Took some simple test shots near some business building:
Wide open F2 (edited to taste):
Crop 100%:
I will take more shots soon. I think the area this lens really shines are landscape pictures focused near infinity. The level of detail is incredible when I came home and looked at the pictures pixel peeping. It kind of reminds me of the sigma 40 1.4 but with different rendering. Really gorgeous.
The lens shines at near, mid and far distances; at f2 to f11; center to corner; at tone separation; at detail depiction; at colour purity and focus fade.
It lets you get back to being impressed by the subject, not how the aberrations draw the subject, to see more of what was there.
Like the big brothers (65, 110) it's a special for drawing detailed subjects. Technical tours de force, these CV APO lenses don't really bear comparison to anything else, and that exceptionalism, as much as anything else, is their character. No one notices a perfectly clean window as they look through it.
I find the same sensations and emotions as with the VC 65mm and 40mm 1,2!… We really have immense pleasure in using these lenses! Thank you Voigtländer!
I didn't get a chance to take the lens outdoors much as I hoped. I also just got the voigtlander 65/2 APO. At least I got my death valley trip coming up near end of the month that I definitely will put em to use. Such a sweet lens with wow factor the 50/2 APO is. It is seriously a joy to use because it's so compact and light! The images you get on a big MP camera are just breathtaking. I am used to believing that generally bigger heavier lenses tend to give better performance but this tiny 50/2 APO is changing my belief a bit
It refers to the lens I used for this reflected UV shot, the APO Lanthar 50/2, more than the subject itself. I alluded to its possible use for ultraviolet photography earlier and here is a sample. The rose was lit with one custom UV flashlight with a Baader U filtration (output was centred at 365nm). A Baader U 2" filter was on the lens with the lens on a full spectrum modified Sony A7. Although I do not have a transmission spectrum to show now, I can disclose that the lens transmits in the near UV to 350nm with nothing transmitted by 340nm. The transmission, combined with it being a high resolution lens, makes it quite valuable. .
My 50 mm APO-Lanthar arrived two weeks ago, but weather and work sadly delayed my doing much with it. Last weekend I worked through Jim Kasson's centering test and found my lens is fine. I am using it on a new A7iii. My taste in lenses is "clean window." I love my images from my 65mm APO-Lanthar but I was become tired of carrying it for travel, particularly as I use a cross-body, hang at my hip lens strap. The 65mm tends to extend itself as it hangs there from normal motion of walking. The new 50 mm, of course, overcomes that issue nicely.
There are many clean window images in this thread already, but joy impels me to share mine too. These images could have many issues, but they do not. That is just the way I like it. BAC00107 by Bert Cheney, on Flickr
This lens just brings out magic in photo's. I must say I think this lens makes me just want to shoot more and more. Lenses like this are what bring a smile to my face with every photo I see when I open them up on the big screen. Rarely did I ever have this gratifying feeling; only the sigma 40mm 1.4 art lens made me feel this way but that is a lens I rather not carry around due to it's weight.
"One thing to look at here is the color. I normally am not a huge fan of the Sony color science but I feel this lens helps bring the best color out of the Sony sensors. I simply can not believe the performance of this $1049 lens. I prefer it to my Voigtlander 50 f/1.2 and not by a little…rather by a lot."
"The color also stands out for a Voigtlander lens. Comparing this lens to what Voigtlander did say 10 years ago is crazy. They have come a long long way since they were known as “the poor mans Leica” and today can compete head on with some Leica lenses."
"It’s just as good for 1/8th the cost. A shocker really, and this is without question the best lens Voigtlander has ever made. It has the same style and look as the 50 APO from Leica."
- Steve Huff
(Steve may not be familiar with the 65/2 and 110/2.5 APOs).
philip_pj wrote:
"One thing to look at here is the color. I normally am not a huge fan of the Sony color science but I feel this lens helps bring the best color out of the Sony sensors. I simply can not believe the performance of this $1049 lens. I prefer it to my Voigtlander 50 f/1.2 and not by a little…rather by a lot."
"The color also stands out for a Voigtlander lens. Comparing this lens to what Voigtlander did say 10 years ago is crazy. They have come a long long way since they were known as “the poor mans Leica” and today can compete head on with some Leica lenses."
"It’s just as good for 1/8th the cost. A shocker really, and this is without question the best lens Voigtlander has ever made. It has the same style and look as the 50 APO from Leica."
- Steve Huff
(Steve may not be familiar with the 65/2 and 110/2.5 APOs)....Show more →
Steve Huff has reviewed the 110mm but didn't seem to be overly enthusiastic about it.
I think the 50mm is unique in the sense that it performs incredibly well AND is small in size. There are plenty of excellent but large lenses out there, but very few that are compact.
Quoting Steve Huff as a top notch lens tester is a little off base to me. He is a good marketer, has some pretty strange ideas about the paranormal (and sells equipment for this endeavor) and seems to love almost every lens that crosses his desk.
keepcoding wrote:
Steve Huff has reviewed the 110mm but didn't seem to be overly enthusiastic about it.
I think the 50mm is unique in the sense that it performs incredibly well AND is small in size. There are plenty of excellent but large lenses out there, but very few that are compact.
See Fred's review here and the review at phillipreeve.com both see the lens as a fantastic performer. I have the lens and my own view is that it is fantastic. My only wish is that it would be smaller and have a bit faster aperture, but none of that is realistic with a 1:1 macro lens.
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