p.6 #2 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
Minimum focus distance is the same for the SE and original E-mount 40/1.2 (35cm) and 50/1.2 (45cm) and for 35/1.2 SE it is 30 cm. The specs are all at Cosina's website.
p.6 #3 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
I decided to buy the 35/1.2 SE version as well and this time I ordered it online from Map Camera since their physical shop had been temporarily closed recently due to state of emergency in Tokyo (which was just lifted yesterday). Their online store had been continuing business through the whole time and also the physical shop seems to have reopened from today.
I got the shipping notice today and it seems my lens should arrive tomorrow (on official release day). Looking forward to using it on my Sony A9 (not much time to shoot before the weekend though). Although I have the VM version as well I figured it would be good to have the native version for Sony too (for closer focusing, EXIF, inbuilt distortion correction profile etc.). I'm also curious about how the SE lenses feel in use.
p.6 #4 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
Juha Kannisto wrote:
I decided to buy the 35/1.2 SE version as well and this time I ordered it online from Map Camera since their physical shop had been temporarily closed recently due to state of emergency in Tokyo (which was just lifted yesterday). Their online store had been continuing business through the whole time and also the physical shop seems to have reopened from today.
I got the shipping notice today and it seems my lens should arrive tomorrow (on official release day). Looking forward to using it on my Sony A9 (not much time to shoot before the weekend though). Although I have the VM version as well I figured it would be good to have the native version for Sony too (for closer focusing, EXIF, inbuilt distortion correction profile etc.). I'm also curious about how the SE lenses feel in use....Show more →
Our local CV distributor says it’s slightly optically adjusted for the Sony sensor too, apparently FC at mid distance is different for example.
p.6 #5 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
DavidBM wrote:
Our local CV distributor says it’s slightly optically adjusted for the Sony sensor too, apparently FC at mid distance is different for example.
I've noticed rather rough bokeh towards the edges in some close to mid-distance shots on my A9 with the VM version, I hope that aspect has been improved / more optimized on the E-mount version. For stopped down infinity shots the VM version works very well on the A9 already.
I'm thinking of using this 35/1.2 E-mount together with my 21/3.5 and 50/2 E-mount lenses as a travel set (when traveling becomes possible in the future again).
It comes with the same hood as 40/1.2 and 50/1.2 E-mount lenses. My copy has the best infinity a little bit before hard infinity, similar to my 40/1.2 and 50/1.2. Handlingwise it feels kind of similar to my 75/1.5 VM except for bigger diameter. I took quite many wide open shots and didn't see any bokeh issues so I hope they have indeed further optimized the SE version for Sony sensor as hoped/expected.
There are couple of photos showing my 35/1.2 VM & SE and 40/1.2 & 50/1.2 E-mount versions next to each other as well.
p.6 #8 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
Juha Kannisto wrote:
I've noticed rather rough bokeh towards the edges in some close to mid-distance shots on my A9 with the VM version, I hope that aspect has been improved / more optimized on the E-mount version. For stopped down infinity shots the VM version works very well on the A9 already.
I'm thinking of using this 35/1.2 E-mount together with my 21/3.5 and 50/2 E-mount lenses as a travel set (when traveling becomes possible in the future again).
I think it depends on distance as well. I see field curvature when my subject is a mid-distance and much less at infinity distance. Can you post a sample of that rough rendering at mid-distance when shooting at wide apertures?
p.6 #9 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
Fred Miranda wrote:
I think it depends on distance as well. I see field curvature when my subject is a mid-distance and much less at infinity distance. Can you post a sample of that rough rendering at mid-distance when shooting at wide apertures?
Distances are varying but it tends to show up quite often in my shooting with the VM version when I shoot wide open, if there are some plants / trees etc. in the background.
p.6 #10 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
hesb wrote:
Have you compared the VM and FE versions in the same conditions?
No, I just got the FE version today and used it only about 1h during lunch break. I haven't used them side by side at all but so far I feel the FE version was noticeably smoother in the bokeh front. I've used the VM version quite often since I got it 2 months ago. I will try to get some comparison shots from the same conditions next weekend.
p.6 #11 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
Juha Kannisto wrote:
I copied some example shots (SOOC JPEGs) taken with my A9 and 35/1.2 III VM where the bokeh is pretty rough around the edges: https://photos.app.goo.gl/p51tcgctBhc7GZks8
Distances are varying but it tends to show up quite often in my shooting with the VM version when I shoot wide open, if there are some plants / trees etc. in the background.
It would be great if you could take similar shots (on a tripod) comparing both E-mount and M-mount versions. I do see field curvature at close and mid-distance when testing my copy but I wonder if it's a characteristic of the lens (Or a combination of characteristic FC + Induced).
The CV 40/1.2 E also shows some edge sharpening when shooting wide open with a subject at mid-distance.
My 35/1.2 III VM copy when for repair (infinity tweaking for the Leica body) and I should get the new SE version next week.
p.6 #15 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
Very interesting. Can’t wait to learn (and see!) what you find.
Juha Kannisto wrote:
No, I just got the FE version today and used it only about 1h during lunch break. I haven't used them side by side at all but so far I feel the FE version was noticeably smoother in the bokeh front. I've used the VM version quite often since I got it 2 months ago. I will try to get some comparison shots from the same conditions next weekend.
p.6 #16 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
Fred Miranda wrote:
It would be great if you could take similar shots (on a tripod) comparing both E-mount and M-mount versions. I do see field curvature at close and mid-distance when testing my copy but I wonder if it's a characteristic of the lens (Or a combination of characteristic FC + Induced).
The CV 40/1.2 E also shows some edge sharpening when shooting wide open with a subject at mid-distance.
My 35/1.2 III VM copy when for repair (infinity tweaking for the Leica body) and I should get the new SE version next week.
I'll go out with my tripod and A9 + both lenses on Saturday or Sunday and try to capture a couple of identical scenes that would show the "rough bokeh" phenomena on the VM version. Not planning on any large scale testing as I'm not fond of swapping lenses frequently outdoors but I suppose any differences should be seen with a few suitable samples. So far the weather forecast seems pretty good for the weekend and there's no rain expected.
p.6 #19 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
Today I went out to shoot the SE 35/1.2 and VM 35/1.2 III side by side on my Sony A9 to see if there were actually any noticeable differences especially with the bokeh when shooting some targets at f1.2 and f2.0 in the 1-3m range and with some trees or plants in the background. I started with a tripod but I soon dropped it back home as it's pretty inconvenient to shoot with a tripod in Tokyo streets and I generally don't like shooting with a tripod. Afterwards I just tried to frame as similarly as I could by standing in the same position, using the small focus point to place my manual focusing target and swapping lenses back and forth.
The weather wasn't great for photography, mostly cloudy, and the shots reflect that.
In the end the main differences I noticed were in other areas than bokeh. My SE lens seemed sharper on the A9 at f1.2 when focusing on midframe, it seemed to become noticeable with some stone statues where I was getting better peaking and easier focusing on the statue faces and sharper results on the focused area. I was struggling to focus on some of them with the VM and not getting as sharp results at f1.2. I suppose it might be related to the lens optimization for the Sony sensor. The SE often had very noticeably faster shutter speeds than VM on the A9 at equivalent apertures with same camera settings. With AWB the colors usually came out a bit warmer with the SE lens. I didn't see much differences with bokeh at all in my testing today, but perhaps in a couple shots the SE had smoother backgrounds near the corners where the background is very far (especially sample #10 and the tree in the right top corner). Overall I prefer the SE version on the Sony Camera although the VM version also works well. I'll keep using the VM on my Sigma fp (it was the main purpose I bought it for in the first place).
20 comparison shots at f1.2 can be found at the link below. See the info (i) for each shot to recognize which one is SE and which one is VM (filenames and EXIF will show it, aperture is always shown as f/1 for the VM). They come up in the order they were shot and some shots were taken first with the SE and others with the VM. I always did the equivalent shots on one lens, then swapped, then kept the last lens on for the next shots and then swapped again to avoid having to swap the lenses twice as much.
I used Capture One Pro 20 to export the files from Raw and in some cases I adjusted the color temperatures to make them equal (in cases were they were too different originally). Default settings were used and all lens corrections that could have been applied with the Manufacturer Profile for the SE lens were turned off in Camera and also in C1 Pro (it follows the camera settings by default but the settings can be changed). Normally when not taking test shots I will probably keep 2 of the lens correction settings in Auto on the Camera (CA correction and distortion correction) and then they will be applied in C1 Pro via Manufacturer Profile automatically as well.
p.6 #20 · Voigtländer SE series lenses announced (35/1.2, 40/1.2, 50/1.2)
In the end the main differences I noticed were in other areas than bokeh. My SE lens seemed sharper on the A9 at f1.2 when focusing on midframe, it seemed to become noticeable with some stone statues where I was getting better peaking and easier focusing on the statue faces and sharper results on the focused area. I was struggling to focus on some of them with the VM and not getting as sharp results at f1.2. I suppose it might be related to the lens optimization for the Sony sensor.
Hi Juha,
Thanks for doing this. These are great side by side examples demonstrating the issue. I intend to do something similar when I get my SE copy.
Just to comment on what you wrote above. If your 35/1.2 SE copy is sharper at center, that likely means it's a better copy and the discrepancy isn't due to Sony's thicker sensor stack. They should actually have identical performance at center.
When testing my 35/1.2 III VM copy on the Sony, I do see induced field curvature when the focused subject is at close or mid-field distance and elements from the OOF area location around edge appear sharp.
Much less (if any) at infinity distance though.
This can be seen on many of your samples. Here is one where induced FC is very apparent.
If one goes through your comparison and only pays attention to the edge OOF areas of the frame, it's very easy to know which is which...The SE version will have softer OOF edges and the VM version will have sharper OOF edges due to induced FC. The differences are not night and day but it's noticeable.
VM version (sharper OOF area towards the corner) - Higher FC
SE version (softer OOF area towards the corner) - Lower FC
zz wrote:
