p.10 #1 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
rscheffler wrote:
I agree and think we're in the minority.
Here I disagree but think I'm in the minority.
Do you feel that the plane of focus transition is more abrupt than the Cron Rigid? And in that respect, do you feel it makes nailing focus more difficult with the Voigtlander? At 90 degrees focus throw, it seems a touch shorter than I'd prefer. Any difficulty with placing focus where you want it at farther distances?
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I also have the ZM50/2. I have been able to provoke flare from it in situations I didn't really expect. For example a bright sky if in the corner of the frame, or just outside the frame resulted in veiling flare in the neighboring darker areas of the image. But my experience with some Leica M lenses suggests they're worse still. For example the 50 Lux ASPH I mentioned earlier, but also the 90AA....Show more →
My 50 lux Asph - awful flare control. Any of my Summicron 50s (v1, DR, V5) - awful. Summicron 35 Asph - awful.
28mm Elmarit 2.8 Asph - superb flare control. The only Leica lens I have that lives up to expectations for that, given the price point.
My ZM 50 Planar - better than any of my Leica lenses bar the 28. Strangely I have not checked out/shot in conditions to see what my ZM Sonnar 50 1.5 would do. Nor Distagon 35 1.4.
Disappointingly the flare control is pretty bad with my Zeiss ZF.2 50mm MakroPlanar. An slr lens, but I just assumed it would be good like my ZM lenses.
p.10 #2 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
Yeah, from the recent model Leica M lenses I own or have used, I get the feeling flare control is not the highest priority. To some degree also CA and related to that, LoCA/purple fringing. At least lateral CA can be fixed in post with generally minimal consequences. Purple fringing though is quite bad with the wider Luxes. Even at f/8 the 28 Lux shows noticeable purple fringing in the corners, though the rest of the frame is good by then. 21 Lux is comically bad at wider apertures. 50mm and longer is where I find my Leica lenses to have weaker flare control (I don't have any Leica 35s), specifically veiling flare: 50 Lux ASPH, 90AA and 90 Macro. My wides have been better: 21 SEM, Lux, 28 Cron v1 and Lux. They will still flare to some degree, though my feeling is it's less distracting and more characterful.
Wasn't the 50AA recalled relatively soon after release to fix a flare problem?
genji wrote:
Your second question is more difficult to answer because the focus point in the overwhelming majority of my pictures is within the 1m to 5m range and I assume that in your terms "farther distances" means greater than 5m.
Thanks for the info about nailing focus at nearer distances. Yes, you're correct. I'm thinking about 5m and farther where many lenses have a very short focus throw, which can make focus placement a bit more difficult at wider apertures. And potentially more noticeable with a very sharp lens.
p.10 #3 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
rscheffler wrote:
Wasn't the 50AA recalled relatively soon after release to fix a flare problem?
Not sure if there was an official recall, or they just took care of customers who complained, and then turned it into a production change.
But yeah, the early versions had terrible flare and Leica apparently corrected it by lining the lens body wall with a matte material.
Incredible really that they did not notice that in testing before production.
This is also why if you buy a used 50 Apo Cron, try to check it for flare. Or try to get a recent build (but I'm not sure how to do that). There are still a bunch out there from the early production run that were not fixed. This on an $8000 50mm lens.
p.10 #5 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
For those hoping to own one 50/2 APO for both Leica and Sony, I don't have good news. The VM version does not perform well on the Sony. There is a big induced field curvature and some astigmatism as well. Even stopped down, it does not do great towards the corners.
p.10 #6 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
Fred Miranda wrote:
For those hoping to own one 50/2 APO for both Leica and Sony, I don't have good news. The VM version does not perform well on the Sony. There is a big induced field curvature and some astigmatism as well. Even stopped down, it does not do great towards the corners.
Yet another exception to the widely believed and propagated assertion that M-mount lenses 50mm and longer perform well on stock Sony bodies.
p.10 #8 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
I am curious about the optical difference (if there is any) between the E-mount version and this VM-mount version. As per Voigtlander, the E-mount version uses five low-dispersion elements, but in the optical construction diagram posted here, the VM-mount version only has two. I wonder if there is indeed a difference between the two, or they are actually identical. It could be the diagram for VM is not entirely accurate.
I assume the APO-Lanthar will not be that much different, 50mm M lenses will have no issues on the SL bodies whatsoever and even newer 35mm lenses like the Distagon ZM should perform really well.
p.10 #14 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
Looking at the new 50/2 APO M-mount with those other 50s and it just reinforces the feeling I have that Cosina missed an opportunity to make a narrower/thinner design more complementary to rangefinder use. Instead it seems they wanted to remain faithful the 'thick' design of the f/1.2 trio.
I mean, just look at all that 'dead' space around the front element that could have been shaved away like they did with the 50/1.5 II.
p.10 #15 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
rscheffler wrote:
Looking at the new 50/2 APO M-mount with those other 50s and it just reinforces the feeling I have that Cosina missed an opportunity to make a narrower/thinner design more complementary to rangefinder use. Instead it seems they wanted to remain faithful the 'thick' design of the f/1.2 trio.
I mean, just look at all that 'dead' space around the front element that could have been shaved away like they did with the 50/1.5 II.
I wonder if the mechanism that enables rounded apertures at f/2.8 and f/5.6 necessitates the wider/thicker design? The size doesn't bother me but I agree that even a 3mm reduction to a 46mm filter size would make the VM 50/2 APO more attractive.
p.10 #16 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
rscheffler wrote:
Looking at the new 50/2 APO M-mount with those other 50s and it just reinforces the feeling I have that Cosina missed an opportunity to make a narrower/thinner design more complementary to rangefinder use. Instead it seems they wanted to remain faithful the 'thick' design of the f/1.2 trio.
I mean, just look at all that 'dead' space around the front element that could have been shaved away like they did with the 50/1.5 II.
I assume the APO-Lanthar will not be that much different, 50mm M lenses will have no issues on the SL bodies whatsoever and even newer 35mm lenses like the Distagon ZM should perform really well.
The Leica SL cameras do better with M lenses than Sony A series, but they definitely do not do as well as M cameras. 'No issues' just means that the tester felt that the results were within his tolerance, not that everyone would conclude 'no issues'.
p.10 #18 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
A comparison with Sony's version would be interesting, in light of the three APD elements that E APO-Lanthar has that the VM lacks. The E/A-L is stacked with Cosina's 'magic glass' at the front end. I just checked Cosina's pages - they are somewhat different, the E posts stronger MTF overall, the VM is a bit 'tidier' at f4, but the A-L is significantly stronger at f2, which is its hallmark feature. (this is one reason why I believe Cosina is using the SL lenses as 'reference' for the Sony APO-Lanthars, rather than the APO M lenses.)
'ultimate comparison: Leica AA 50 vs. Voigtlander AL 50'
The Sony A-L is much closer to the SL 50/2 APO than the 50/2-M-AA, and its images validate this MTF finding. 2nd image below is the 50AA-M MTF at f2-f2.8. Compare with the A-L at f2 on the Cosina page listed above. Forgive me if this has been posted, have not followed this thread closely.
'very cautious about comparing MTFs across manufacturers'
Both are highly reputable IMO.
'I doubt that very much. Sony E lenses remain important to Voigtlander.'
Very glad to hear that after our annus horribilus of 2020.
p.10 #19 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
Henning wrote:
The Leica SL cameras do better with M lenses than Sony A series, but they definitely do not do as well as M cameras. 'No issues' just means that the tester felt that the results were within his tolerance, not that everyone would conclude 'no issues'.
I was talking about this particular instance, some wide-angle lenses have more noticable issues, but at 50mm focal length or a newer 35mm lens like the 1.4 Distagon I really don't think there is anything to complain about in general - and you can even see that on the examples shown there, that's why I linked them. Even Nikon Z cameras will do just fine with most 50mm M lenses.
With M cameras you are getting a little bit better performance and portability but you loose IBIS and video altogether. So for a lot of people it simply does not matter for that tiniest improvement in quality. They just want to now, will this APO-Lanthar VM lens work well on the SL bodies?
And the answer is: very likely.
Feb 13, 2021 at 06:57 AM
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p.10 #20 · Official: Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO VM mount
padam19 wrote:
I was talking about this particular instance, some wide-angle lenses have more noticable issues, but at 50mm focal length or a newer 35mm lens like the 1.4 Distagon I really don't think there is anything to complain about in general - and you can even see that on the examples shown there, that's why I linked them. Even Nikon Z cameras will do just fine with most 50mm M lenses.
With M cameras you are getting a little bit better performance and portability but you loose IBIS and video altogether. So for a lot of people it simply does not matter for that tiniest improvement in quality. They just want to now, will this APO-Lanthar VM lens work well on the SL bodies?
And the answer is: very likely....Show more →
yeah, but with Nikon Z cameras you have to decide whether to get the Voigtlander Leica M version or the Sony E mount version (both can be used on the Nikon Z cameras) and I think it is likely the Sony E mount version would perform better on the Nikon Z cameras.
