First impressions - Voigtlander SL-II 58/1.4

[Benjamin Marks]

Last week I purchased a 58mm f:1.4 Voigtlander SL-II Lens from Cameraquest in Nikon mount.

I am very pleased with it. Build quality is what you'd expect at this point from Mr. K - solid feeling and well damped. The real story is the image quality, though. I will post pictures later taken with this lens wide open on a Canon 5D (with an adapter, of course). Sharp, nice focus transition, great bokeh, great speed -- what more could you want?

I know bokeh is a bit of a bug-bear with folks -- but I have to say the nissen-bokeh of some Nikon lenses, drives me batty. No worries here with the 58 mm Voigtlander.

Ben Marks

 

[rover]

Glad to hear, I am patiently awaiting my KA 58.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Several images

Several images

Well, here are some pictures made with the 58/1.4 wide open, one 100% crop and a hasty still life at 1.4, 2 and 4 (or maybe 5.6). I have to say, I really like this lens.

Canon 5D, various ISO's, all hand-held, w/available light.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Hmmm. I used to be able to upload multiple attachments. . . we'll do this the slow way.

100% crop (of a different picture) at f:1.4 and the first two of the hasty table-top scene.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Third in the still-life series.

I recognize the tendency to be partial to the lens one has just purchased. But this lens is a really nice balance of slightly-longer than normal for 35mm work, and fast. My color saturation always suffers in the conversion to jpg too. The colors really pop on the originals as 16 bit TIFFs. And the lens is reasonably priced too! I will have to pop some film in the F5 and see how she does.

Best regards,

Ben Marks

 

[rover]

I just noticed Stephen is listing the 58 Nokton PKA mount in stock!!!!

I am hoping mine is in the mail......I may have to rush home tonight wishing for a package from Cameraquest.

 

[nksyoon]

I recently bought a Nikon FM3a and am looking at a 50-ish lens. What opinions do people here have about the Voigtlander 58 vs the Nikkor 50/1.2 AIS which can be bought new from Japan?

I've read various posts on photo.net, Nikonians as well as Bjorn Roslett's website, and am leaning towards the Voigtlander.

So far I've bought a 35/2 and a 105/2.5, with probably a 24/2.8 next. The 58 will be a bigger gap from the 35 than a 50.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Nick:

I think the 58/1.4 and the 50/1.2 are very different beasts -- and the answer is going to depend on what you want to do with the lens. I don't own a 50/1.2, but the pictures that I have seen made with it look to me a little like images from other superspeed lenses of the same age -- tons of spherical aberation wide open, fairly low contrast, all improving somewhat as you stop down. The 58/1.4 by contrast seems a more modern design. Contrast is pretty good wide open and the lens seems pretty well corrected to me (see oof areas of the pictures above -- I can send you larger files if you are interested - PM me with a broad-band connection/e-mail address). I used the lens this week on a D3 to do some available-light portraits of infants -- the slightly longer-than-normal focal length also goes a ways to eliminate that "close-up-horse-face" quality that 50's can have. . .

If it were me (and I have a weakness for 50's), I'd get the 58/1.4 new and then fill in the 50 focal length gap with a used (and unbelievably cheap -- get two) 50/1.8 E series lens.

Ben

 

[rover]

I have not yet shot a lot with my KA 58, but it is top class as far as build quality.

 

[nksyoon]

Ben, thanks for the information. So would you say that the Nikkor is more of a "characterful" lens like the Noctilux and that the Nokton is more "conventional"? I think I need to look at more images...flickr here I come.

I've read about the Nokton overexposing by 2/3rds of a stop, seemingly due to a difference between the actual aperture and the aperture reported by the CPU? I suppose since you're using a 5D, this doesn't affect your exposures. I presume you do see a difference in shutter speed between the lens setting of 1.4 and 2.0?

 

[BillBingham2]

Nick,

I read the same review and was a bit concerned. But buying from Stephen for me at least makes that worry go away. I know it will be right. I'm going to sell my 50/1.8 Nikkor when I get mine. I hope Pres K will bring out a few wide SLII lenses in the future. I love my Nikkors but I have yet to read a review of a good 18mm lens I can afford from them.

I've come to respect CV lenses, much more so than others, so going that way would not be a bad thing for me.

B2 (;->