New MF lens: Cosina SLII 90 F/3.5 APO LANTHAR (CAN/NIK/PEN)

I have an M42 version of this lens. It's pretty damn stellar when you need just plain straight up sharp and accurate performance. Get a good hood if you take one.
 
6 elements in 4 groups, put together in a small and neat package covering 36x24.

However, aside from portability and/or being collectible, I don't really see the point of it.

It's neither 1:1, nor very fast. It would be a good lens for a walk during the day, but so is almost any other.

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All the other lenses from SL-II line have very clear and distinguished places and ideas. A normal pancake, a wide pancake, a normal/short telephoto fast lens.

However this one doesn't really seem to be well suited against any particular task or shooting style.
 
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hans voralberg said:
Im impressed with the close focus capability, any other lens is capable of 0.5m min focus in this focal length?
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Er, like, a lot of them?

90mm lenses were one of the areas where third party lenses really shine. You can get a Tamron SP 90/2.5 (Adaptall, so it's for practically any camera mount) that goes down to 40cm or so (1:2) and is nicely compact. Or a Vivitar 90/f2.5 Series 1 (1:2, "Bokina") that is somewhat legendary. Or another 90/f2.5 lens that goes down to 1:1 (25-or-so cm) that is available from a number of manufacturers and and enjoys a good reputation, too (I have it branded "Elicar" for Canon FD).

I think the main advantage of the Cosina is that it's small and that it's coupled to the camera electronics if your camera forces you to do that. Otherwise, it's a lens in a sector pretty crowded by excellent lenses from all sorts of manufacturers.
 
rxmd said:
I think the main advantage of the Cosina is that it's small and that it's coupled to the camera electronics if your camera forces you to do that. Otherwise, it's a lens in a sector pretty crowded by excellent lenses from all sorts of manufacturers.
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The main advantage of the Cosina Voigtländer lens is that it's an apochromatic lens. It means it's corrected for chromatic aberrations, even longitudinal chromatic aberration. Try to shoot this with a Tamron or or Tokineh-bokina, and you will get a rainbow of colors:

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Picture Credit: Michiro

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Picture Credit: Vilhelm Sjostrom

Cheers!

Abbazz
 
Thank you Abbazz.
The apo performance of this lens is absolutely the point of it. Where else will you get that for $600?
f3.5 seems slow but in use it's fine. Only 1/2stop slower than 2.8 which is expected at this FL. I'll put some samples from the 5DII later using this lens.
 
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