p.44 #1 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
Justin Stone wrote:
I’ve got a B+W filter in that fits fine. Mine was a bit tight, but mostly there’s really no place in the lens to get a grip that doesn’t move, so it’s a bit challenging to mount and I mount. But only a bit.
Ok, seems like it is normal then. I was going to go with a B+W filter anyway - thanks for the confirmation.
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LeeRatters wrote:
I have a 52>58mm step ring permanently on the lens so it shares the filters of the 40mm
Smart! I've totally mixed up my lenses so none of the filters work with each other, size-wise. Maybe a step up filter is a good option. Good suggestion, thank you.
p.44 #2 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
abadger wrote:
Ok, seems like it is normal then. I was going to go with a B+W filter anyway - thanks for the confirmation.
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Smart! I've totally mixed up my lenses so none of the filters work with each other, size-wise. Maybe a step up filter is a good option. Good suggestion, thank you.
I've always done that. My Contax CZ 80-200mm also has a 55mm>58mm step ring too.
p.44 #3 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
How are your experiences on 42mpix?
After reading some reviews I`m trying to decide between CV21 or Sony20, but according to Sonyalphablog Kolor Skopar matches a7rIV only in center...
I have a7r2 and love Voigtlander character (had 40 nokton previously), can you recommend it?
p.44 #4 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
Some images from this lens recently. My first manual lens, and zone focusing is a challenge! As is learning to frame with a wide angle. I'm so used to 35-85. But that's why I got this lens, to help see and think differently.
p.44 #5 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
How are your experiences on 42mpix?
Fine, imagining you are referring to 'sharpness'. It's not a contest where the sharpest 21mm is 'best'. Much more important is that you like the rendering and the colour, the 'volume' of the image - how it shapes objects in image space, how they look front to back. TBH, outer frame sharpness in lenses at this focal length doesn't matter much for modern primes. What, a few leaves that might be sharper, sky? You can choose to look for other attributes, because your viewers certainly will.
'Kolor Skopar matches a7rIV only in center'
see above.
Can you recommend it?
It's a landscape lens, first. But it's kind of 'arty'. Regarding colour, Cosina have a sure hand on the wheel. With great colour range and intensity, great depth rendering and softened highlights, beautiful blues (a 'must have' in any landscape lens and many do not), I do recommend. It's a pleasure to use, tiny, great ergo, easy to focus, affordable. All depends on your priorities. Mine are high impact images for book prints and good to use.
if you're looking at the corners, the image has failed!
aesthetic green-blue transition (hard), landslide tones exc, even high intensity greens separate well.
p.44 #6 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
Kuchciu wrote:
How are your experiences on 42mpix?
After reading some reviews I`m trying to decide between CV21 or Sony20, but according to Sonyalphablog Kolor Skopar matches a7rIV only in center...
I have a7r2 and love Voigtlander character (had 40 nokton previously), can you recommend it?
If you are looking at large images (especially from 61MP) and sharpness is important to you, you will find the Loxia 21 is a much better option than the CV 3.5/21, both in the corners and mid areas of the frame . The CV is noticably softer until you are stopped down a long way (even at f8 the difference is pretty clear on my A7r4).
It's only the physical size and ergonomics that are better with the Skopar, and the 'look' of the Loxia 21 including color is unbeatable for landscapes imo. The going rate for a Loxia 21 on the B&S board is a bargain these days.
p.44 #7 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
The difference between the Voigtlander and the Loxia depends on what you're gonna do with the output.
If you're gonna print big, then the difference will probably be noticeable.
If you're shooting in crop mode or cropping in post, then the Loxia will capture more detail.
If you're shooting on lower resolution bodies, or downsizing in post, then you probably won't notice any difference in sharpness.
If you're like me (a casual shooter), the Voigtlander is a pocketable hidden gem that performs well above it's asking price.
p.44 #8 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
I feel like the 21 3.5 does something with highlight transitions that I haven't seen in my other lenses. Skies and clouds in particular just look beautiful and flow into each other more... softly? than others... I feel like there are more individual tones in clouds as well.
p.44 #9 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
It does, the result looks like a shoulder in the highlight section of the tone curve. I photograph in highly diffused and industrial strength light no one here has ever seen, and the soft roll off is obvious in every high Subject Brightness Range (SBR) image. And as a bonus it retains these delicate blues in highlights.
And easier post work because colour is what sets their lenses above the contracted lenses they make for other companies. Cosina hide these little things in their lenses because they know the few people who use them will find them.
p.44 #10 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
Jonathan SPV wrote:
I feel like the 21 3.5 does something with highlight transitions that I haven't seen in my other lenses. Skies and clouds in particular just look beautiful and flow into each other more... softly? than others... I feel like there are more individual tones in clouds as well.
Am I tricking myself? Is that a thing? 🤔
We are wired to easily fall prey to confirmation bias. The only way to know for sure is to shoot lenses side by side in identical conditions and view results "double blind". But if a lens has tell-tale indications that are unrelated to the attribute you are assessing, it can be hard to make sure you don't know which image is from which lens.
p.44 #12 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
The best way to get a good sense of how lenses compare is indeed to shoot them in tandem. As I carry 3-4 bodies with primes mounted on them, it's not just an occasional test scenario. It's my modus operandi. If you shoot in places that have climates rather than weather, each trip is a near copy of the last and next. Almost every composition or fertile shooting opportunity gets several lenses used for it, seconds apart. It's amazing what you see, which ones deliver and which ones fall by the wayside, need to be replaced.
The other thing worth a mention is the common ploy of a poster putting up carefully selected pairs of images from two lenses, from just one composition, you know: 'guess which one?'. It's a tiny sliver of the issue, n=1. You can get lucky with any lens in one image, but consistency varies greatly between lenses. I see n=thousands each trip, it's a fast education. Revisit the same locations.
And of course as we gain experience over the years and get better at post, it's easy to see how good lenses like this 21/3.5 perform, because of the lenses we have also used and still have so many RAWs from. Many full size images here and in the FE thread, people can see for themselves. The CVs can be pushed hard in colour saturation, and still look excellent. Very forgiving, great for consistency. I'd be happy to use the 21/1.4, very similar colour response. So it's a range attribute, common in their designs and glass choices. Same with 50/2 and 40-50/1.2 etc.
p.44 #13 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
From a fall trip to my family's mountain cabin. This is in a national park. I've been going to this park perhaps six times across the twelve last years and I've never seen the parking space (up to 20 cars) of one of the three entry points full. Part of the path was closed off due to tear and wear.
As for the lens I like it still. I've never owned a normal or wide FE zoom but I've been entertaining the notion that it's pleasant to frame the view close to how you want it rather then just get something wide enough or rather too wide and crop in post and well, during this time a year the Tamron line is usually on sale, as they are right now. Hm, we'll see.
p.44 #14 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
Haven't been shooting much lately with other priorities getting in the way. We managed to escape to the forest for a night in the travel trailer and I had a chance to snap some pics. Forgot my pod so all higher ISO...
p.44 #15 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
sticknpuck wrote:
Haven't been shooting much lately with other priorities getting in the way. We managed to escape to the forest for a night in the travel trailer and I had a chance to snap some pics. Forgot my pod so all higher ISO...
p.44 #16 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
LeeRatters wrote:
Nice shots. I really struggle with this lens in the woodland. I just find it always captures sky into the frame!
Thanks Lee Funny, I was kinda kicking myself for not bringing the Laowa 15mm so I could get right to the treetops! I think we're going to head out this weekend as well. Bought a new tripod on BF and hoping to shoot some film on the Pentax 67.
I do notice some softness on the 21mm (bottom right of the first image) and wondering if that's normal/common or if it's just my copy. I will try and get some more shots at a variety of apertures to see if I can get it to go away. I try not to pixel peep but it's hard not to when you're trying to get so much in focus and the softness stands out.
p.44 #18 · Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5 Color Skopar Review
From our family hike up to Kozice overlook where you get the nice view of the Kolpa river gorge/valley, unfortunately up there it was practically cloudless but as turned around to hike back down we already saw the huge t-storm clouds closing in from the west, which eventually caught up with us as we went for a swim in the river - the last pic is a long exposure in the rain with my kids still in the water...
Funny, I was kinda kicking myself for not bringing the Laowa 15mm so I could get right to the treetops! I think we're going to head out this weekend as well. Bought a new tripod on BF and hoping to shoot some film on the Pentax 67.
