p.13 #3 · Official: Voigtlander 35 F1.7 Ultron M mount
I got this lens yesterday along with the Hawks v5 adapter, using it on an a7rii. Apologies that I've also posted in another topic on this, but I think that one, comparing it to another lens, was the wrong topic. And thank you all for posting on this!
Overall the lens is brilliant, but I'm seeing a worse left side. It seems it is more likely to be the adapter than the lens, right? I do love this Hawks adapter for the lens close up, but I wonder if another adapter would perform better for general landscape use, or if this adapter can be tweaked optimally? It seems that changing the infinity stop setting influences the overall distance of the lens, so I wonder if this might be better one way or another? It seems maybe to be better with the stop set all the way to the left (lens set closer), but nothing has been entirely satisfactory so far. I'm not sure it makes any difference really.
I've made about 150 exposures so far, and it's been mixed. Some of the non-test, real world use has been really good, but then sometimes there is one where the edges (especially the left edge) are just really not good at all. In some cases as it goes to the edges (and especially left) there is just nothing sharp, no matter what focal plane of the image I'm looking at. A line of trees at infinity goes from sharp to blur.
I got the lens from Robert White, so probably not as straightforward as sending it back to Adorama if it's the lens or if it's worse than usual. I'm thinking my next step is to just order another adapter to try.
I've been using manual focus lenses on this camera (Loxia 50 and 21) so I'm used to the manual lens and focusing. This lens is both exciting in its potential but also disappointing at times.
p.13 #4 · Official: Voigtlander 35 F1.7 Ultron M mount
Probably try another adapter first to see if it makes a difference. Even a cheap one since I don't believe this lens is a floating element design where perfect infinity adjustment is needed.
But... It's also possible for it to be the lens. Mine used on a Leica M shows slight weakness on the right side, but not to the degree you mentioned. With yours being on a Sony, whatever edge deterioration you see should be consistent around the frame. If it persists on one side, shimming the adapter might help.
p.13 #7 · Official: Voigtlander 35 F1.7 Ultron M mount
Phillip (thank you for your blog, which I've been reading a lot lately!) -- in your review of this lens you mention that your adapter worked better at m3 than m4, I think you said. I didn't understand that. Which adapter? An adjustable one?
p.13 #8 · Official: Voigtlander 35 F1.7 Ultron M mount
jlehet wrote:
Phillip (thank you for your blog, which I've been reading a lot lately!) -- in your review of this lens you mention that your adapter worked better at m3 than m4, I think you said. I didn't understand that. Which adapter? An adjustable one?
can you quote the exact paragraph you are referring to?
"For good to very good corners you should stop down to f/8 and place your focus carefully so that the field curvature is taken into consideration, focusing on the center (like I did for this test) won’t give you the best results.
With my a little too thin adapter the center was sharpest at the 5m setting but the corners are not very good at this setting. At the 3m setting the center is stilll very, very sharp but now the corners are very good as well."
p.13 #10 · Official: Voigtlander 35 F1.7 Ultron M mount
Here's one of mine, I'm pretty sure it was at f8 (this was not one of my series where I went through every full stop, it was a one-off), focus at infinity:
center is sharp in the distance (the crop includes some foreground):
"For good to very good corners you should stop down to f/8 and place your focus carefully so that the field curvature is taken into consideration, focusing on the center (like I did for this test) won’t give you the best results.
With my a little too thin adapter the center was sharpest at the 5m setting but the corners are not very good at this setting. At the 3m setting the center is still very, very sharp but now the corners are very good as well."
Ah, okay.
Well I used a cheap, standard adapter which was a little too short, so when I focused the center the distance scale showed a distance of 5m. But for good corner sharpness you shouldn't focus this lens on the center but on the edges an then the distances scale showed 3m on my adapter. So a properly calibrated adapter would show infinity when the center is focused at infinity and probably 4m or so when it is focused on the edge.
p.13 #16 · Official: Voigtlander 35 F1.7 Ultron M mount
Actually it's pretty weird: Sometimes the left side is only slightly below the high average of the rest of it --in other words pretty good. Other times it's worse or pretty bad. I didn't use a notebook or a system this time (like going through every stop) but just used f8 and f11 for the big view landscapes. I wonder if the adapter has a wobble or something. I can't feel it, but the lens is not consistent regarding this left side flaw. Overall I'm really happy with the way the lens renders, but I'll have to see how to work this out.
p.13 #17 · Official: Voigtlander 35 F1.7 Ultron M mount
If anyone is interested I can post more photos and crops, but I wont' bore you with it otherwise. Going through these, one is crystal clear edge to edge, the next has the bad edge.
p.13 #18 · Official: Voigtlander 35 F1.7 Ultron M mount
If it's inconsistent, then something is changing between images, as you deduced... A loose lens mount (on the body, adapter or lens)? I still think it's worth trying the second adapter just to see if anything changes. Another option would be to try a second body, if you have access to one. Lastly, it could be the lens, too, though not sure what would cause it to perform inconsistently. A loose element? That seems kind of unlikely, but you never know... Unfortunately it means more testing of as many variables as possible.
p.13 #19 · Official: Voigtlander 35 F1.7 Ultron M mount
For what it's worth, the two Loxias are rock solid on this body, as is the Zony 90 2.8.
I'm also thinking it might be some kind of focus error that I don't do on the other lenses. I'm finding that if I focus closer, it's rock solid. Some of this evening's shots had a row of dandelion fluff balls along the road, and then the scene going back from that. When I focused on the foreground dandelions they are perfectly sharp from left to right. I think the problem is more common when I'm attempting to focus on infinity. And I guess infinity might sometimes exacerbate some misalignment of the adapter, though I'd think close focus would be more critical and show more vulnerability. I think tomorrow I'll try setting the infinity stop so I can't go beyond a certain point. However I'm trying to pull back from infinity just a bit in any case, as Phillip suggested.
Thanks for the replies. I was feeling rather freaked out when I first saw this, and having folks with experience out at the other end of the browser is comforting.
p.13 #20 · Official: Voigtlander 35 F1.7 Ultron M mount
jlehet wrote:
I got this lens yesterday along with the Hawks v5 adapter, using it on an a7rii. Apologies that I've also posted in another topic on this, but I think that one, comparing it to another lens, was the wrong topic. And thank you all for posting on this!
Overall the lens is brilliant, but I'm seeing a worse left side. It seems it is more likely to be the adapter than the lens, right? I do love this Hawks adapter for the lens close up, but I wonder if another adapter would perform better for general landscape use, or if this adapter can be tweaked optimally? It seems that changing the infinity stop setting influences the overall distance of the lens, so I wonder if this might be better one way or another? It seems maybe to be better with the stop set all the way to the left (lens set closer), but nothing has been entirely satisfactory so far. I'm not sure it makes any difference really.
I've made about 150 exposures so far, and it's been mixed. Some of the non-test, real world use has been really good, but then sometimes there is one where the edges (especially the left edge) are just really not good at all. In some cases as it goes to the edges (and especially left) there is just nothing sharp, no matter what focal plane of the image I'm looking at. A line of trees at infinity goes from sharp to blur.
I got the lens from Robert White, so probably not as straightforward as sending it back to Adorama if it's the lens or if it's worse than usual. I'm thinking my next step is to just order another adapter to try.
I've been using manual focus lenses on this camera (Loxia 50 and 21) so I'm used to the manual lens and focusing. This lens is both exciting in its potential but also disappointing at times.
Unfortunately your experience mirrors mine almost exactly, except that it was the right side on mine that was soft, even when using a Metabones adapter that worked very well with my other m-mount lenses. It was exposed very cruelly if you focused carefully at infinity in the centre and then compared left and right on a shot taken at say F/2.8 - the left was slightly soft, but the right was awful. Fortunately the Australian distributor accepted that it was a quality control issue - unfortunately both the other two copies that he had showed the same behaviour. I"m now very happy with a Loxia 35 - not quite the same distinctive sharpness or character in the centre, but at least I get even sharpness across the whole frame and into the corners.
