Many landscape photographers love Voigtlander lenses for its defined sunstars. The Voigtlander 50mm f/2 APO introduced a new aperture mechanism that allowed completely round specular highlights at wide open and f/2.8. It was a great concept because when stepping the lens down to f/2.8, specular highlights would remain round. This removed the ability to get defined sunstars at wide apertures but in my opinion, it was a great compromise, since it didn't take away the ability to get defined sunstars starting at f/5.6 for landscapes.
Unfortunately this changed with the Voigtlander 35mm f/2 APO.
The aperture mechanism was further tweaked to allow round specular highlights not only wide open and f/2.8 but also at f/5.6 and f/16. Sounded great on paper but I am sad to report that defined sunstars are now only possible at f/11, f/13 and f/14. It does not look great at f/5.6 and f/8 like the CV 50mm f/2 APO did (see here).
I'm still battling with the weather here but was able to get some sun for a short while today. Here is a sequence showing the sunstar shape from f/2 until f/16: (In third stops)
(this was done three times with the same result)
alexands wrote:
Too bad! It is still an amazing lens but I'll stick with my Loxia 35 and the Voigt 50 APO. Thanks for doing those tests!
Probably the reason I stuck with f/11 for these sample images. On my viewfinder, I could only see the famous Cosina defined sunstars starting at f/11. (f/10 is ok but not as defined)
Thanks very much Fred. It's a shame they didn't just replicate what they did in the 50, especially given that this focal length is probably more likely to be used for landscape work than the 50.
I'm glad they are giving options. Sometimes I like sunstars, but alot of the time I really really really don't want them, but I want the other aspects the CV lenses deliver.
These were taken with all in camera corrections off, on a tripod, manually focused. They were processed in Lightroom, all corrections off (although it said it was using a built in profile for the Tamron.) Minimal sharpening applied.
All were taken on my a7R III, in silent shutter mode. Focus was on the bolt seen in the first set, I might have nailed it on the CV shot. On the Tamron shot, I might have backfocused a hair since it's so hard to manual focus with the Tamron. I'm not sure I would use the moire on the wood as an indication of sharpness.
Hopefully this will give you an idea where I pulled the crops from. I choose the focus point, top left corner and then another area where there was noticeable difference between the two lenses.
Left - Tamron 35mm f/2.8 Di III OSD 1:2 / Right - Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 35mm f/2 Aspherical
These were taken with all in camera corrections off, on a tripod, manually focused. They were processed in Lightroom, all corrections off (although it said it was using a built in profile for the Tamron.) Minimal sharpening applied.
All were taken on my a7R III, in silent shutter mode. Focus was on the bolt seen in the first set, I might have nailed it on the CV shot. On the Tamron shot, I might have backfocused a hair since it's so hard to manual focus with the Tamron. I'm not sure I would use the moire on the wood as an indication of sharpness.
Hopefully this will give you an idea where I pulled the crops from. I choose the focus point, top left corner and then another area where there was noticeable difference between the two lenses.
These were taken with all in camera corrections off, on a tripod, manually focused. They were processed in Lightroom, all corrections off (although it said it was using a built in profile for the Tamron.) Minimal sharpening applied.
All were taken on my a7R III, in silent shutter mode. Focus was on the bolt seen in the first set, I might have nailed it on the CV shot. On the Tamron shot, I might have backfocused a hair since it's so hard to manual focus with the Tamron. I'm not sure I would use the moire on the wood as an indication of sharpness.
Hopefully this will give you an idea where I pulled the crops from. I choose the focus point, top left corner and then another area where there was noticeable difference between the two lenses.
rvh23 wrote:
Thanks very much Fred. It's a shame they didn't just replicate what they did in the 50, especially given that this focal length is probably more likely to be used for landscape work than the 50.
Let's hope it's not CVs new normal...
Some of us are hoping that it is indeed CV’s new normal.
These were taken with all in camera corrections off, on a tripod, manually focused. They were processed in Lightroom, all corrections off (although it said it was using a built in profile for the Tamron.) Minimal sharpening applied.
All were taken on my a7R III, in silent shutter mode. Focus was on the bolt seen in the first set.
Hopefully this will give you an idea where I pulled the crops from.
Left - Tamron 35mm f/2.8 Di III OSD 1:2 / Right - Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 35mm f/2 Aspherical
