is Voigtlander 12mm super wide that different ??

[Sparrow]

The wider you go, the more circles in the corners,edges, turn into ellipses. Note the sunbathers face.

There is no such thing as perspective distortion. The size relationship between near and far objects is governed by where you stand, not focal length.

Lesson 2 is take a shot with the 15, then WITHOUT MOVING and keeping the picture center the same place, do a 50 mm shot. AREA within the 50 mm frame will overlay perfectly. If you move back as was done with the boat image, they will not overlay and the perspective changes.

... perspective is simply the human perception of a planer projection

that's why this is both right and wrong at the same time ...

 

[Pherdinand]

Moreover. If you take a superwide angle pic then print it large and stand real close to it... bang, all the "distortion" is gone!

 

[Tom A]

The Heliar 12f5.6 is different - it is not a "walk about" lens - it is for specific shots. It has a steep learning curve - and you can still screw up - but it is unique in its own right!
This at f5.6, Neopan 400 in Harvey 777, lens on a Zeiss SW.

 

[Pherdinand]

Another two "problems" that don't seem to be mentioned usually:
1. It's a counterintuitive thing but you should normally not use too wide of an aperture unless all that is subject is far away (or all at equal distance). Things at the edge might be much closer than central objects and will get blurry quickly (or the other way around). You can see a lot of superwide shots with blurry corners, this is not because the lens is not sharp...
2. Also related to the big field of view: the dynamic range of the medium can't cope with all that is in the frame. In most scenes there will be patches of blown-out highlights and pitch black parts in the shots, you just can't avoid that.

Light falloff in the corners just makes the point 2 above even more of a problem.

 

[Sparrow]

Moreover. If you take a superwide angle pic then print it large and stand real close to it... bang, all the "distortion" is gone!

... yep, I have a 48x72 print and it's disconcerting as one gets close to it

 

[Rangefinderfreak]

The point with "superwides" 12mm and 15mm is the distance from you to the subject AND also your distance from the print. If you look at the images of these lenses in small format and from distance, they look weird, but if you look at a big blow up and really close, the images look FABULOUS.