Just got a used Voightlander 15mm f/4.5

[driggett]

I was in my local photography store today contemplating buying the Leica 21mm when I saw they had a bessa l camera and a set of three lenses. They had a 15mm and a 25mm. The 15mm was $279 so I tested it out and bought it. I have included a couple of quick test shots.

My question is that I noticed heavy vignetting so I applied the 15mm choice in the raw dialog. The vignetting was still not gone. I then increased the Intensity setting to 20 to get rid of it. Is this normal? I have included three shots; no correction, 15mm correction and 15mm and intensity setting to 20 correction. Should the normal vignetting setting work?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[driggett]

Here is another shot fully corrected. For the money this is a nice lens. I promise much better subject matter tomorrow.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[ijonas]

FWiW, I like the vignetting of the 15mm. Part of its character, but it's great to have the option of the software to correct it.

(Must remember to add the 15mm to my To Buy list)

Look forward to seeing your gallery fill up.

Ij.

 

[pfogle]

what's interesting to me is the loss of colour saturation in the corners from correcting the vignetting. It seems there's always going to be some compromise in quality with this lens as far as evenness of illumination is concerned. Still, with the lower level of correction, to my taste, these look really nice images.
Phil

 

[Sonnar2]

15mm Heliar and "vignetting"

15mm Heliar and "vignetting"

"vignetting" is known at *every* extreme superwide, except with an special grayfilter.. See other threads.
With an 110° angle, particular in sunlight, there is also some "natural" vignetting due to the fact that the sky isn't equally illuminated by the sun. The lens is more exact than your eyes (brain) here. That's one of the reasons extreme superwides are difficult to use. This inevitable "vignetting" isn't caused by constructive issues, i.e. too tight hoods, mounting or stuff like that.
When doing landscapes with the 15mm (it's sharp enough for!) my best results are with at least slightly coverd sky. It also makes very nice things with the clouds... despite of all difficulties I rate it as one of my best lenses... have fun...

Frank

 

[vincenzo]

I also had this lens. I took it back after a day as the vignetting was too severe for me. Even with the RAW correction the edges are losing too much detail.

 

[mfs]

If you think of the angle of view, the vignetting is typical. Other sites have a complete technical description of this phenomenon.

To show how jaded we have become, just think back to the days of silver halide photography. The vignetting was there, and fixed except if a center filter was attached which in essence reduced the speed of the lens so that the central area was darkened to the level of the edges.

Now we are complaining about the ability of software to compensate for this natural lens characteristic.

We really have come a long way.

Martin

 

[Sean Reid]

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/lenses/rd-1-lens.shtml

The CV 12 shows less vignetting and is, in my mind, a better lens on the R-D1.

 

[David Kieltyka]

As other folks have mentioned the 15mm shows some corner falloff with film too. It's just part of the lens' signature. I use much less aggressive compensation than you've done in Epson's RAW converter, usually with good results. Here's a boring test shot example of this:

http://home.twmi.rr.com/davesden/Graphics/15mm_f8.jpg

-Dave-

 

[Doug]

There's definitely a loss of contrast and saturation on the short sides. I guess a graduated center-ND filter would be the better fix for that than software, wouldn't it?