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Archive 2016 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

GMPhotography
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

Needless to say i have been through several 35mm lenses for the Sony A7 series cameras. Here is the latest lens I am trying now. Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Aspherical Lens which as you see this test your going to wonder why bother about this lens if your a landscape shooter and you would be correct. It has a lot of filed curvature to the point if you focused squarely on the middle of the frame your corners will not look reasonable until F8. Now I have not tried this but my belief is if you actually focused out of the center zone stopped down to F5.6 the DOF would carry until the middle zone. A test to be done. But centrally this lens is very sharp and it has a lot going for it as a environmental portrait type lens or street because it has great color, great falloff, and yes take advantage of the bokeh from the OOF areas and I will show some images later on bokeh, onion rings and such. I tested my Loxia 50 F2 at the same time so Ill just show some samples of that to compare against the VC 35 centrally and a corner so you have a reference on what your looking at but keep a open mind as this is a very nice lens but it is not your grandmas flat field lens, maybe your evil cousin.

Later in this thread even though shot at different times and days i do run the same boring test on every lens at the same place the same spacing and all that and that will give us some idea how this lens and others get into our bags. This is going to take a bit as i have to find everything

But lets start with the VC 35mm 1.7 Ultron. BTW this is as small as a small lemon.

As you can see it struggles with the corners. I also ran a infinity test focused on a middle mountain and same result. I believe if you focused before infinity and stopped down you could get a sharp image over the full frame. But if you shoot landscape this maybe not the perfect lens for you IF you care about corners or are very anal about them. Again keep a open mind on usage and what you have in your hands on subject.

Now centrally its very nice, check this out against my Loxia 50

Another test in different area

Just a full image at 5.6

Okay moving on lets compare a few lenses at 5.6 which doing landscape type work maybe the minimum you would stop down. I usually use F8 and F11 if its a DOF issue but need to watch diffraction at F11

But 5.6 is a good comparison aperture. Now remember all these lenses are different test days so there could be some variable . But Im always the same framing as I move the camera depending on focal length but my frame of reference is always those two top lights. Its why i go to the same boring place all the time as i can compare lenses at different times i run the test. I know your all falling asleep.

Tamron 35mm 1.8 SP lens

Now Im going to try and find similar images from other lenses . Obviously that will take some time but I will add those to this thread.

Infinity test

Feb 22, 2016 at 12:00 PM

GMPhotography
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

Double post

Edited on Feb 22, 2016 at 12:11 PM · View previous versions

Feb 22, 2016 at 12:00 PM

GMPhotography
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

Onion Rings

Bokeh test just the VC 35 here

Okay thats it for now. See if I can compare some more images

Comments and thoughts. Ill add more of that later

Feb 22, 2016 at 12:01 PM

MJKoski
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

Uhm, weird lens. If it is as small as a lemon then the same can be said for the image quality as well

Feb 22, 2016 at 12:10 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

The Loxia was showing off a little. You were testing corner sharpness, and it gave you a nice sunstar just to kill.

Feb 22, 2016 at 12:17 PM

GMPhotography
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

Well having the 2 Loxia's I think I maybe happier with the Loxia 35mm. One reason being having a 28mm this close with corners that are just a little better than this, I maybe better served with a more flat field lens. Like my lenses at F4 to be good in the corners.

Loxia 35
Tamron 35
FE 35 1.4
Zeiss 35 F2 ZE
Sigma 35 1.4

All would do good at F4 but The Tamron and Sigma are very clinical looking. So not my style

Loxia, FE, Zeiss are more my style

Feb 22, 2016 at 12:17 PM

GMPhotography
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

Fred Miranda wrote:
The Loxia was showing off a little. You were testing corner sharpness, and it gave you a nice sunstar just to kill.

Yea its showing off big time. Great lens and love the sunstar. Its a monster at F4 in the corners too. Great landscape lens with a look.

Feb 22, 2016 at 12:19 PM

GMPhotography
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

This is actually a very nice lens but you need to put it into perspective on its use. It would be awesome for environmental people shots as the Bokeh is very nice and it would be a nice street lens because the OOF areas would render very softly. Its also very small and lightweight.

But I do believe if you focused differently you could achieve a full image that is sharp. But you have to fight the field curvature. Sigma 35mm is the same folks but it does get better stopped down in those corners. It has filed curvature as well, actually a lot of 35mm do. The best i have seen as far as flat field is that dang Tamron. If we look back at those infinity tests it was awesome at 2.8 in the corners. From memory i think the Loxia 35 hits its stride at F4. The FE at 5.6

I can't speak for the 35mm 2.8 FE since the one i had in the early days had IQ issues

Feb 22, 2016 at 12:25 PM

leetmode
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

Thanks for sharing!

I haven't checked Google but I'd love to see how this compares to Voigtlanders 35 1.2.

Feb 22, 2016 at 01:00 PM

GMPhotography
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

The 1.2 is softer on center I believe

Feb 22, 2016 at 01:07 PM

ecarlino
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

GMPhotography wrote:
Well having the 2 Loxia's I think I maybe happier with the Loxia 35mm.

:-)
of course you would - b/c that would require another buy / sell transaction !!

Feb 22, 2016 at 01:08 PM

Tariq Gibran
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

Feb 22, 2016 at 01:12 PM

ecarlino
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

GMPhotography wrote:
It has a lot of filed curvature to the point if you focused squarely on the middle of the frame your corners will not look reasonable until F8. Now I have not tried this but my belief is if you actually focused out of the center zone stopped down to F5.6 the DOF would carry until the middle zone. A test to be done.

Tariq Gibran wrote:
"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."

sorry, but when i hear stuff like this (MF is hard enough w/o having to guess where to focus based on field curvature), even as a nerd in a variety of fields who is willing to be inconvenienced for the sake of "old school" or "art" - this just sounds like too much of a pain in the @ss - and the "look" on un-modified Sony sensors isn't anything sufficient to motivate such an excruciating shooting experience.

but that's just my worthless 2 cents

GUY - this one still leaves me scratching my head - all of this b/c of some minor onion rings? the shooting experience of the Zony Distagon FE is so easy, especially on the a7r2 and the results are spectacular.

i'm going to set the initial odds at 3:2 that you're back to your old girl (Zony FE) before summer (despite a potential visit on Loxia Lane)!

Feb 22, 2016 at 01:18 PM

GMPhotography
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

If I get the 24-70 like I think it will be. Than things change. Kinda what I'm counting on but let's go back in the Loxia 21 are we not talking about the same thing focus just before infinity for its field curvature as some have pointed out . Granted it's not like this but if your shooting people you really don't want flat field anyway

Feb 22, 2016 at 02:00 PM

GMPhotography
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

The FE 35 I really liked but it pissed me off so bad going through 4 of them and I never got perfect close yes but not perfect I just lost interest. It's like a girlfriend that never stops nagging you. You tend to dump it and never return. I may look at it again but I want to see the new GM first

Feb 22, 2016 at 02:03 PM

GMPhotography
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

Yea and I did not do that on this test. But I like to go try it again with the field curvature in mind

Tariq Gibran wrote:
This is what Phillip found in his testing using the A7. Might be interesting to see how things look on the more demanding A7rII.

"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."

http://phillipreeve.net/blog/voigtlander-ultron-11-7-35-mm-review/

Feb 22, 2016 at 02:05 PM

ecarlino
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

GMPhotography wrote:
If I get the 24-70 like I think it will be. Than things change. Kinda what I'm counting on but let's go back in the Loxia 21 are we not talking about the same thing focus just before infinity for its field curvature as some have pointed out . Granted it's not like this but if your shooting people you really don't want flat field anyway

i hear ya on that mid-zoom: swore i'd never go back to that after leaving my D800 and 2.8_trinity behind - and had my zoom foc lengths all lined up and was just waiting for the right lenses to show up - and then that zoom appears with what looks like good corners wide open and beautiful rendering and sharp - throws the whole damn plan into a tizzy - for now, i'm sticking with the plan and am a bit nervous about buying the 85/1.4 early on b/c i'll take a hit if i decide to switch away from that into the zooms - but for now i'm keeping as simple as i can: Batis 18, Zony 35/1.4, GM85/1.4

Edited on Feb 22, 2016 at 02:40 PM · View previous versions

Feb 22, 2016 at 02:20 PM

naturephoto1
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

GMPhotography wrote:
The FE 35 I really liked but it pissed me off so bad going through 4 of them and I never got perfect close yes but not perfect I just lost interest. It's like a girlfriend that never stops nagging you. You tend to dump it and never return. I may look at it again but I want to see the new GM first

Hi Guy,

You may want to contact Jack (Jako) to see if he can get you a large image with the A7rII stock with the Zeiss Distagon 35mm f1.4 Distagon ZM. It will not be razor sharp into the corners without having the Kolari Modification done to the Sensor cover, but it may be acceptable.

You can order from the Leica Shop in Austria for a good price (shipping would be free, if you registered on-line with Zeiss you would get a 3 year warranty; but you would want to get a hood):

http://www.leicashop.com/brandnew_en/zeiss/messsucher-objektive/weitwinkel/zeiss-distagon-t-1-1-4-35mm-zm-schwarz.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Carl-ZEISS-Lens-HOOD-for-Distagon-T-35mm-f1-4-ZM-Lens-Shade-New-From-Japan-F-S-/272139996442?hash=item3f5ccecd1a:g:t3cAAOSwWTRWyKC7

Rich

Feb 22, 2016 at 02:23 PM

Tariq Gibran
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

ecarlino wrote:
sorry, but when i hear stuff like this (MF is hard enough w/o having to guess where to focus based on field curvature), even as a nerd in a variety of fields who is willing to be inconvenienced for the sake of "old school" or "art" - this just sounds like too much of a pain in the @ss - and the "look" on un-modified Sony sensors isn't anything sufficient to motivate such an excruciating shooting experience.

It's certainly not ideal.

Feb 22, 2016 at 02:28 PM

ecarlino
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Voigtlander VM 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Lens test/ Plus comparisons to other 35

Tariq Gibran wrote:
It's certainly not ideal.

It's funny that one of my best lenses on the A7r stopped down is the CV 40/1.4 - a lens with a lot of field curvature on a Leica but which the thicker Sony cover glass just happens to cancel out to a large degree.
Manual focus is pretty darn easy though imo with the Sony's.

i'd agree that the Sony's are easy to MF (the EVF was one of my initial reasons for migrating) i was more referring to having to MF taking into consideration the idiosyncrasies of excessive field curvature.

Feb 22, 2016 at 02:38 PM

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