Voigtlander 35mm 1.4 ?

Erik van Straten said:
The picture (the vision of the photograper) should have character, not the lens. The lens should be free of lens faults so that the photographer can make pictures with character.

Erik.
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Nicely put, Erik. :)

When Leica (Dr Mandler) designed the 35 Summilux-M lens, he went to the limits of what is possible for 35/1.4 only using spherical surfaces in the design. The CV 35/1.4 is a slightly modified copy of the 35 mm Summilux, a little better performance at f/1.4 (less coma, higher contrast) at the cost of visible barrel distortion.
Also, the performance of the 35 Summilux gets noticeably worse when there is the slightest amount of haze in the lens and most recent copies of this lens are now 10 years old...
 
Leica M2, CV Ultron 35mm f/1.7, Tmax400.

Erik.

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maddoc said:
When Leica (Dr Mandler) designed the 35 Summilux-M lens, he went to the limits of what is possible for 35/1.4 only using spherical surfaces in the design.
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As an owner of the versions 1 and 2 of the Summilux 35mm I know that version I (by Mandler and Wagner) is much better than the version II (by Mandler). Version 2 ( from number 2221201) is a cheaper version with inferior glasses.

The version I is rare, almost unobtainable, that is why people do not know how good the original version of the Summilux 35mm version 1 is. Version 2 does not show the limits of sperical surfaces. That does version 1.

Erik.
 
Erik van Straten said:
I think lacking character is a quality for a lens. The picture (the vision of the photograper) should have character, not the lens. The lens should be free of lens faults so that the photographer can make pictures with character.

Erik.
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Erick, I would not argue otherwise! It's just not a good quality in my book, but that, of course, is not the same as saying that any lens with character would work for me. Summitars have lots of fans, but the swirly OoF is too strong fro me.


An example of a 35mm lens with character (i.e. a unique signature) is the Summaron in BW. That lens digs into shadows in a way that would require messing with sliders in post to begin to emulate.

It's mistake to think of a lens with character simply as a crutch to boost an otherwise poor photo. I just like to exploit the lens weaknesses (because that's what often amounts to "character" in many lenses) to my advantage.

In the example below, the Summaron provided both wonderful tonal gradations and the sharpness needed to make the strong graphic content work (or, at least work for me!).

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PS- The jury is still out on the Nokton, but I do like the ergonomics quite a bit -- a very fast lens to use.
 
I love my SC 1.4 bought from a forum member in Germany. It's been with me all over and I adore the images. There's a slight softness which I like a lot on my film images.

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Every time I see lots of seriously different opinions about a VC lens on the web, I suspect the lens as being prone to quality control issues. VC can really produce great lens designs, but some are plagued by so much sample variation that you need to cherry pick them.
 
I've gone through so many lenses. The Voigtlander 35mm MC is 1st and still favourite lens. It has the speed, compact size, and right price. I've always thought of upgrading to a 35 'cron or 'lux, but at 4-5 times the price I can't even make a good justification out of it when purely comparing photos. I'll probably buy a 35 'cron just because it's "Leica" and have better resale.

The distortion is easily fixed in Lightroom with a click or two. I never even noticed it till I started reading reviews, after buying the lens.
 
haempe said:
Glad you are still happy with the lens...
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Oh yes! Thank you for selling it to me! The Voigtlander lens still sits happy on my Bessa r2a. I am not in any rush to change it either. It just works perfectly for me. There's some barrel distortion when photographing buildings but you learn to work around that and enjoy photographing closer objects. I've mainly used with black and white films but did try some Agfa slide film and that came out lovely too.
 
I'm liking the colors so far, nice and punchy...more than I expected.

The shot below is on Kodak Gold.

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Also note that at this distance and at the medium f stop used for this image, the barrel effect is visible, but not too distracting in my opinion (and, yes, th sidewalk was wonky like that).
 
The crappy scan and the very high contrast setting rob this image of some of its tonal subtlety, but overall, I like the feel that results from the slow shutter speed and possibly the softer focus at f2.

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on Ilford XP2
 
I'm going to bump this up. Was going to make a thread but figured this might work as well. I have the 35mm MC 1.4. I recently came into some cash and am thinking of upgrading to a Zeiss 35mm F2.

Thoughts?

I like the idea of sharper glass which will benefit the shots wide open. I find the Nokton to be ok at F2 but could still be sharper. My only concern is that I will lose the compactness and the one stop of speed. Not really that I used the lens much at 1.4. Maybe in emergencies but I always try to stay one or two stops down from wide open.

My idea would be to pay for the zeiss and sell the nokton. Who knows, maybe next upgrade will be to a summicron next?
 
I myself often need f1.4. When shooting in the evening with 400 ASA for instance (traveling).

You could just add a Color Skopar when you have more light and need higher resolution.

Or wait a little just get a Summicron in the first place. I never liked the Biogon due to the reliability issues that have been reported frequently.
 
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