nazdravanul Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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DaveFP wrote:
I am not aware of any Leica lens that is made by Cosina.
I have shot Zeiss for many years and currently own a substantial number of them including Classics, Loxia, and Batis.
I also dislike the Milvus and Batis designs but I am not sure that they are lacking in quality.
What makes the CVs a "serious upgrade" to the Loxia line?
Volkswagen makes both Porsche and Audi but Audi does enjoy the reputation that Porsche has when it comes to build quality and that is what concerns me.
"IQ" aside; will they hold up as well over time and if/when I need service is it available?
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The upgrade comes from 2 areas, ergonomics and perceived build quality.
1. Ergonomics:
-the knurled focus ring makes for a perfect tactile experience, there is no way of fiddling to find it, with gloves (or not)
-the aperture ring position: no problem mounting / dismounting the lens, no problem accidentally changing aperture when fiddling to find focus
-the dampening of the focus ring feels slightly better on the Voigtlander vs the Loxias (Batis are atrocious for MF)
-the knurled focus ring has an added benefit: when placing the lens horizontally on a flat surface, there is no chance of the lens rolling down (off a table or something similar)
-the hood is both a pro and a con; the fact that you can't reverse it for storage is a pain in the backside. The fact that you can use a polariser with the hood on, and easily adjust the polariser by rotating the hood, is a definite plus.
2. Perceived build quality:
The Voigtlander's choice of metal and finishes simply feels like a special, higher quality product. The Loxias are a bit muted, a bit ordinary, by comparison.
Again, that's my personal experience, after using / owning most of them, extensively.
And a separate note on IQ: the Voigtlander have more consistently a "magic sauce" that used to be very common with older Zeiss designs, but not so common with recent designs.
My only remaining modern Zeiss lenses are the 15 ZE Classic, 28 Otus and 55 Otus. With these exceptions, I would shoot a Voigtlander 21, 40, 65 and 110, before anything else (of course, unless I need tilt-shift, focus stacking, AF etc.)
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