The following lenses were announced as discontinued:
【VM mount lenses】
COLOR-SKOPAR Vintage Line 21mm F3.5 Aspherical Type I
ULTRON Vintage Line 28mm F2 Aspherical Type I
NOKTON 35mm F1.2 Aspherical Ⅲ
ULTRON Vintage Line 35mm F2 Aspherical Type I
NOKTON 40mm F1.2 Aspherical
NOKTON 50mm F1.2 Aspherical
HELIAR Vintage Line 50mm F3.5
【LTM（L39) mount lenses】
HELIAR 40mm F2.8 Silver
HELIAR 40mm F2.8 L Black paint
COLOR-SKOPAR 28mm F2.8 Aspherical Silver
COLOR-SKOPAR 28mm F2.8 Aspherical Black paint
I'm surprised that they discontinued the trio of the fast f1.2 lenses in VM at this time. Some discontinuations are just reduction of available types and certain main types will remain in production.
p.1 #3 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
I think it's a common pattern for them that when they release new lenses in many different configurations, they discontinue most of the configurations 1 or 2 years later and just keep the primary ones in production, but I think the 35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2 were unique in their lineup and not sure what is going to replace those. Some of them should have been relatively popular too (e.g. 40/1.2). Perhaps there are some new versions coming to replace some of those.
p.1 #4 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
Maybe their plan is to blow us away with an equally compact f/1.0 trio.
It's hard to work up much concern about those discontinuations, though, given the number of new and used copies still floating around. Outside of the rarer APO-Lanthars, I've never looked for one of their older lenses and not found excellent copies at good prices.
p.1 #6 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
Juha Kannisto wrote:
I think it's a common pattern for them that when they release new lenses in many different configurations, they discontinue most of the configurations 1 or 2 years later and just keep the primary ones in production, but I think the 35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2 were unique in their lineup and not sure what is going to replace those. Some of them should have been relatively popular too (e.g. 40/1.2). Perhaps there are some new versions coming to replace some of those.
If they do introduce FLE versions of the 1.2 set, Summilux sales would for sure suffer.
p.1 #7 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
Juha Kannisto wrote:
...
I'm surprised that they discontinued the trio of the fast f1.2 lenses in VM...
Given recent releases of fast lenses in other mounts, for the home market it probably makes sense. Those adapting lenses no longer need to consider M mount lenses probably. Shame about the ltm offerings though...
p.1 #8 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
Fred Miranda wrote:
Surprised about the discontinuation of the f/1.2 Nokton lenses.
Agreed! I'm wondering what the strategy is for the 50 1.2. Perhaps they felt there was too much congestion in the lineup with the 1.0, 1.2 and 1.5. My hope is that isn't the case and we'll see a new version of the 50 1.2 soon.
p.1 #10 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
Maybe they plan to release new f/1.2 lenses with shorter available MFD focusing capability like Leica did? All in anticipation of an EVF-based M-camera.
p.1 #12 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
retrofocus wrote:
Maybe they plan to release new f/1.2 lenses with shorter available MFD focusing capability like Leica did? All in anticipation of an EVF-based M-camera.
That’s a plausible explanation, especially now that they’ve figured out how to create a noticeable click or indentation when the focusing cam disengages from the rangefinder roller. However, it seems Cosina discontinues models that no longer sell well or are replaced by newer versions and they have not mention any new f/1.2 coming up soon.
p.1 #13 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
I think it would be a good idea to buy any CV lens you're currently interested in on any mount. There is clearly no guarantee of any lens being available in the future the way the market is going.
p.1 #14 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
retrofocus wrote:
Maybe they plan to release new f/1.2 lenses with shorter available MFD focusing capability like Leica did? All in anticipation of an EVF-based M-camera.
I was wondering about that, but I thought they do not seem to discontinue lenses before bringing out new versions. In fact, they often release multiple types in the same time for a same model. They also kept for a while f/1.0 and f/1.2 versions of the 50...
That being said, if they discontinue those just because of future releases with improved characteristics, that would be awesome.
p.1 #15 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
Thank you Juha, for your attention to what this most quirky yet productive company is doing. It would be all but impossible to otherwise know what is going on.
The release dates for these soon to be discontinued lenses (easy to find on their product pages, fortunately) are:
The release range is 2016-2021, and most came near the end of this period. So between eight and three years on the market. They may make quite conservative production runs and we see the now-discontinued Z APOs are apparently disappearing quickly. Every new production run displaces and delays new lens production, but leaves the design department free to carry on.
Their modus operandi is to give each lens 5-6 years so they can gauge how sales progress over that time. How much of their cull activity is poor sales and how much is incipient 'versioning', and entirely new lenses? All are happening, it seems. It's a cauldron of creativity never seen before.
This alone is revolutionary, when you observe the small number of lenses and their long for-sale duration of the major market players (and notably, Leica). They rely on medium to very large production runs and offer very long market availability. It results in a mentality of 'that is what we are offering you (for a decade or more) take it or leave it for Sigma/Tamron etc.'
You can't help but feel that many Voigtlander lenses will be scarce commodities in the near future. And new lens buyers will feel the accelerated cycle of design-release-market life-discontinuance not to their liking. It will force them to scour the second hand market, and depriving them of warranty claims and easy swaps of decentered lenses. But the sun never sets on Cosina's near-manic development program.
p.1 #16 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
Their sheer level of production of lenses and variants is a factor. They can't be expected to keep inventory of 100 plus lenses. Guess how many Voigtlanders are currently on the market?
32 x VMs (*not* including variants); 12 x E-mount; 6 x m43; 10 x Z-mount; 3 x RF-mount; 7 x X-mount; and 5 x SLR. The total is currently 75 lenses!
Market developer Sony's website lists 21 lenses for a comparison, and they have accumulated since 2013. Many would love a 55/1.8 v2, and so on for many other focal lengths. Many want an updated APO-Summicron-M 90/2 (a 1998 lens), etc.
That right there is Cosina's confidence in the future. An acceleration into using the latest of, well, everything involved from both sides of the market - design trends, public fashion, CAD, assembly, QA, even marketing. Any wonder their lens releases are anticipated highly. So that is the upside to the negative factors.
It is having a psychological effect on their buyers. Users will be more likely to keep a lens they love, the 40/1.2 and 50/1.2 being obvious examples. Lenses that start out life at very affordable prices will retain value even more.
Nikon MF people are getting their APOs while they still can, and this will happen to VM enthusiasts now as well. Their lenses - newer and using the latest inputs - will rise in status (ever important for VMs) due to this 'get it while you can' situation.
And never forget Cosina is our sole elite mass market manual focus lens producer, a category Leica has priced itself out of. They are also the natural heirs to Zeiss, in particular.
p.1 #17 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
New lenses coming? The only thing you can predict about Cosina is their unpredictability.
Some is already underway - the new 50/3.5 will interst buyers/users of the Heliar 50/3.5, for example. By the way, Cosina is talking up this one's performance level: 'super high performance, (Apo-Lanthar) a proof of ultimate performance.'
The f1.2 set? Cosina have usually given quite lengthy notice of impending releases, and nothing seems to be on the horizon. It's hard to see them not making new fast lenses in their favourite focal length range however, they are among the best-loved lenses they have made in the modern era. People would love a new high performance slow 21mm. More Ultrons too. We'll see.
p.1 #18 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
Xavier Rival wrote:
I was wondering about that, but I thought they do not seem to discontinue lenses before bringing out new versions. In fact, they often release multiple types in the same time for a same model. They also kept for a while f/1.0 and f/1.2 versions of the 50...
That being said, if they discontinue those just because of future releases with improved characteristics, that would be awesome.
I think they have in the past discontinued original versions of lenses before bringing out version II, for example:
Nokton 50/1.5 Vintage Line VM:
Original: 2013 June (launch) to 2020 February (end of production) --> Version II launched 2020 October
Nokton 35/1.4 classic VM:
Original: 2008 February (launch) to 2019 March (end of prod.) --> Version II from 2019 June
So it would be very possible that some of the f1.2 would be replaced with new versions some months later, but we would not know for sure before any new version gets announced.
The 35/1.2 VM has been a longstanding classic in their lineup with:
v1 from 2003 April to 2010 December
v2 from 2011 September to 2019 November
v3 from 2020 March to 2024 July
v1 and v2 versions of those were also discontinued before the next version got introduced. v1 was my first CV lens and it got me into manual focusing and their lenses in general (bought it back in 2013)...
On the other hand, if they release multiple types with exactly same optics, then they don't usually discontinue Type I before releasing Type II even if those come out at different time.
p.1 #19 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
Juha Kannisto wrote:
I think they have in the past discontinued original versions of lenses before bringing out version II, for example:
Nokton 50/1.5 Vintage Line VM:
Original: 2013 June (launch) to 2020 February (end of production) --> Version II launched 2020 October
Nokton 35/1.4 classic VM:
Original: 2008 February (launch) to 2019 March (end of prod.) --> Version II from 2019 June
So it would be very possible that some of the f1.2 would be replaced with new versions some months later, but we would not know for sure before any new version gets announced.
The 35/1.2 VM has been a longstanding classic in their lineup with:
v1 from 2003 April to 2010 December
v2 from 2011 September to 2019 November
v3 from 2020 March to 2024 July
v1 and v2 versions of those were also discontinued before the next version got introduced. v1 was my first CV lens and it got me into manual focusing and their lenses in general (bought it back in 2013)...
On the other hand, if they release multiple types with exactly same optics, then they don't usually discontinue Type I before releasing Type II even if those come out at different time....Show more →
35/1.2 V4: 1.7” w/ 46mm filter thread.
p.1 #20 · Cosina Voigtländer announced discontinuation of 11 VM / LTM lenses
philip_pj wrote:
New lenses coming? The only thing you can predict about Cosina is their unpredictability.
Hey, that's my line!
Nice to see it's catching on.
retrofocus wrote:
Maybe they plan to release new f/1.2 lenses with shorter available MFD focusing capability like Leica did? All in anticipation of an EVF-based M-camera.
Is this a matter of saying it enough times and it comes true? You seem very confident about this. And Leica would share this info with Cosina??
Xavier Rival wrote:
I was wondering about that, but I thought they do not seem to discontinue lenses before bringing out new versions. In fact, they often release multiple types in the same time for a same model. They also kept for a while f/1.0 and f/1.2 versions of the 50...
That being said, if they discontinue those just because of future releases with improved characteristics, that would be awesome.
No, as Juha already explained with examples, Cosina will discontinue lenses and then may resurrect them with a newer version. Sometimes this happens relatively rapidly, as with the original 35/1.2 that I was intent to buy back in late 2010 or early 2011, only to discover it had been discontinued. I didn't have to wait long for v2. But there was no indication at the time the v1 was discontinued that a v2 would replace it.
With the discontinuation of three f/1.2 lenses - essentially the entire set - I feel they're working on new versions. The question in my mind, as someone else suggested, is whether they become FLE and/or ASPH designs to tame near distance wide open SA and how much sharper Cosina will strive to make them from wide open. While the f/1.2 lenses are somewhat character lenses wide open due to SA and the lack of FLE, such revised versions would lose some this wide open charm.
