40mm / 1.2 is great, but ...

ferider

ferider

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Technically, it turns out to be a "grail lens", it's very, very good: plenty sharp wide open, and undramatic vignetting - the first 1.2 lens that I could use for landscapes @f1.2. Beautiful bokeh, and only the faintest hint of distortion (pin-cushion at 2m in the corners). And small, smooth to operate, and easy 52mm filters. And with LV, I do like 0.5m min. focus.

Then again: it's a 900$ lens. And a hood is not included. Seriously ?

Roland.
 
Voigtlander and Zeiss play this game. No hood for their lenses. Hoods are about $50+ extra. I think the profit margin lies in the hood. How much does a threaded length of tubing cost to make?

I know the hood came with my Leica 90mm Macro Elmar M. And that's only a $3300+ lens.
 
$109 for the LH-8 hood. And I have no idea if a standard 52mm hood will vignette ... and frankly, why do I have to experiment until I find the right one ? For me the excluded hood is a first from CV.
 
Can't comment on 40 lens. I have one for sale :)
Facebook sensed what I searched yesterday and showed me BH advert for 2K$ 35 1.4 lens.
My search yesterday was "Zeiss wobble". I learned it is wobble and then where is worn out helicoids, on few years old lenses...
If I'll need 35 1.4 I'd rather get well under 900$ Viogtlander lens than 2K$ wobble.
 
Go to ebay, look at seller 'heavystar', get a 52mm hood for a 'standard' lens, pay $13 with shipping. For $13 take a chance it won't vignette. (probably won't)
 
nlubis said:
Sounds good to me. I've been waiting for review to trickle in.
Any focus shift?
Click to expand...

The normal backwards shift, like most fast normal lenses, similar to CV 50/1.4 and 1.1. Perfectly usable.

Here is an infinty shot wide open before sun-rise this morning. Check out the guy in the circle.

inf-f1.2post-X3.jpg


Roland.
 
zuiko85 said:
Go to ebay, look at seller 'heavystar', get a 52mm hood for a 'standard' lens, pay $13 with shipping. For $13 take a chance it won't vignette. (probably won't)
Click to expand...

You do that with the VM 50/1.5 and it will vignette - and trust me, I'm a good customer of his. And 40 is 20% wider. That's not the point. The point is that the 50/1.5 VM did come with a hood. Why not the 40 ?
 
I agree that lens companies are a problem by not providing a suitable lens and expecting people who want one to pay big bucks for them. I do not do this - although I have been lucky enough to have bought some second hand lenses that the original owner equipped with a hood.
But instead, I habitually use cheap aftermarket lens hoods, most of which work perfectly OK (if anything they let in too much light in some cases but at least no vignetting and still some flare protection). The other advantage is that I am not fussed if I scar one up or ding it. The other thing I sometimes do if I think a specific hood may provoke a little vignetting on a given lens is to buy the next size up (e.g. a 55mm or 58mm instead of a 52mm) and use a stepping ring on the lens. This is often a better solution as it gives deep cover to the front element.
 
Thanks, Roland.

I'll keep tab on this thread.



ferider said:
The normal backwards shift, like most fast normal lenses, similar to CV 50/1.4 and 1.1. Perfectly usable.

Here is an infinty shot wide open before sun-rise this morning. Check out the guy in the circle.


Roland.
Click to expand...
 
ferider said:
Technically, it turns out to be a "grail lens", it's very, very good: plenty sharp wide open, and undramatic vignetting - the first 1.2 lens that I could use for landscapes @f1.2. Beautiful bokeh, and only the faintest hint of distortion (pin-cushion at 2m in the corners). And small, smooth to operate, and easy 52mm filters. And with LV, I do like 0.5m min. focus.

Then again: it's a 900$ lens. And a hood is not included. Seriously ?

Roland.
Click to expand...

Seriously?

The first 40mm f1.2 in the history of photography and you are whining about not getting a free hood?

FYI no vented hood is included with the Voigtlander 35/1.2, 35/1.4, 35/1.7, 35/2.5 or 40/1.4.

The 40/1.2 is capable of stunning images and beautiful bokeh
at 1/5 the same lens would cost with a Leica nameplate,
and you are complaining you are not getting a free vented hood with the lens.
On top of that its small for its aperture and handles great on an M body.

Seriously?

Stephen
 
Heavystar hoods won't work, unless you find one made for 35mm lenses. The ones made for 50mm lenses will vignette a 40mm lens.

I found out that it was hard to find a hood for my Jupiter 3+ 50mm lens, as all the "standard" length hoods vignette. I ended up using wide angle hoods with an empty 40.5mm filter ring to increase the depth.

I'm now trying a Canon S-42 hood, which is slip on with a locking screw. This was originally meant for their 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar lens, so it should work. No, Lomography never offered a hood for the Jupiter 3+ either.

Back to the 40mm saga. I bought the 40mm f/2 Ultron (first version) in Nikon F mount. The original one came with a domed hood with a cutout. It's not very effective as light from my bulb flashes (e.g. Nikon BC-7) will enter the corners and produce a veiling flare throughout a large portion of the image. So, now I've bought the Voigtlander LH-40 IIS hood made for the newly restyled version of this lens. Hopefully this more conventional hood will be better at shielding against stray light. The 40 f/2 Ultron doesn't come with a hood either. The hood is $49, hence my original comment about a $50 extra charge.

If you don't need the f/1.2 speed, I highly recommend the 40mm f/2 Ultron ASPH. It's the Summicron of this focal length. This is the lens that caused me to sell off all of my Nikon 35mm AIS lenses, which were just inferior to this. The Nikons had large quantities of barrel distortion, were hazy wide open (especially the 35 f/1.4 AIS), and had visible curvature of field. As a plus, the Ultron has now been restyled to resemble the early Nikon F lenses.
 
Well, I've bought the appropriate hoods for my Olympus Pen F (film) lenses (43mm size) from heavystar and the only hood I had to shorten was for the 20mm f3.5 (28mm/e to full frame) Fortunately I can usually find a way to do a neat job without a metal lathe.

I also bought a small hood w/lens cap for my CV 35mm f2.5 PII, this although I have the CV vented hood for it. The small, non vented hood does not intrude into the frame and is very compact. The CV hood made for this lens is too large and spoils what is a very compact combo.
 
buy the 50mm heavystar round vented hood, and hammer it from round into a 2:3 rectangle... i expect this will remove vignetting while improving flare combat :D
 
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