nehemiahphoto wrote:
Am I recalling your pentax is the 28/3.5? If so, did you ever compare it with the 31 limited?
Briefly...but my 31 was a little askew. No doubt the 31 has a lot more to offer and has more across the frame sharpness at wider apertures than the 28. But the 28/3.5 K at f/11 is a great landscape lens. My impression is that it controls CA better than the 31. The MF experience on the 31 isn't as nice as well IMHO. I definitely wouldn't turn down a well centered copy of the 31, and it could be used in a broader set of shooting conditions than the 28.
A bit late but here is my overall "report" of my experiences at CP+ 2025 particularly at Cosina area, covering CV and Zeiss Otus ML.
CP+ took place on 4 days from Thursday 27th of Feb to Sunday 2nd of March. First day has 2 first hours reserved for VIP visitors representing various associated companies and I figured that the weekend would be busier so I took Friday off from work to go there and also went back on Saturday.
Indeed Friday was less crowded and it was a good decision to go there then. I entered around noon after eating quick lunch at Minatomirai station (closest station to Pacifico Yokohama where the event is always held). It takes about 30min by train from my home station (Ebisu in Tokyo) to go there.
At the event area I entered from entrance D and it happened to be right next to Cosina area so I started from there. First I borrowed 75/1.8 Portrait Heliar from Cosina counter (the queues to the counter were short at that time) and was happy to find that they were not too strict about having those lenses only tested at the counter, it was OK to shoot all around the Cosina lens "testing area" with various test objects. Perhaps it helped that the Cosina area was not too crowded at that time and they could easily keep an eye on everyone who borrowed their lenses. After that I borrowed Otus ML 50/1.4 and did some trial shooting with that.
After I finished trying out Otus 50mm, I saw the Zeiss representative (Petra Visuri, Category Manager Zeiss Photography) in the Cosina area and I waited until she was not busy talking with others and went to talk to her in Finnish. I had seen her in the Otus ML product introduction / promotion videos and had noticed her Finnish name and accent, so I had searched about her and found that she had very similar background as me through the same University in Tampere, working for Nokia etc. She was very nice to talk with and we talked probably about 20 minutes, I explained my similar background and about my photography hobby as well as about my work at Sony Mobile (there's also connection to Zeiss though Sony Xperia having Zeiss branding on some smartphone models). We talked a lot about manual focus shooting experience, the new Otus lenses, CV lenses etc. and I introduced MS-Optics lenses to her as well. She loaned me her Otus 50/1.4 for some shooting too and I took a couple of additional shots but I had already tried it out enough prior to that. My personal feedback on the Otus lenses was that the 50mm would be interesting for me personally but since there are already so many great 50mm options in E-mount (such as the 3 CV lenses and 50/1.4 GM that I already have), it's a bit tough for it to sell in the very crowded market and I was also personally not sure if I have room for more 50mm lenses. On the other hand, I found it to be quite appealing and would consider. I also gave some feedback on the aperture ring which I found was quite easy to move accidentally on my trial with my A7CII due to placement (probably not a problem with bigger bodies). I also explained that the 85/1.4 is not a good fit for me personally as I love smaller cameras and lenses and light weight is an important criteria for my purposes (1 kg is over my limit). I also urged them to do a 28mm Otus ML next to serve the interests of all 28mm lovers like me. She was interested on why 28mm would be better than e.g. 24 or 25mm and I explained my views on that and also talked about there already being an oversupply of high quality 24mm lenses for E-mount whereas 28mm has been more or less ignored by most companies apart from the new CV 28/1.5. I got her business card as well and showed her my Twitter account where I usually post my photos.
Later I checked out various other areas and came back to Cosina area sometime before 5pm. I saw Cosina's head of Marketing / PR (Sato-san, who is the person in all their product introduction videos) there. He was busy talking with some others for a while so I hanged around close by waiting for my chance to talk with him. At that time, one of Cosina's staff came to talk to me and explained that Cosina are doing a stage presentation with Zeiss about the new Otus ML lenses from 5:20pm and he asked if wanted to see it. I was of course interested and he gave me instructions on the location and how to go to there. After that I noticed that Sato-san became unoccupied so I waved at him and he was happy to talk. I have talked with him on a couple of occasions before too (always in Japanese), at least in last year's CP+ and in previous I.C.S. Camera Fair where Cosina had a stand and there was a CV photo exhibition. At I.C.S. I also purchased an adapter from Cosina and Sato-san did the paperworks and handed me the goods along with some promo-materials. I suppose he remembers me by now and it was easy to talk with him now in relaxed and positive mood. Much better than when Cosina had a 3 year break with no new E-mount releases and I was talking to their staff about getting them to make new E-mount lenses every year at CP+
I showed my recently purchased CV 28/1.5 E-mount version on my camera and expressed my happiness that they had released it (in last year's CP+ I had specifically asked them to make that lens in E-mount next). Then we talked about the new Portrait Heliar and the new 28/2 APO. He mentioned how it was difficult to get the Spherical Aberration control done right on the Portrait Heliar, and how that lens is really interesting esp. for low light shooting and not just for portraits. I indicated that I'm definitely buying the Portrait Heliar and that it would be very nice to also have the 28/2 APO in E-mount and other mirrorless mounts as well and that I'd buy an E-mount version, although I already have the 28/1.5. He gave some positive indications that it's seriously being considered for mirrorless mounts too and he noted how it's an entirely different lens than the 28/1.5. I got a feeling that it's very likely to be released in mirrorless mounts in the future. I also talked about how it would be nice to have some small pancake style lenses for E-mount / mirrorless FF (similar to their X-mount panckes but FF) in the future as there is already a quite good range of fast Nokton lenses esp. in E-mount. He seemed to like the idea (they may have already though about that too) and we talked about the potential best size of such lenses in comparison to the 28/1.5 on my camera. I also noted that it was nice that Cosina recently added an online site (Japanese only) for registering ownership of their lenses, where users can also give them some requests about future lenses etc. Previously people could only do this by submitting post-cards to Cosina (each of their new lenses sold in Japan comes with such a card that can be sent to them). He noted that they were a bit late compared to other companies in preparing such online option. I also asked if there were any new lenses planned to come out in X-mount soon, and got the impression that they had been busy with other mounts at the moment and there didn't seem to be anything in the pipeline for X in the near term.
I also mentioned about my earlier talk with Petra from Zeiss and then Petra suddenly showed up too and Sato-san went with her to prepare for their scene presentation that was scheduled to start in about 30 min.
After that I went to see their presentation in a different floor. It consisted of Sato-san's intro, Petra's product introduction presentation of the new ML line in English, with Japanese translation, and then Sato-san went through the product information and talked about Zeiss lens characteristics with Akagi Koichi-san (a well known Japanese photographer and closely involved in various camera related press in Japan). Finally there was a photo review and lens impressions talk with Akagi-san showing some samples he had shot with the new Otus 50/1.4.
The 40mmin stage presentation ended at 6pm and that was the closing time of Friday at CP+.
On Saturday I went back and tried the 28/2 APO and I also asked some further questions about whether the Portrait Heliar was planned for other mirrorless mounts. It seems not planned as of now but could be considered if the lens is first successful in E-mount / if it looks like there could be strong demand in other mounts too. I also tried Otus 85/1.4 on Saturday on my A7CII and in my opinion it was definitely too big for the small camera, but might fit better with the grip extension (which I didn't have with me).
That was pretty much everything for me this year at Cosina area. It was enjoyable as always, especially the good talks this year and the stage presentation (which was something Cosina hasn't much done in the past). New lens "testing" always feels like it's not really effective in such exhibition area and that part doesn't feel as useful for me personally in terms of figuring out how I like the new lenses from IQ perspective. It's nice to get a feel for handling of the lenses though. Looking forward for the new lenses to get released next
Juha Kannisto wrote:
A bit late but here is my overall "report" of my experiences at CP+ 2025 particularly at Cosina area, covering CV and Zeiss Otus ML.
CP+ took place on 4 days from Thursday 27th of Feb to Sunday 2nd of March. First day has 2 first hours reserved for VIP visitors representing various associated companies and I figured that the weekend would be busier so I took Friday off from work to go there and also went back on Saturday.
Indeed Friday was less crowded and it was a good decision to go there then. I entered around noon after eating quick lunch at Minatomirai station (closest station to Pacifico Yokohama where the event is always held). It takes about 30min by train from my home station (Ebisu in Tokyo) to go there.
At the event area I entered from entrance D and it happened to be right next to Cosina area so I started from there. First I borrowed 75/1.8 Portrait Heliar from Cosina counter (the queues to the counter were short at that time) and was happy to find that they were not too strict about having those lenses only tested at the counter, it was OK to shoot all around the Cosina lens "testing area" with various test objects. Perhaps it helped that the Cosina area was not too crowded at that time and they could easily keep an eye on everyone who borrowed their lenses. After that I borrowed Otus ML 50/1.4 and did some trial shooting with that.
After I finished trying out Otus 50mm, I saw the Zeiss representative (Petra Visuri, Category Manager Zeiss Photography) in the Cosina area and I waited until she was not busy talking with others and went to talk to her in Finnish. I had seen her in the Otus ML product introduction / promotion videos and had noticed her Finnish name and accent, so I had searched about her and found that she had very similar background as me through the same University in Tampere, working for Nokia etc. She was very nice to talk with and we talked probably about 20 minutes, I explained my similar background and about my photography hobby as well as about my work at Sony Mobile (there's also connection to Zeiss though Sony Xperia having Zeiss branding on some smartphone models). We talked a lot about manual focus shooting experience, the new Otus lenses, CV lenses etc. and I introduced MS-Optics lenses to her as well. She loaned me her Otus 50/1.4 for some shooting too and I took a couple of additional shots but I had already tried it out enough prior to that. My personal feedback on the Otus lenses was that the 50mm would be interesting for me personally but since there are already so many great 50mm options in E-mount (such as the 3 CV lenses and 50/1.4 GM that I already have), it's a bit tough for it to sell in the very crowded market and I was also personally not sure if I have room for more 50mm lenses. On the other hand, I found it to be quite appealing and would consider. I also gave some feedback on the aperture ring which I found was quite easy to move accidentally on my trial with my A7CII due to placement (probably not a problem with bigger bodies). I also explained that the 85/1.4 is not a good fit for me personally as I love smaller cameras and lenses and light weight is an important criteria for my purposes (1 kg is over my limit). I also urged them to do a 28mm Otus ML next to serve the interests of all 28mm lovers like me. She was interested on why 28mm would be better than e.g. 24 or 25mm and I explained my views on that and also talked about there already being an oversupply of high quality 24mm lenses for E-mount whereas 28mm has been more or less ignored by most companies apart from the new CV 28/1.5. I got her business card as well and showed her my Twitter account where I usually post my photos.
Later I checked out various other areas and came back to Cosina area sometime before 5pm. I saw Cosina's head of Marketing / PR (Sato-san, who is the person in all their product introduction videos) there. He was busy talking with some others for a while so I hanged around close by waiting for my chance to talk with him. At that time, one of Cosina's staff came to talk to me and explained that Cosina are doing a stage presentation with Zeiss about the new Otus ML lenses from 5:20pm and he asked if wanted to see it. I was of course interested and he gave me instructions on the location and how to go to there. After that I noticed that Sato-san became unoccupied so I waved at him and he was happy to talk. I have talked with him on a couple of occasions before too (always in Japanese), at least in last year's CP+ and in previous I.C.S. Camera Fair where Cosina had a stand and there was a CV photo exhibition. At I.C.S. I also purchased an adapter from Cosina and Sato-san did the paperworks and handed me the goods along with some promo-materials. I suppose he remembers me by now and it was easy to talk with him now in relaxed and positive mood. Much better than when Cosina had a 3 year break with no new E-mount releases and I was talking to their staff about getting them to make new E-mount lenses every year at CP+
I showed my recently purchased CV 28/1.5 E-mount version on my camera and expressed my happiness that they had released it (in last year's CP+ I had specifically asked them to make that lens in E-mount next). Then we talked about the new Portrait Heliar and the new 28/2 APO. He mentioned how it was difficult to get the Spherical Aberration control done right on the Portrait Heliar, and how that lens is really interesting esp. for low light shooting and not just for portraits. I indicated that I'm definitely buying the Portrait Heliar and that it would be very nice to also have the 28/2 APO in E-mount and other mirrorless mounts as well and that I'd buy an E-mount version, although I already have the 28/1.5. He gave some positive indications that it's seriously being considered for mirrorless mounts too and he noted how it's an entirely different lens than the 28/1.5. I got a feeling that it's very likely to be released in mirrorless mounts in the future. I also talked about how it would be nice to have some small pancake style lenses for E-mount / mirrorless FF (similar to their X-mount panckes but FF) in the future as there is already a quite good range of fast Nokton lenses esp. in E-mount. He seemed to like the idea (they may have already though about that too) and we talked about the potential best size of such lenses in comparison to the 28/1.5 on my camera. I also noted that it was nice that Cosina recently added an online site (Japanese only) for registering ownership of their lenses, where users can also give them some requests about future lenses etc. Previously people could only do this by submitting post-cards to Cosina (each of their new lenses sold in Japan comes with such a card that can be sent to them). He noted that they were a bit late compared to other companies in preparing such online option. I also asked if there were any new lenses planned to come out in X-mount soon, and got the impression that they had been busy with other mounts at the moment and there didn't seem to be anything in the pipeline for X in the near term.
I also mentioned about my earlier talk with Petra from Zeiss and then Petra suddenly showed up too and Sato-san went with her to prepare for their scene presentation that was scheduled to start in about 30 min.
After that I went to see their presentation in a different floor. It consisted of Sato-san's intro, Petra's product introduction presentation of the new ML line in English, with Japanese translation, and then Sato-san went through the product information and talked about Zeiss lens characteristics with Akagi Koichi-san (a well known Japanese photographer and closely involved in various camera related press in Japan). Finally there was a photo review and lens impressions talk with Akagi-san showing some samples he had shot with the new Otus 50/1.4.
The 40mmin stage presentation ended at 6pm and that was the closing time of Friday at CP+.
On Saturday I went back and tried the 28/2 APO and I also asked some further questions about whether the Portrait Heliar was planned for other mirrorless mounts. It seems not planned as of now but could be considered if the lens is first successful in E-mount / if it looks like there could be strong demand in other mounts too. I also tried Otus 85/1.4 on Saturday on my A7CII and in my opinion it was definitely too big for the small camera, but might fit better with the grip extension (which I didn't have with me).
That was pretty much everything for me this year at Cosina area. It was enjoyable as always, especially the good talks this year and the stage presentation (which was something Cosina hasn't much done in the past). New lens "testing" always feels like it's not really effective in such exhibition area and that part doesn't feel as useful for me personally in terms of figuring out how I like the new lenses from IQ perspective. It's nice to get a feel for handling of the lenses though. Looking forward for the new lenses to get released next ...Show more →
It is great to have such an accurate firsthand eyewitness account here at FM. Thanks for sharing this, Juha!
I was looking at the technical specs for the new Voigtlander NOKTON 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical IV VM and noticed it's 32 grams lighter but 2mm longer and 1mm wider than the chrome-nose predecessor. I'm curious why it ended up a bit bigger.
Similarly, the new CV 40mm f/1.2 Nokton (v2) is 50 grams lighter, but it's also slightly taller by 1.4mm and 1mm wider.
Also, the new CV 50mm f/1.2 Nokton (v2) is 25 grams lighter, but it's 1.4mm longer, while the width stays the same.
Fred Miranda wrote:
I was looking at the technical specs for the new Voigtlander NOKTON 35mm f/1.2 Aspherical IV VM and noticed it's 32 grams lighter but 2mm longer and 1mm wider than the chrome-nose predecessor. I'm curious why it ended up a bit bigger.
Similarly, the new CV 40mm f/1.2 Nokton (v2) is 50 grams lighter, but it's also slightly taller by 1.4mm and 1mm wider.
Also, the new CV 50mm f/1.2 Nokton (v2) is 25 grams lighter, but it's 1.4mm longer, while the width stays the same.
I noticed this too. Then I checked the MFD which is the same on all—I thought perhaps a slightly longer/different helicoid would be implemented for closer MFD. Yes, they aren’t great at MFD, but I really liked what CV did with the 75/1.9 MFD.
As I understand it, your shaving 30-50g and the chrome ring. Am I missing something else?
nehemiahphoto wrote:
I noticed this too. Then I checked the MFD which is the same on all—I thought perhaps a slightly longer/different helicoid would be implemented for closer MFD. Yes, they aren’t great at MFD, but I really liked what CV did with the 75/1.9 MFD.
As I understand it, your shaving 30-50g and the chrome ring. Am I missing something else?
Yes, I understand that removing the brass "chrome" top would reduce weight, but I can’t think of a reason for the increase in size. The 2mm height difference is noticeable and could impact frameline blockage.
Fred Miranda wrote:
Yes, I understand that removing the brass "chrome" top would reduce weight, but I can’t think of a reason for the increase in size. The 2mm height difference is noticeable and could impact frameline blockage.
My only other thought was perhaps CV has changed the element spacing? I know the optical formulae across the three lenses has remained unchanged, and it’s more of a cosmetic upgrade. But I do wonder if a slight tweaking of spacing helps optimize or change the performance slightly. Otherwise, I’m stumped.
Mar 14, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Steve Spencer Online • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
Fred Miranda wrote:
Yes, I understand that removing the brass "chrome" top would reduce weight, but I can’t think of a reason for the increase in size. The 2mm height difference is noticeable and could impact frameline blockage.
The only thing that makes sense to me is that the lighter material they used has to be thicker to give the rigidity they desire. I think it is possible to have both a thicker and a lighter material. I might be wrong, however.
Steve Spencer wrote:
The only thing that makes sense to me is that the lighter material they used has to be thicker to give the rigidity they desire. I think it is possible to have both a thicker and a lighter material. I might be wrong, however.
That’s very possible, Steve. I'm not sure if I prefer a lighter weight or a shorter lens. I think I lean toward the latter since the brass chrome never bothered me personally.
Mar 14, 2025 at 03:30 PM
Steve Spencer Online • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
Fred Miranda wrote:
That’s very possible, Steve. I'm not sure if I prefer a lighter weight or a shorter lens. I think I lean toward the latter since the brass chrome never bothered me personally.
I suppose on the used market we will have a choice as both versions will likely be available fairly readily (Voigtlander lenses typically are). Personally I probably won’t care much as both differences are pretty small for my tastes anyway.
Do you guys know the new 35mm 1.2 IV or 40mm 1.2 II a new optical design or a cosmetic update? I am considering getting one because I shoot more film now, and the half of stop of light become important again.
mikegao wrote:
Do you guys know the new 35mm 1.2 IV or 40mm 1.2 II a new optical design or a cosmetic update? I am considering getting one because I shoot more film now, and the half of stop of light become important again.
No apparent change on first look, but we'll have to wait for reviews to know for sure.
mikegao wrote:
Do you guys know the new 35mm 1.2 IV or 40mm 1.2 II a new optical design or a cosmetic update? I am considering getting one because I shoot more film now, and the half of stop of light become important again.
Cosina has stated that they are optically same as previous versions.
Fred Miranda wrote:
Are you sure you’re ready to part with your beloved Pentax?
If CV does release an E mount 28mm APO Lanthar, I will compare it to the Pentax. But I have to say, the Pentax is just super at f/11, and gives depth of field and across the frame sharpness/resolving that is so impressive. Yes, there is diffraction, but it seems to be less susceptible to dulling that other very sharp lenses that are stopped down to f/11.
tsdevine wrote:
If CV does release an E mount 28mm APO Lanthar, I will compare it to the Pentax. But I have to say, the Pentax is just super at f/11, and gives depth of field and across the frame sharpness/resolving that is so impressive. Yes, there is diffraction, but it seems to be less susceptible to dulling that other very sharp lenses that are stopped down to f/11.
Their performance could be similar at f/11, depending on your camera sensor. At that aperture, diffraction reduces detail and contrast, leveling the playing field. However, at wider apertures, the Voigtlander is likely to have a clear advantage.
By the way, it would be great if you could compare both side by side at your classic shooting location!
