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Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

DavidBM
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p.10 #1 · p.10 #1 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

genji wrote:
Great suggestion, Ron, and something I wouldn't have thought of. Thanks!

Except... that could provide a justification for keeping both.

Very likely. A lens with a really harsh background bokeh **probably** has overcorrected SA, and this will (usually) give you a busy foreground bokeh. And a lens with that classic kind of smooth background associated with SA probably does have under corrected SA, which will give you reduced plane of focus sharpness and harsh foreground bokeh.

Jun 25, 2022 at 06:08 AM

genji
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p.10 #2 · p.10 #2 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

DavidBM wrote:
Very likely. A lens with a really harsh background bokeh **probably** has overcorrected SA, and this will (usually) give you a busy foreground bokeh. And a lens with that classic kind of smooth background associated with SA probably does have under corrected SA, which will give you reduced plane of focus sharpness and harsh foreground bokeh.

In the simple comparison that I did the Pre-FLE’s background bokeh was very slightly smoother than the FLE’s, an insignificant advantage that in no way compensated for the Pre-FLE’s obvious focus shift. I kept the FLE and have been very happy with it.

Jun 25, 2022 at 06:28 AM

nehemiahphoto
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p.10 #3 · p.10 #3 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

genji wrote:
In the simple comparison that I did the Pre-FLE’s background bokeh was very slightly smoother than the FLE’s, an insignificant advantage that in no way compensated for the Pre-FLE’s obvious focus shift. I kept the FLE and have been very happy with it.

I found the same when comparing the Pre-FLE vs FLE. There was a small but distinguishing improvement on the Pre-FLE at my typical shooting distance 4-15 feet WO with busy backgrounds, but I was shooting on a MILC not RF, so opted for the Pre-FLE. If shooting on a RF, I would have chosen like you. But there was also about a 15% price difference on the used market at the time.

Jun 25, 2022 at 11:06 AM

ftllens
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p.10 #4 · p.10 #4 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

Is there any way to calibrate this lens for RF? Mine is front focusing quite a bit (3 other lens perfect RF, so it's not the body probably)

Jul 06, 2022 at 03:52 PM

genji
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p.10 #5 · p.10 #5 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

ftllens wrote:
Is there any way to calibrate this lens for RF? Mine is front focusing quite a bit (3 other lens perfect RF, so it's not the body probably)

It’s not the body. My copy front focused and IIRC Fred tried three copies all of which front focused. The only happy owners of this lens on FM as far as I can tell are those who are using it on mirrorless bodies, where the front focusing is irrelevant. I returned mine and got an Elmarit-M 90/2.8 to replace it.

Jul 06, 2022 at 05:46 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.10 #6 · p.10 #6 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

There is no easy way in the case of front-focusing since the lens does not have shims behind the mount. If it was the other way around, one could add shims to it and calibrated it perfectly. That was my main complaint about this lens, I could not get a copy calibrated with the RF!

Jul 06, 2022 at 06:00 PM

genji
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p.10 #7 · p.10 #7 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

CV should put a sticker on the box saying: “Not for use on properly calibrated Leica M camera bodies.”

Jul 06, 2022 at 06:34 PM

ftllens
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p.10 #8 · p.10 #8 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

oh okay I'm glad I wasn't going crazy then lol

I was able to nail focus by compensating but it removes the joy of snapping focus. such a shame when tta and 7a lenses let you calibrate (not that they need it out of the box)

Jul 06, 2022 at 07:20 PM

naturephoto1
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p.10 #9 · p.10 #9 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

As mentioned, I use mine on my A1 and my Kolari Vision UT sensor modified A7rII. But, I believe that Steve Spencer uses his on his M camera and purchased it based upon my observations and postings. Perhaps he can comment here.

Rich

Jul 06, 2022 at 07:26 PM

ftllens
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p.10 #10 · p.10 #10 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

I bought it based on his logic lol

I still like the output, will need to think about it

Jul 06, 2022 at 09:03 PM

Steve Spencer
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p.10 #11 · p.10 #11 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

naturephoto1 wrote:
As mentioned, I use mine on my A1 and my Kolari Vision UT sensor modified A7rII. But, I believe that Steve Spencer uses his on his M camera and purchased it based upon my observations and postings. Perhaps he can comment here.

Rich

I do use mine on my M camera and I still like it. I did purchase it at least partly based on Rich's observations and posts. I plan to examine it more carefully for front focussing soon, but I want to wait until I get new glasses in the next week or so. I needed a pretty big switch in my prescription and hope that a better prescription will let me focus a bit more precisely with the rangefinder. I will report back when I test it more thoroughly, but I think I may have gotten lucky and got one that at least does not front focus too much.

Jul 06, 2022 at 10:10 PM

ftllens
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p.10 #12 · p.10 #12 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

I took some snapshots around in passenger seat of car and then around the neighborhood and decided to keep it for now. In practice, I just have to jiggle the switch a touch before releasing the shutter (very slightly clockwise if you're facing camera, opposite motion of shutter down vector, maybe it's intentional lol). It's not the worst I've dealt with and the power to weight ratio of this lens is quite good.

Jul 06, 2022 at 10:52 PM

sandycrane
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p.10 #13 · p.10 #13 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

Very nice. Thanks for posting these.

Jul 07, 2022 at 07:41 AM

Ripolini
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p.10 #14 · p.10 #14 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

I'm still not convinced about mid frame performance ...

Jul 07, 2022 at 08:28 AM

ftllens
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p.10 #15 · p.10 #15 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

lol, i usually keep both eyes open while shooting anything and i hit the LV button by accident while using the RF (i use my left eye), so I punch in max mag with the lv and blue focus peaking so after snapping to RF i micro adjust until i see blue then release shutter. pretty reliable way in low light, faster than using either.

in normal light situations ive now become good enough with the front focus, have muscle memoried the drift.

Jul 07, 2022 at 07:48 PM

naturephoto1
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p.10 #16 · p.10 #16 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

Photo cross posted in the Sony FE Image Thread and taken at 2:15 PM.

Looking at the head and torso of the original 17' tall Marble statute of David sculpted by Michaelangelo (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni).
Hand Held, relying on Camera IBIS, A1 and Voigtlander 90mm f2.8 Apo-Skopar VM lens; silent shutter.
ISO 1600, f2.8, 1/400 second.
Exposure Corrected -0.53 Stops.

March 26, 2022
At the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze (Gallery of the Academy of Florence), Firenze (Florence), Italy.

Rich

Jul 11, 2022 at 06:56 AM

tigawoods
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p.10 #17 · p.10 #17 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

Im tossing around the idea of selling my 75 1.5 VM for one of these and ended up here!

Jul 12, 2022 at 08:32 AM

ftllens
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p.10 #18 · p.10 #18 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

other than the front focus quirk on m bodies, honestly, it's probably the most perfectly balanced lens. i decided to keep it despite the miscalibration because it's just so enjoyable to use (size and weight).

i'm going to adapt it to gfx100 when my adapter comes and see how it does on it.

attached are some using the kenko no. 5, it's good enough that this will be my casual macro solution

Jul 12, 2022 at 01:36 PM

Maximilian
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p.10 #19 · p.10 #19 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

Fred, I have a technical question about the forum.
This thread is called "FM Review: Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar", incidentally a few days ago I was searching for exact this thread and i did as follows:
- topic subject, anytime, all words
- forum: Sony forum
- Year: current site
- search words: Voigtlander 90mm

What came out is only a 3 years old thread about the Voiglander 90mm f/3.5 Apo-Lanthar for DSLR.
I've retried this search right now, with the same result.
I don't understand why I'm not able to find the present thread about the 90mm Apo-Skopar.
Adding "skopar" or "apo-skopar" to the search words didn't help.

Jul 12, 2022 at 01:51 PM

ftllens
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p.10 #20 · p.10 #20 · Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar Review

Maximilian wrote:
Fred, I have a technical question about the forum.
This thread is called "FM Review: Voigtlander 90mm f/2.8 APO-Skopar", incidentally a few days ago I was searching for exact this thread and i did as follows:
- topic subject, anytime, all words
- forum: Sony forum
- Year: current site
- search words: Voigtlander 90mm

What came out is only a 3 years old thread about the Voiglander 90mm f/3.5 Apo-Lanthar for DSLR.
I've retried this search right now, with the same result.
I don't understand why I'm not able to find the present thread about the 90mm Apo-Skopar.
Adding "skopar" or "apo-skopar" to the search words didn't help.

Most likely because the original thread is located in the "Leica & Alternative Gear" section. Maybe Fred just cross-pinned it in the Sony forum.

If you run the search through in all boards, it should show up.

Jul 12, 2022 at 01:55 PM

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