Got mine yesterday morning and had it in action last night at my daughters gymnastics meet.
Initial Impressions:
- Very sexy looking lens on the A7RII
- Mechanics feel great
- The length of the lens is not obtrusive for me and it makes a decently compact package mounted on the A7RII
- f/1.2 is just sharp enough at about 1-1.5 meters, excellently sharp at f/2 at that distance
- f/1.2 is amazingly sharp at infinity or effectively beyond a few meters
- I need lots of practice nailing the focus
Oh, and BTW - B&H did a pretty poor job packaging the 40/1.2.
Way big enough box, but they threw in a modicum of bubble wrap just to say they did, thus letting the Voigtlander box fly all around in side the shipping box.
Not cool.
linnil wrote:
my choice is between a 35/1.2, ve 40/1.2 or vm 40/1.2.
judging by the sample, seems vm 40/1.2 is a lot worse than ve 40/1.2 on sony bodies. what about comparison to 35/1.2?
I've had two copies of the 35/1.2 and they both behaved the same, but I did use them on different cameras (first one on film, digital APS-C and APS-H, second on digital FF). From memory and old images, I'd say the 35 is about as good as the 40 for short distances, up to ~1.5 meters or so (think environmental portrait), with very similar bokeh. But the 35 completely falls apart when your subject is further away, unless you stop down.
At 100% magnification, there is a bit of fringing and haze in the three branches, but not bad at all. I'd say it's better at f/1.2 than the Loxia 35 is at f/2, at this distance. Which is just remarkable!
The only bad thing is the bokeh getting really funky towards the borders. Luckely no corner bokeh in this shot, but it would have been even worse. OTOH, this is a distance and scene where almost any 35-50 mm lens would struggle with bokeh outside the middle of the frame. I'm surprised by how "not-too-bad" it is, considering the speed, size and price.
They seem to have nailed the hard infinity stop on my copy too. That's very unusual!
Would you say IQ is comparable? Or is there variation between the VM and VE on a FE Body? Thanks, been considering one of these too... I’d prefer possible AF to Exif, but like resolution as well...
SharpContrast wrote:
The m-mount is great, I'm using it far more than the e mount. The quality is absolutely superb, I've hardly ever woried about the corners with the sort of pictures i take, It's way more important to get the subject in focus. If you do want sharp corners you can stop the lens down to f8.
Off centre focusing is a doddle with single shot AF, pre focus in the centre then move the subject to the side, easy!
Good luck in your decision making, buying is half the fun, or though you probably know that😀
That's some distance... Here is one much closer and I think "sharpness" is good enough for most middle age women as well as for younger people. About 1 meter away:
(CV40/1.2 at f/1.2, E-mount version, A7Rii, no Elpro and yes, the lighting is weird at that place, B&W work better here and as would f/1.7 or f/2)
Dec 03, 2017 at 05:01 AM
Steve Spencer Online • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
I agree, After f/4, it's outstanding center and mid-zone with still great corners. With the copies I tried, once we go f/4 and smaller, the best infinity focus is the lens 'hard stop'. (which is also very helpful in the field)
I agree, After f/4, it's outstanding center and mid-zone with still great corners. With the copies I tried, once we go f/4 and smaller, the best infinity focus is the lens 'hard stop'. (which is also very helpful in the field)
Thanks Fred! Also, good observation. I need to test that. I am usually a gnat’s hair from the hard stop but I usually focus at F2.8 or 4 and stop down to F 6.3 or smaller when on a tripod. Seems to work okay but if your observation is correct that would save time.
Luvwine wrote:
Thanks Fred! Also, good observation. I need to test that. I am usually a gnat’s hair from the hard stop but I usually focus at F2.8 or 4 and stop down to F 6.3 or smaller when on a tripod. Seems to work okay but if your observation is correct that would save time.
Yes, you are correct. Before f/4 (like f/2 or f/2.8) infinity focus is a hair before the hard stop. Because of focus shift, it changes starting at f/4 and it makes our lives easier being at the hard stop.
Yep, but that alone is pretty amazing for a f/1.2 lens at 42.5MP FX resolution.
My 42.5/1.2 PL is sharp across most of the frame wide open in a similar manner, but at 16MP of my m43 cameras.
My 50/1.2 Nikkor was 12MP FX sharp in the central area wide open, but not so much at 36MP on my D800
I'll be taking it out this afternoon (assuming it doesn't rain) to see if my copy is decentered, etc. before I decide to keep it or not.
It's too bad they didn't implement some kind of close-range correction system to help maintain sharpness in the 1-2m range as that's the range I plan on using it for low light candids.
So far in the 1-2m range it's plenty sharp in the center at decent image magnifications, though clearly not 65/2 APO sharp. Some judicious post-processing allows for excellent images though if you are not blowing the image up a lot.
I have some good images of my girls and niece from Fri/Sat, but can't really show them, so I'll make some other images to share soon.
jhinkey wrote:
This is not a technically nearly-perfect lens (like I consider the 65/2 APO to be), so it will take some warming up to depending on your usage.
I took some pics in low low light yesterday and Friday that my 35/2.8 Sony would not nearly be able to make - so far so good for me.
I really want a 35/1.2 of similar quality, but I'll have to apparently wait for such a beast.
Not technically perfect but that's what makes me really love its rendering!
jhinkey wrote:
This is not a technically nearly-perfect lens (like I consider the 65/2 APO to be), so it will take some warming up to depending on your usage.
I took some pics in low low light yesterday and Friday that my 35/2.8 Sony would not nearly be able to make - so far so good for me.
I really want a 35/1.2 of similar quality, but I'll have to apparently wait for such a beast.
It’s why I like it, it’s funky look. We all have tech perfect in other glass. Nice to have a fun lens
The character of Voigtländer lenses seem to be all over the place, which makes it a bit of a gamble getting one. I've owned a bunch and haven't been very pleased with colors, except for the 15/4.5 (Mk 1) and 40/1.4 (yes, that one!). The Nokton is special here too, with sort of "bold" colors but in a very good way. The images can take a lot of abuse in PP when pushing colors around. Or maybe the colors are just suited for cranking them up?
When shooting Zeiss lenses, I'm often more careful with the sliders since the files look kind of "natural" without doing very much.
Sharpness-wise, I would definitely have chosen the Loxia 35 for this and similar shots, though. The rendering stopped down is a bit "coarse", which I've previously mentioned on the topic of modern, aspherical lenses. The Batis 25 does the same, while the Loxia 35 and 50 gives an apparent larger DOF and finer detail at ~f/8-11 and thereabout.
