition, it can be difficult to even tell you're using such a wide lens:





Both of these were taken with the 15mm Super Wide Heliar and if I hadn't taken notes, I'd probably think they were something much longer. But, of course, if you're not careful - or if you want to play with such things on purpose - you can end up with weird perspective distortions with the 15mm that you really don't get with the 21mm:



So... yeah. It's a lens I've had for a long time and don't use as much as I should, but I'm always impressed with it when I do. It's a fantastic lens, but you have to get ridiculously close to whatever it is you want to photograph with it.

Either way, whether you get the 15mm Super Wide Heliar or the 21mm Color Skopar, make sure there's absolutely no "haze" in it - these can't have the haze cleaned out; it's usually permanent - and make sure they come with the matching viewfinder they were originally sold with. I've seen a few crop up missing the viewfinder when people have upgraded to later M-mount ones and kept the viewfinder, but they should be a complete set.

I'm not sure what you're wrestling with. It's like saying "I have a 28, so why do I need a 21?" The 21mm is one of my favorite focal lengths, but the 15 gets you allot more in tight spaces.

Leica M11-P, 15mm Super-Wide Heliar III

I've owned a few wide angle lenses (CV 15, 21, Avenon 21, ZM 18mm and even a ZM 21 and 25) when I was going through an irrational phase of convincing myself that I liked to shoot wide angle lenses. When I came to my senses, I realized that the widest that I enjoyed shooting on a regular basis was 28mm. I still have a 14mm, but for a Z mount for those rare occasions when I want to shoot astro.

I think the 15mm is one of those purpose driven FL's -- you really have to seek out a composition that would do well with something that wide.