Old/new 35mm Ultron comparison?

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It's a great lens. These were shot on Ektar 100 with a Canon L1. I have since sold the lens to get a Biogon 35/2 but this may have been a mistake...
 
It feels quite sharp and contrasty, but maybe in part that's because of the film. Are you going to try Tri X or HP5 Eric?
 
Old/new 35mm Ultron comparison?

Has anyone done a comparison of the old and new 35mm Ultrons? I've been thinking of springing for the new one but I know I'll prefer using the wide focus ring on the old. I'd like to see just how different they are. Can't seem to find any A/B tests online.
 
Ha! I was looking for exactly the same last night.
Huff has reviews for old one on film and new one on digital. At least one person reviews.

Plenty of examples on Flickr for both.
Tom A has shown them side by side on Flickr 🙂
But examples from new one seems to be only on digitals. Which isn't for me.
But if Leica's 35 ASPH makes it good on film, why new Ultron wouldn't ?
 
Flickr has a couple of groups with both the old and new Ultrons.
"Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f1.7" for the older version and "New Voigtlander M Ultron 35mm f1.7"
My personal opinion is that the new M Ultron is an improvement over the old one. Less flare, sharper and far better ergonomics.
For some reason I have had problem uploading images to Rff lately. Trying to figure out why. Once solved I will try to do some straight comparisons.
 
As most know, the new one is a totally different lens.

It's one of the very few 35mm RF lenses which does pretty good on a stock Sony A7x. Some very picky guys who shoot M240 really admire the performance and are using the lens as a new main 35.

The perception from a number of owners at the moment is that it is in or near the league of 35/APSH and ZM 35/1.4 as a technical 35. There are some huge threads with many examples at the FM alt forum.

Here is a really excellent review of how it works on a A7:
http://phillipreeve.net/blog/voigtlander-ultron-11-7-35-mm-review/

But there are anecdotal reports of copy variation, so buyers who care should check their copies for centering. 🙂

To be fair, the same could be said for the Leica 50 APO (not centering but other issues)
 
Thank you Tom and uhoh7.

Even couple of shots of the same with each lens on Flickr will be great.

Likewise! Straight comparisons of the same scene with a couple of crops is what I'm interested in. I'm quite aware of the new lens's "recalculation" and increased sharpness...it's tempting.

You guys like the handling? The main reason I wasn't satisfied with my Canon 35/2 was that I found it a little fiddly to focus; the new Ultron has a very similar-looking focus ring.

Tom, I quite like the shots you posted!
 
More Details on the VM 35/1.7 Ultron

More Details on the VM 35/1.7 Ultron

The new VM 35/1.7 Ultron:

It's very sharp, even wide open, has nice bokeh, short min focus distance, is practically flare proof and has very little CA and distortion - we know this from other reviews and I can confirm all of it. Here are a couple of notes on things I wanted to know but couldn't find out before I bought it for use on my M:

- best hood and M frameline intrusion: I use a simple empty 46mm filter ring and am satisfied. No vignetting with filter plus empty ring. Pictures of camera and framelines (click for larger size):

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- Focal length: it turns out to be 6% longer than my v3 Summicron, meaning a little more than 37mm, actually. B+W background is a Summicron picture, overlayed with an Ultron picture, using the same tripod position.

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- DOF: I cann't explain this physically, but - at the same f-stop - the Ultron has a little more DOF than my v3 Summicron. This is not a weakness of the Ultron, but a feature of the Mandler lens, I believe. Notice also the slight shift, even for the Ultron:

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- Field Curvature: the Ultron has a slightly curved focus field. Which makes it easier to correct for the cosine effect. I like this. Comparing a center min. focus shot (similar to above) cropped, with an off-centered shot:

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- best price: currently you can buy a black copy in Europe (from good dealers in UK or Germany), excluding VAT and including shipping and US customs for less than US 700. That puts it into used ZM 35/2 territory, and at about half the price of a used Summicron Asph.

In a nutshell: Very cool lens for this price, technically the best 35mm I have used so far.

Roland.
 
Thank you Roland. I always enjoy your posts on cameras and lenses - you often add that little bit extra that no one else seems to have illustrated or considered.

I note you say it's technically the best. How do you feel about the more subjective "character"? Do images taken with this lens jump out at you or are easily notable on your screen/print?

I guess what I'm getting at is - does the technical excellence result in a more clinical look over "character" or is the VM35's notable character defined by that very technical excellence?
 
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