I shot a bunch in a great antique shop. Moving fast here, I mis-focused and got the top body's upper arms sharp. Which may have worked out better, softening the face. Nice bokeh and tone depiction.
The Leica and the AL have more in common than what differentiates them. Both are just beautiful, small differences in fade in some parts of the images, little less contrast, warmer tone, even more rapid fade in the M.
The Leica is in 'foreign country' here too, many say they go much better on Leica sensors. The Leica is more oriented to different photographic pursuits (softer contrast/colour), and has the restrictive MFD of 0.7m against the regular (for 50mm) 0.45m for the macro-derived 50/2 AL.
The M-APO is also a 2012 release (with the work probably dating from 2010), I recall reading that people were waiting. The new glass formulations developed since then are very special, and Cosina is an insider in the business. Leica used an 8/5 design and took painstaking steps to minimise tolerances; Cosina loaded up the AL's 10/8 with two asph and five APD elements, with still very high attention paid to assembly.
I have no idea how they do it for the price, they might be better charging more, just to get more respect. As it is, this thread is the leading (in fact the only) rich information resource for their best 50mm ever. Thanks for these, very informative. You did a very good job matching them.
First go at a regular portrait. Pleased to report the APO-Lanthar is very kind to female skin, even zoomed in. Skin tones much less problematic than the FE55, as an example. Which makes it an easy choice for another form of photography - short FL portraits.
LoCA：Apo-Lanthar is a slightly better than Apo-Summicron-m
My first "real" camera was the Leica SL - and the first lens I got with it was the 50mm APO Summicron-M. Loved the images but the tech - not so much, so I switched to the a7r iii. I missed the APO Summicron, though. That's one of the reasons I can't wait to get the CV50 APO in my hands. Whereas the Summicron M was not completely optimized for the SL, the CV50 was designed for Sony - I may have a few more lenses up for sale soon
I bet this lens will sell very well. This hopefully will persuade Voigtlander to make a 35/2 apo sooner, 35 is a focus length that is probably more popular and less crowded (50th has much more competitive lenses to choose from).
Wayne Yan wrote:
I bet this lens will sell very well. This hopefully will persuade Voigtlander to make a 35/2 apo sooner, 35 is a focus length that is probably more popular and less crowded (50th has much more competitive lenses to choose from).
I'm hoping for a 35mm APO as well. The 50 APO is tempting for the smaller size and sunstars, but in the end I can't give up the Eye AF and the 1.4 of the Zeiss. Currently I have nothing in the 35mm range other than the 24gm in crop. So a 35 APO would be great
So I have decided against the 50 F1.2 and got the 50APO instead.
The lens is getting sold out in Hong Kong as well and is on back order (mine is probably one of the last copy in HK).
Some notes:
- The aperture ring being the other rotation compared to the other voigtlander lens really throws me off.
I have gotten so very used to the 40 F1.2 that it really bugged me at the beginning.
- the weight is perfect on the A73 body. It's even "light" imo.
- The hood comes with its own lens cap. I am feeling quite conflicted about the lens hood. It's fully metal build but it's rather long and having another lens cap is a bit awkward in reality.
- Very sharp, high micro contrast, vibrate colors, it's definitely a very modern lens.
- It's also one of the few lens I don't really want to post process all that much. (though I probably will)
Below are some shots I took in a few hours. Very fun experience and I can see it glued to the body all the time. (though the 40 1.2 will probably get a little more use because of the focal length and the F stop)
Not sure what you're talking about with respect to the aperture ring....it looks to be identical in rotation to all four of the E-mount CV lenses I've owned.
