HelBen85
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 p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Comparisons between the Voigtlander 21mm f1.4 vs sony 20mm f1.8 | |
I have the Voigtlander 21mm f1.4, but it is currently under repair in Japan. Unfortunately, repairs on Voigtlander lenses take a long time, which is why I have bought the Sony 20mm f1.8 in the meantime. But I can only compare the two lenses after I get the Voigtlander back.
I've tried many copies of the Voigtlander and now have an absolutely stellar copy.
I didn't have great expectations of the Sony, but was pleasantly surprised. I have had my first copy for a week now and so far it has been extremely good (unfortunately there was no sun to test the flare behavior).
My first experiences are as follows:
I can fully agree with Fred's conclusion. My copy is extremely sharp at f1.8 (sharper than my Sony 24mm GM and sharper than the Voigtländer 21mm f1.4) in the center and still very good in the corners.
When stopped down to about f4, the Sony is extremely sharp over the entire image right into the corners and above all - which is very important to me - it is evenly sharp without partial blurring (for example caused by field curvature) anywhere in the picture.
For me, however, an even and high sharpness between f4-f8 is very important and in this regard the Voigtländer and the Sony should not be far apart. I look forward to my comparison in a few weeks.
Subjective points: The Sony has a very nice color rendering, very different from the Voigtlander, but also very nice. On my A7RIII and in Lightroom, the colors come out of the camera much cooler. I like the clarity of the pictures and the sun stars better with the Voigtlander. I also suspect better backlight behavior with the Voigtlander. I really like the bokeh of the Sony, a little better than that of the Voigtlander and a little worse than that of the 24mm GM.
Both lenses can produce beautiful 3D images. The Sony is a bit bigger, but a bit lighter and feels like the "smaller" lens.
The autofocus works very well, which is the case with my camera with very few lenses (e.g. more reliable than with the 24mm GM).
The Sony has a much wider angle than the Voigtlander.
Manual focusing works very well with the Sony. Sony has made great progress there.
I will have a hard time selling the great 20mm once I got the Voigtlander back. But I would probably prefer the Nokton because of the sun stars. The other characteristics pretty much balance each other out for me.
Due to the field curvature, it is probably much more difficult to find a Voigtlander that is very good on your respective camera (because of mount tolerances).
Sony:
 Zermatt by Ben, auf Flickr
 Zermatt by Ben, auf Flickr
 Zermatt by Ben, auf Flickr
Voigtlander:
 Braunwald by Ben, auf Flickr
 Bavaria by Ben, auf Flickr
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With both being fairly inexpensive I don’t mind keeping both in my kit. 
