I picked up my lens earlier today during lunch break and did some quick test shooting in Shinjuku/Tokyo before coming back to work. Firstly I tried to test infinity sharpness across the frame at different apertures. Unfortunately the weather is really bad for photography today, very cloudy and somewhat hazy, so the photos reflect that look. At least it was not raining.
My initial impressions with the lens are very positive. It seems to be sharp corner to corner (not sure about very extreme corners yet) already from wide open aperture and it seems to have pretty flat field, not much field curvature at all. I also didn't notice any focus shift so far. I couldn't yet figure out whether the best focus position for infinity shots was at hard infinity or just a hair before with my camera/lens combination, from viewfinder I couldn't really detect the difference in a consistent manner, seemed pretty equal. I shot several aperture series handheld from f3.5 to f8 at 1/3 stop intervals and put the first samples in the album linked below. Some of the series were taken focusing at hard inifinity and some focusing a bit before that point.
All photos in the album are SOOC JPEGs with my A9 and the lens. I usually keep in-camera distortion and fringing corrections at auto, but vignetting correction off, so I shot these the same way.
I'll try to take some low light city shots after work today, to see the sunstars etc.
As for handling, the lens is very similar to other Voigtländer e-mount lenses like 35/1.4 classic (especially) and 40/1.2. I feel focusing requires a bit more torque than the 35/1.4 which might be a good thing on a wider angle lens, and it feels perfectly smooth. Aperture ring is similar to that on 35/1.4 and there is no clickless aperture option. The size and weight are really small and light. There is a very small hood included and the lens cap goes inside the hood as with those 2 other lenses.
Thank you Juha! Samples look good (weather not as good ).
What's the street price in Tokyo? I'm landing at Haneda on the 20/10.
Do you have the Loxia 21 as well? If not, and you're up for it, we could meet up somewhere in town and do a side by side comparison with my L21 and your CV21.
nampramos wrote:
Thank you Juha! Samples look good (weather not as good ).
What's the street price in Tokyo? I'm landing at Haneda on the 20/10.
Do you have the Loxia 21 as well? If not, and you're up for it, we could meet up somewhere in town and do a side by side comparison with my L21 and your CV21.
Thanks!
The street price in the best Tokyo camera stores that regularly have good supply of Voigtländer lenses (Map Camera, Fujiya Camera) is currently 75330 yen and foreign visitors can buy tax free in those stores as long as they have their passport along, which brings the price down to 69750 yen (8% tax excluded).
I don't have the Loxia 21 myself (previously I went for Batis 18/2.8 and then sold it and went with Sony 12-24/4 G and 16-35/2.8 GM). We could indeed meet somewhere and do a test shoot (at least if it's on a weekend). Also if you want any help for lens shopping I could go along.
Great job Juha. From a quick examination of some of your posted samples distortion seems quite well controlled and no moustache is present. Vignetting is quite present, even stopping down but that is to be expected. Sharpness+contrast seem good. Looking forward to some against the sun tests. Thank you again
fplstudio wrote:
Great job Juha. From a quick examination of some of your posted samples distortion seems quite well controlled and no moustache is present. Vignetting is quite present, even stopping down but that is to be expected. Sharpness+contrast seem good. Looking forward to some against the sun tests. Thank you again
Thanks very much! I will try to take some against the sun tests too as soon as the weather permits, but unfortunately the weather forecast for Tokyo is showing fully cloudy and occasionally rainy weather for the next several days, with the next signs of sun on 18th of October. Anyway, I'll keep posting more samples here
Sounds good! We can try to meet on Sunday the 21/10 and test them side by side. If there's very little difference in performance I'll probably sell the L21 and get a smaller lighter lens with the CV. It will be a pretty tough task to beat the L21 I'd say though. But fingers crossed...
Juha Kannisto wrote:
Thanks!
The street price in the best Tokyo camera stores that regularly have good supply of Voigtländer lenses (Map Camera, Fujiya Camera) is currently 75330 yen and foreign visitors can buy tax free in those stores as long as they have their passport along, which brings the price down to 69750 yen (8% tax excluded).
I don't have the Loxia 21 myself (previously I went for Batis 18/2.8 and then sold it and went with Sony 12-24/4 G and 16-35/2.8 GM). We could indeed meet somewhere and do a test shoot (at least if it's on a weekend). Also if you want any help for lens shopping I could go along. ...Show more →
Juha Kannisto wrote:
I picked up my lens earlier today during lunch break and did some quick test shooting in Shinjuku/Tokyo before coming back to work. Firstly I tried to test infinity sharpness across the frame at different apertures. Unfortunately the weather is really bad for photography today, very cloudy and somewhat hazy, so the photos reflect that look. At least it was not raining.
My initial impressions with the lens are very positive. It seems to be sharp corner to corner (not sure about very extreme corners yet) already from wide open aperture and it seems to have pretty flat field, not much field curvature at all. I also didn't notice any focus shift so far. I couldn't yet figure out whether the best focus position for infinity shots was at hard infinity or just a hair before with my camera/lens combination, from viewfinder I couldn't really detect the difference in a consistent manner, seemed pretty equal. I shot several aperture series handheld from f3.5 to f8 at 1/3 stop intervals and put the first samples in the album linked below. Some of the series were taken focusing at hard inifinity and some focusing a bit before that point.
All photos in the album are SOOC JPEGs with my A9 and the lens. I usually keep in-camera distortion and fringing corrections at auto, but vignetting correction off, so I shot these the same way.
I'll try to take some low light city shots after work today, to see the sunstars etc.
As for handling, the lens is very similar to other Voigtländer e-mount lenses like 35/1.4 classic (especially) and 40/1.2. I feel focusing requires a bit more torque than the 35/1.4 which might be a good thing on a wider angle lens, and it feels perfectly smooth. Aperture ring is similar to that on 35/1.4 and there is no clickless aperture option. The size and weight are really small and light. There is a very small hood included and the lens cap goes inside the hood as with those 2 other lenses....Show more →
Wow, that does look very promising and beats the heck out of my CV15/4.5. Now if it passes the point it at the sun test I'll be very very happy.
Oct 11, 2018 at 08:53 AM
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Awesome! If you get a chance, can you do a few wide open near MFD with some background separation? Interested in sharpness, but more so in OOF rendering.
Juha Kannisto wrote:
I picked up my lens earlier today during lunch break and did some quick test shooting in Shinjuku/Tokyo before coming back to work. Firstly I tried to test infinity sharpness across the frame at different apertures. Unfortunately the weather is really bad for photography today, very cloudy and somewhat hazy, so the photos reflect that look. At least it was not raining.
My initial impressions with the lens are very positive. It seems to be sharp corner to corner (not sure about very extreme corners yet) already from wide open aperture and it seems to have pretty flat field, not much field curvature at all. I also didn't notice any focus shift so far. I couldn't yet figure out whether the best focus position for infinity shots was at hard infinity or just a hair before with my camera/lens combination, from viewfinder I couldn't really detect the difference in a consistent manner, seemed pretty equal. I shot several aperture series handheld from f3.5 to f8 at 1/3 stop intervals and put the first samples in the album linked below. Some of the series were taken focusing at hard inifinity and some focusing a bit before that point.
All photos in the album are SOOC JPEGs with my A9 and the lens. I usually keep in-camera distortion and fringing corrections at auto, but vignetting correction off, so I shot these the same way.
I'll try to take some low light city shots after work today, to see the sunstars etc.
As for handling, the lens is very similar to other Voigtländer e-mount lenses like 35/1.4 classic (especially) and 40/1.2. I feel focusing requires a bit more torque than the 35/1.4 which might be a good thing on a wider angle lens, and it feels perfectly smooth. Aperture ring is similar to that on 35/1.4 and there is no clickless aperture option. The size and weight are really small and light. There is a very small hood included and the lens cap goes inside the hood as with those 2 other lenses....Show more →
After leaving the office I did some low light city shooting in Ebisu, focusing on some nice shopfronts (eateries/drinking places) mostly at f4 and there are a couple at f3.5 too. I used ISO640 on most of these shots to allow reasonable shutter speeds. Again they are OOC JPEGs with my A9. Some of them will hopefully show some background separation too, though it was quite dark. Will try to get more of those MFD shots tomorrow or so.
Juha Kannisto wrote:
After leaving the office I did some low light city shooting in Ebisu, focusing on some nice shopfronts (eateries/drinking places) mostly at f4 and there are a couple at f3.5 too. I used ISO640 on most of these shots to allow reasonable shutter speeds. Again they are OOC JPEGs with my A9. Some of them will hopefully show some background separation too, though it was quite dark. Will try to get more of those MFD shots tomorrow or so.
Those look great. Wow. Sharp and contrasty. Bokeh looks good, too. Those do remind me that one really needs serious wide for Tokyo backstreets, though. I suppose I should wait until we see what the corners look like and how it does in bright light, but so far, it's looking real nice.
Juha Kannisto wrote:
After leaving the office I did some low light city shooting in Ebisu, focusing on some nice shopfronts (eateries/drinking places) mostly at f4 and there are a couple at f3.5 too. I used ISO640 on most of these shots to allow reasonable shutter speeds. Again they are OOC JPEGs with my A9. Some of them will hopefully show some background separation too, though it was quite dark. Will try to get more of those MFD shots tomorrow or so.
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