25 Skopar CV tendency to magenta?

[MichaelW]

I'm considering buying one of the new Cosina Voigtlander lenses - the M mount 25mm Skopar pancake. I was able to borrow one last week to run some test film through my M6. I shot a roll of Provia 100 & for a few frames I changed to my 35mm Summicron & made the same exposure. Overall the lens checks out very well as regards sharpness, distortion & general rendering.
However the one thing that stood out when I compared some of the frames shot with the two lenses was a distinct magenta tinge (in some areas) from the CV lens that was not in the frames shot using the Leica lens. This was particularly apparent in some areas of the scene that were concrete pathways that were a neutral light grey colour.
Chances are I will buy the lens anyway as I will mostly be using it with B&W film. However I was surprised that a lens that was excellent in every other regard seems to have this cast. Is this something that CV lenses are known for? Some web searching did show up a couple of mentions of this in reviews of other CV lenses.

 

[JJW]

My CV 25 is distinctly neutral

My CV 25 is distinctly neutral

I haven't had any color cast problems with mine. It's been fairly neutral.

My 35mm Pancake (version I) is noticeably cool and contrasty, but I like the look of it.

You can look at a couple of my shots I posted as part of this thread:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41825

 

[FrankS]

I have not noticed this in my B+W snaps. 😉

 

[like2fiddle]

I don't have the M version of the 25, but the screw mount CV 25 I own does not seem to have what you are referring to.

 

[pvdhaar]

Can't say I ever noticed this on the CV25/4. Though very high contrast, its colour is quite neutral.

 

[rxmd]

I've certainly never heard of colour cast problems. My CV lenses are contrasty, but that's it. Could you point us to some of the reviews that mention a colour cast?

 

[MichaelW]

I've certainly never heard of colour cast problems. My CV lenses are contrasty, but that's it. Could you point us to some of the reviews that mention a colour cast?

Yes - when I first noticed this on my transparencies I did a google search something like "voigtlander lens magenta", wanting to see if it brought up a lot of hits or just a few. A lot of hits would suggest that it was a common issue & I could learn more about it. Not many hits (what i got) suggests that it is uncommon, or not many people have noticed it, perhaps due to shooting B&W, or colour negs processed & printed at a lab that does colour corrections.
Anyway, here is one http://ajaxnetphoto.blogspot.com/2006/08/introduction-by-stealth.html if you look at the item titled '250 years' he reviews a Heliar 50 and writes "Using both Kodak and now discontinued Konica colour negative emulsions, the magenta colour palette bias of the lens is quite apparent, but not in an obtrusive way."
I did find a couple of other pages that mention something like this but can't locate them again now, probably I did some searches with different keywords that I don't remember.

I know that review refers to a different lens than the one I tested but being a newcomer to CV lenses I was wanting to find out if it was a generic look across all their lenses. It's hard to get reviews on the pancake 25 as it is so new. Although I presume it is the same optics as the 25 Colour Skopar. The references to that lens have people saying all sorts of things about its colour rendition. A couple said it is neutral, one said it is somewhat cool & someone else wrote that it has a magenta/blue bias which doesn't make sense to me. http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=002f1o

 

[oscroft]

That's interesting. I have several CV lenses (inc 25/4) and I have never noticed any magenta cast using Sensia transparency film - high contrast and high colour saturation, yes, but no casts. Though to be fair, I haven't done any direct comparisons with other lenses, and I have only shot a few dozen films, so I might just not have noticed it if present.

 

[Bertram2]

I know that review refers to a different lens than the one I tested but being a newcomer to CV lenses I was wanting to find out if it was a generic look across all their lenses.

Michael,
it isn't. But the 4/25 M39 has slightly cool color handling which is reinforced by some films like the blueish character of Fuji Sensia. With this film I once had some single photos with a magenta cast, since then I use Kodak Elitechrome and it works fine.
One cannot say tho the lens has a general magenta a problem, you CAN have it under certain circumstances and with certain Films.

And one cannot say either that this magenta sensitivity is a CV thing, tho the more contrasty character of CV lenses brings another, a rather cooler type of colour reproduction than the Leica lenses, which are in general (mainly the the older ones) warmer .

Regards,
Bertram