Nielk Mike wrote:
Just received my copy today (which I ordered based on this review) and I must say that I am impressed. it works fine on the X-Pro3 and the X-T2, but doesn't communciate fully with the X-E3. Since the X-T2 is older than the X-E3, shouldn't Cosina be able to also revise the lens firmware to work with the X-E3?
From the beginning of their X-mount lens releases, Cosina has supported electronic communication on their lenses with X-T2 on its last firmware (4.40) but for some reason they never supported X-E3, although X-E3 received it's last firmware on the same date as X-T2.
I don't know if there is any technical reason for them not to support X-E3 while they could support X-T2, but since they never publish any firmware updates for their Voigtländer lenses that end users could apply directly (and there might be no technical support on those lenses for firmware updates through camera etc.), I think it's never going to change.
Juha Kannisto wrote:
From the beginning of their X-mount lens releases, Cosina has supported electronic communication on their lenses with X-T2 on its last firmware (4.40) but for some reason they never supported X-E3, although X-E3 received it's last firmware on the same date as X-T2.
I don't know if there is any technical reason for them not to support X-E3 while they could support X-T2, but since they never publish any firmware updates for their Voigtländer lenses that end users could apply directly (and there might be no technical support on those lenses for firmware updates through camera etc.), I think it's never going to change.
Thanks Fred for the great lens review and others for sharing their experiences with the lens too!
I recently purchased the lens as well and I love it! However, I’ve encountered an issue and would like to ask if anyone else experienced the same.
I was doing some street photography in aperture priority with auto iso and mechanical shutter. Everything was fine as long as I was in single frame shooting mode. As soon as I switched to CH or CL I started noticing inconsistent darker exposure for the 2nd frame in the same burst, where iso value is lower than in the rest of frames (or shutter speed is higher with manual iso). Only switching to manual exposure or single frame fixes the problem.
I didn’t experience anything like that with native Fuji lenses or manual 7artizans, just this copy of Voigtlander 18/2.8. My camera model is X-T30ii.
This lens looks very lovely. Can anyone offer any sort of comparison vs the 18/2.8 lens on the Fuji X70?
I'm considering shooting the Voigt 18/2.8 from an X-E2 making the most of that pop up flash - I think having real manual focus in this pairing could trump the X70 for low light flash shots, eg. close crowd pics at evening gigs. I've enjoyed taking the X70 to gigs at Dreamland where I live in Margate (Leftfield and Orbital most recently), but found both the AF and crappy focus by wire both wanting when all I want to do is just quickly slide focus between 1ft - 4ft for those close crowd shots. (X70 flash sync still wins for daylight flash till obviously)
Thanks Fred for the great lens review and others for sharing their experiences with the lens too!
I recently purchased the lens as well and I love it! However, I’ve encountered an issue and would like to ask if anyone else experienced the same.
I was doing some street photography in aperture priority with auto iso and mechanical shutter. Everything was fine as long as I was in single frame shooting mode. As soon as I switched to CH or CL I started noticing inconsistent darker exposure for the 2nd frame in the same burst, where iso value is lower than in the rest of frames (or shutter speed is higher with manual iso). Only switching to manual exposure or single frame fixes the problem.
I didn’t experience anything like that with native Fuji lenses or manual 7artizans, just this copy of Voigtlander 18/2.8. My camera model is X-T30ii.
Strange...I just tested this on my X-T30ii with the Voigtlander 18/2.8. Single frame mode with aperture priority exposure was the same as for the burst in CL and CH modes--no drop in exposure by reduced ISO or shutter speed. I then checked the Auto ISO settings and tested to see if setting minimum shutter speed to AUTO vs. a choice of shutter speed made a difference and it didn't (in both cases I get the same exposure for single frame vs. burst mode.)
itsmrjack wrote:
This lens looks very lovely. Can anyone offer any sort of comparison vs the 18/2.8 lens on the Fuji X70?
I'm considering shooting the Voigt 18/2.8 from an X-E2 making the most of that pop up flash - I think having real manual focus in this pairing could trump the X70 for low light flash shots, eg. close crowd pics at evening gigs. I've enjoyed taking the X70 to gigs at Dreamland where I live in Margate (Leftfield and Orbital most recently), but found both the AF and crappy focus by wire both wanting when all I want to do is just quickly slide focus between 1ft - 4ft for those close crowd shots. (X70 flash sync still wins for daylight flash till obviously)...Show more →
I just shot of couple of scenes around my home office using the X70 and the X-E2s with the Voigtlander 18/2.8. Hand-held without much care to match perspectives exactly (though setting both at same f/2.8 aperture and shutter speed) I found them to be similar. I'd give the slight edge in absolute image quality to the X-E2s with the Voigtlander. That said, nailing focus at max aperture will be hard with the Voigtlander. If your street photography lends to zone focus then I think the X-E2 with the Voigtlander should get you similar quality you are used to with the X70.
Erich6_ wrote:
Strange...I just tested this on my X-T30ii with the Voigtlander 18/2.8. Single frame mode with aperture priority exposure was the same as for the burst in CL and CH modes--no drop in exposure by reduced ISO or shutter speed. I then checked the Auto ISO settings and tested to see if setting minimum shutter speed to AUTO vs. a choice of shutter speed made a difference and it didn't (in both cases I get the same exposure for single frame vs. burst mode.)
I figured out the setting that's causing it for me:
BUTTON/DIAL SETTINGS > SHUTTER AE > AF-S/MF > OFF
It works fine when ON, but I wouldn't want to lock exposure for the whole burst.
Erich6_ could you try this as well? Does changing this setting allow you reproduce the same issue in the 2nd frame?
modus76 wrote:
I figured out the setting that's causing it for me:
BUTTON/DIAL SETTINGS > SHUTTER AE > AF-S/MF > OFF
It works fine when ON, but I wouldn't want to lock exposure for the whole burst.
Erich6_ could you try this as well? Does changing this setting allow you reproduce the same issue in the 2nd frame?
I'm sorry I didn't try this sooner. I changed the setting as you indicated and I'm still not seeing the behavior you are. All my frames have the same exposure.
Gabe13 wrote:
Awesome! I really like mine...a lot. It's so compact and yet has most of the tech found in the X-T4 minus some video-centric stuff so it is plenty capable. It makes for a perfect small carry around camera and I may even opt to bring this along on travels over the X-T5 at times.
I don't have a X-Pro so I cannot compare the size in that regard but I do have an X-T5 and X-T2 and the tiny X-T30ii is noticeably smaller and lighter than those. Here are some comparison examples with the cameras mounted with CV 18mm/2.8 and 27mm/2. I had to use my IR modified X-T2 when comparing the X-T30ii with the X-T5.
Today I just purchased my first M mount CV lens to use adapted as well as that M to X CV adapter you mentioned...since the tele I wanted wasn't available natively
Hey Gabe just curious, have you noticed any IR hotspots or even central lightening at any apertures with this lens? I'm debating whether to pick this up as a compact lens for my IR camera, or whether to get a slightly larger lens that I know has excellent IR performance.
This looks like a really nice lens at a decent price. Going through this forum a lot of the samples look really nice. I haven't had a chance to examine them yet on a computer, but they still look like the rendering is very nice and they're reasonably sharp.
I was wondering how effective do you think this lens would be for serious landscape photography? I know some people are going to say you need the best lens in the world sharpest corner to corner, etc etc. But just in a general sense, would this lens be very good at landscapes given I prefer 18 mm? I don't know much about field curvature and other weird things like that. So I wouldn't want to get a lens that isn't ideal if it has flaws that don't work well for landscapes. My assumption is that this obviously wouldn't match the fuji 18 1.4, however it looks like it would be very good overall?
It just looks like a really attractive size and for landscape I feel like manual focus would be not an issue as time to focus isn't a problem as much as moving subjects...
Does anyone use this on an Xpro-1 or Xpro-2 and can explain how the frame lines work?
Specifically:
1. Do you have to create the frame line manually or do they automatically get selected based on the detection of the lens?
2. I assume the full 18mm frame lines show (not the pointy arrows in the corners) just like the fuji 18mm f2?
3. Is there any detection of the focal distance setting and therefore projection of corrected frame lines based on that setting?
I recently bought the Voigtlander 18 2.8 and find it very interesting and fun, but I'm having an "issue".
At f2.8, with focus set to infinity all is good, enough sharpness in the center slowly fading away towards the edges. As I focus back from infinity I immediately lose sharpness, so infinity mark is right.
Already at f4, but even more visible at f5.6 and f8 (and up) I got a strange behaviour (focus at infinity). The very center looks sharp enough, but then there is a big area around the center that loses sharpness (f8 is much less sharp than 2.8). Moving towards the edges (and closer to the camera in the low part) the sharpness gets much better! Focusing ever so slightly closer (my X-Pro3 says 10m on the display) the situation evens out a lot, increased sharpness in that area and a bit less sharpness on the edges. Again the area I'm talking about is phsically closer to the camera. A couple of examples here, f8 focus at infinity:
Could it be field curvature? So strong? But it's like a wave, sharp in the center, then much less sharp and sharp again on the closer middle/edges.
This is so annoying to me, I cannot focus at infinity f8 and just shoot, I got that weakness which is really bad and pretty visible even without zooming. I always have to focus at infinity and step back that half millimeter to compensate...! Is it a "normal" behaviour of the lens or do I have a bad copy?
I think that sort of mid-field softness is part of the design of some wide angle lenses where the sharpness may fall off some but in exchange you get improved edge sharpness.
brixx84 wrote:
Hi everyone and thanks Fred for this forum.
I recently bought the Voigtlander 18 2.8 and find it very interesting and fun, but I'm having an "issue".
At f2.8, with focus set to infinity all is good, enough sharpness in the center slowly fading away towards the edges. As I focus back from infinity I immediately lose sharpness, so infinity mark is right.
Already at f4, but even more visible at f5.6 and f8 (and up) I got a strange behaviour (focus at infinity). The very center looks sharp enough, but then there is a big area around the center that loses sharpness (f8 is much less sharp than 2.8). Moving towards the edges (and closer to the camera in the low part) the sharpness gets much better! Focusing ever so slightly closer (my X-Pro3 says 10m on the display) the situation evens out a lot, increased sharpness in that area and a bit less sharpness on the edges. Again the area I'm talking about is phsically closer to the camera. An example here, f8 focus at infinity: www.matteobricchi.com/private/pictures/XT509312.jpg
Could it be field curvature? So strong? But it's like a wave, sharp in the center, then much less sharp and sharp again on the closer middle/edges.
This is so annoying to me, I cannot focus at infinity f8 and just shoot, I got that weakness which is really bad and pretty visible even without zooming. I always have to focus at infinity and step back that half millimeter to compensate...! Is it a "normal" behaviour of the lens or do I have a bad copy?
