Comments on quality 12/5.6?

[Warroo]

Bought myself a Voigtlander 12/5.6 Heliar new for 449 Euro. Have not seen the results yet, but the lens looks very cool.. I always hear very enthousiastic story about the 15/4.5 but a lot less about the 12/5.6. Talking about quality, did I make a wrong decision buying the 12/5.6 instead of the 15/4.5?

 

[kbg32]

I own the 12 and I love it. I got mine quite by accident. I won the 15 on ebay, but the seller sent me the 12 by mistake. I immediately contacted him - numerous times, but he never returned my calls or email.

I find it quite sharp. I don't think it is for everyone's taste because of how wide it is and that many do not own it. The 15 I suspect, judging by posts here, is quite a popular focal length, and is as wide as a lot of people would like to go.

Cheers.

 

[Theo-Prof]

I would be tempted to get the 12 were it not for the fact that I already own the 15. Everything I have read about the 12 has been positive. There is a lens test on Popular Photography's website that you can download. They were very impressed with the image quality. Their SQF table on this lens is pretty impressive. Several years ago Shutterbug also tested the 12. I cannot remember whether their test is on their website, but Pop-Photo's tests are far more thorough than Shutterbug's.

If you got the 12 for the price of a 15 be happy. For one thing, the 12 can handle filters more readily than the 15. In order to use filters on my 15 I have to rig a Cokin P-series holder to the focusing ring (Read my current gallery thread to see what I have to do to use a filter with the 15. It works but it is not very convenient.)

Kevin

 

[dominicLF]

The twelve is a fabulous lens. If you treat it casually, you'll end up with a lot of bad photos and few really wild art shots. If you treat it like a view camera lens, carefully leveling it on your tripod and composing with an eye to its depth of field and carefully guarding your composition from becoming too cluttered (this lens gets everything!), you'll end up with superb photos. The filter adaptor is great. The low angle finder is the best RF innovation that CV has produced. I don't think much of the spirit level finder and use a bogen bubble that is viewable from all angles instead. Gandy actually says that the sprit level finder is viewable from all sides, but that is most definitely not true. I bought a black lens and that is my one regret. In general CV's silver finish is harder and better.