Filters to use with Voigtlander 21mm

[Jan Van Laethem]

I have a 21mm Voigtlander SC f/4 in Nikon S mount and would like to use filters with it, mainly for black and white photography.

There are two options I see: if I get a 48-52mm step up ring, I could use my regular 52mm Nikon filters with it, but I suspect this would block out part of the image in the viewfinder. Another option would be to purchase some 48mm filters. If I went the second route, would I need to buy extra slim filters (B+W makes them, there may be other manufacturers I am unaware of) or just regular ones? I'm concerned that vignetting may be an issue with the 21mm. Does anyone have any experience with this? Also, would you use the filter on the lens and then the lens hood over it?

Thanks

Jan

 

[Roger Hicks]

In Leica fit it takes 39mm standard-mount filters without a problem, so with 48mm there should be no problem whatsoever unless the filter fitting is very strange.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[Mark Wood]

I might be wrong (I usually am) but I think the Nikon S version of the lens takes 43 mm filters rather than 48.

I haven't noticed any vignetting with standard 39 mm filters in the Leica version of the lens either although irritatingly, Kood 39 mm filters seem to be slightly too wide to fit inside the CV hoods (Hoya and Heliopan seem to fit) - that serves me right for being a cheapskate of course.

 

[Al Kaplan]

I'd start out with the cheapest route, going with 52mm filters on a step-up ring. A 21 tends to be a bit darker off axis anyway so darkening a sky is sort of "automatic". I don't think that the intrusion into the finder image will be big problem for candid hand-held shooting. You should quickly learn to ignore it. Another consideration is that the lens is looking straight through the filter in the center but at a very shallow angle at the corners. That means that the light has to go a greater distance through the glass in the corners, increasing the filter effect a bit.

 

[Jan Van Laethem]

Roger, Mark and Al,

Thanks for your answers.

Mark,

I just double checked the 21mm VC and it has a 48mm filter thread. I know because I have a 48-49mm step up ring... Now that I come to think of it, finding 49mm filters may be easier than 48mm, I think 49mm was the standard Olympus fitting in the OM series.

The Nikkor rangefinder lenses with 43mm filter diameter include the 5cm f/1.4 and 3.5cm f/1.8, and I think that the 5cm f/2 used 40.5mm. As a side-note, the 3.5cm f/1.8 uses 43mm filters and a 48mm hood. Go figure why they made it that complicated.

Jan

 

[Jan Van Laethem]

I might be wrong (I usually am) but I think the Nikon S version of the lens takes 43 mm filters rather than 48.

Mark,

You were right. I just checked the instructions that came with the lens (serves me right for not doing so in the first place) and it does take 43mm filters. The 21mm Voigtlander in this respect has the same layout as the 3.5cm f/1.8 Nikkor: a 43mm inner ring for filters and a 48mm outer ring for the lens hood.

http://www.cameraquest.com/NRFVoigt.htm

With the 21mm Voigtlander you need to remove the hood before you can put a filter in place, there just isn't enough room for doing it with the lens hood in place. Which makes for rather slow filter changing. But at least I'm fine with the filters I have, they fit all my Nikon S mount lenses.

Thanks to all for the very helpful answers.

Regards

Jan