Fred Miranda
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 p.4 #13 · CV Nokton Aspherical VM 75mm f/1.5 First Impressions | |
Steve Spencer wrote:
Many good options at 75mm these days, but I think there are two size classes. The small ones Leica M 75 f/2.4; CV 75 f/2.5; CV 75 f/1.5; MS Optics 73 f/1.5, and the big ones Leica M 75 f/1.4; Leica M 75 f/1.25; 7 Artisans 75 f/1.25 and then there is the Leica 75 f/2 APO that is in between in size. All the Leica M lenses are fairly expensive except the Leica M 75 f/2.4, which can be had for about the same price as the CV 75 f/1.5 if you buy used and wait for a good deal, the MS Optics 73 f/1.5 is about the same price too. For me these three lenses hit the sweet spot for price and size, but if they are too much money the CV 75 f/2.5 is cheap used and fairly good and the 7 Artisans is super ambitious for its $500 price tag. The Leica M 75 f/1.4, 75 f/1.25, and 75 f/2 APO are all too expensive for my taste at about $3,000, $10,000, and $2,000 respectively although the 75 f/2 APO at $2,000, which is a price you can find used if your patient, is really not a bad deal that is a well balanced lens in terms of size and performance and optical corrections. And the Leica M 75 f/1.4 has an absolutely wonderful rendering which to some may be worth the high price, but I would suggest on a mirrorless camera you really should consider the Leica M 80 f/1.4 which is a very similar lens and goes for about half the price. The 75 f/1.25 is a beautiful beautiful lens but it is big and if you can buy it, then I am happy for you, but although I have some fairly expensive lenses I can't even think about getting that one.
So let's look more closely at what I see as the three in the sweet spot for size and price. Let's start with the one that has been around awhile the Leica M 75 f/2.4 (and its close sibling the 75 f/2.5 from which it was tweaked). I am a huge fan of this little Summarit. It is a double gauss design with six elements and four groups, a quite similar design to the Leica M 50 f/2 pre-APO, the Zeiss ZM 50 f/2, the Loxia 50 f/2, and the Contax G 45 f/2. The Leica M 75 f/2.4, however, really pushes this basic design. Look at the Leica spec sheet for this lens https://gzhls.at/blob/ldb/0/f/e/6/58ea46ccfb5dd5006b055cd7fbe6fd6d4be9.pdf and you will see that 4 of the 6 elements are APD elements, it has a nice .7M MFD (the 75 f/2.5 is .9M), it has beautiful MTFs, it has very low distortion, and it weighs just 325g. Guy has a Big Bronco test of this lens and the real world performance holds up to the specs, and IMO, it has lovely bokeh in most situations. With the new lenses coming out, I don't think this one should be forgotten.
Next there is the MS-Optics 73 f/1.5 sonnar. This is a ridiculously small lens that weighs an almost unbelievable 195g, has a 49mm filter thread, and is hand made by a lens designer in Japan. He design and hand builds each lens and includes some quirky features--the lens has a coma adjustment that allows you to change the spherical aberrations of the lens. This lens has a very classic sonnar rendering (and has a classic 5 elements in 4 groups sonnar design) with bokeh that is not smooth but prized by some. If you know the ZM 50 f/1.5, and like it, this lens has a fairly similar rendering at a longer focal length. To me this lens is all about rendering and size. If you love the rendering and want the size it is an absolutely unique lens. If you do decide to get it, then keep in mind that this lens probably has way higher copy variation than most industrially produced lenses. I think it is super cool that is it hand made by the designer but lots of people (especially given there can't be too many of these lenses) report having to send the lens back to be properly adjusted and put together or had someone else basically rebuild it. It seems Mr. Miyaki who designs and builds these lenses isn't all that precise in building them doing a lot of adjustment by eye. I think he is a pretty brilliant lens designer, however. For me, I am not really a fan of the sonnar bokeh (I know that is a sacrilege to some), so I am not really in the market.
That leaves us with the CV 75 f/1.5, which is also a wonderfully small lens at 350g with a 58mm filter thread and we are just learning about it performance. It has 7 elements in 6 groups and is more of a double gauss design than a sonnar. Of the seven elements 3 are APD elements and one is an aspherical. You have seen the performance in this thread, and if you haven't read Phillip's review you should. It is still early to judge, for example Phillip hasn't even finished his review, but this lens looks very good to excellent but not quite as balanced as the CV 50 f/1.2 with a few more quicks. It seems to have good sharpness but at least on Sony as Phillip reports the sharpness is primarily in the center at f/1.5, but f/2 it extends to more of the frame. It, IMO, has quite nice bokeh but suffers a bit a longer distances as many modern lenses do. In this way it reminds me of the CV 40 f/1.2 but without the onion rings of the latter lens being so obvious. It looks to be very well corrected for CA. But it does have some field curvature even on a Leica M camera and this is exaggerated on the Sony camera. It is early with few tests, but this lens might be more affected by the thick sensor stack on Sony cameras (and other mirrorless cameras) than many of the other Voigtlander M lenses. My own take is it is a very good to excellent lens and for Leica M it is a fantastic option that combines a great price, very small size, and very high but not perfect performance. For a mirrorless camera, however, I can't help but think it would be good to wait and see if they are going to make an FE version of this lens. That is my plan anyway, and if they don't make and FE version I very well may get the Leica M 75 f/1.4 instead.
Guy, in your case I think a 90 or a 100 would gap so much better I would be looking for one of those. That could easily be a thread in and of itself, but I would suggest it is worth looking at the Oly OM 100 f/2 (Phillip has a great review of the lens at his site). I think it would make a great addition to your current kit even though it is an older lens. It was one of if not the best Oly OM lenses....Show more →
I've compared the CV 75/1.5 to the CV 65/2 APO at infinity and was surprised by the results since I was told the former would not perform well at long distance. (We already know the 65/2 is a reference lens in terms of resolution and contrast at all distances)
At f/2.8, it matches the 65/2 at center and at f/4 it matches its mid-field. (For those who know the 65/2, this is outstanding)
The very extreme corners never get as good as the 65's but they look similar at f/5.6. The 75/1.5 is a great landscape lens but I really like it for portraits and prefer the SA rendering over the more clinical 65/2.
All that special glass is making a difference.
I will start a thread on it soon. I'm thinking the field curvature is a characteristic of this lens but can't be 100% sure. Someone send a Leica so I can test this out! 
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