With Voigtlander having made varying focal lengths of APO lenses ... if you could have only ONE APO lens (you can have other lenses also, but only one APO), which VM APO would you choose?
Feel free to include other APO lens choices as your "only one", but the "game" is intended as a focus on Voigtlander offerings ... so, be sure to include a vote for your VM APO of choice.
RustyBug wrote:
if you could have only ONE APO lens (you can have other lenses also, but only one APO)
I have exactly one APO lens: 90mm/2.8 Apo. And plenty of other Voigt lenses but no APO as I prefer them small and lightweight.
VM APO-Lanthar 50/3.5 Type II. The slow max aperture removes much of the edgy rapid fade feeling of the faster and more complex APOs, largely because correction is so much easier 1.5 stops slower inside a more traditional (almost Gaussian) design with achromat doublets centering the lens.
It's tiny and 170 grams. MFD is half that of the VM 50/2 (.35m vs .7m) and it has the closest MFD of all the VM APOs. (For color, it's almost as good as the earlier Heliar 50/3.5.) Ultra versatile, stealth-capable.
Well, after seeing how much I used my Leica R 90/2.8 on my SL's this year while walking around I've been intrigued by the Voigtlander APO-Ultron 90mm f/2 VM Lens. Seriously considering getting one to see how differently it will render scenes for me. Plus the smaller size and 6 ozs less in weight hanging off my neck would be welcome sometimes. Although...as I type this. Will there really be much difference once an adaptor is added in? Hmmm..... I'm still tempted. My Leica lens is a 1970, a 55 year newer APO lens has to be better, right?
I actually have only one APO lens for my M system. It is the VM 90mm f/2.8 APO which I use primarily for landscapes. Optically it is nice but not special. I chose it largely because of its small form factor. Generally my M system consists of dual personality lenses with character at large apertures, and close to APO stopped down. All in compact form factors for their speed and all Leica.
My SL3 system consists of almost all APO-SL primes. They are the reason I have the SL3. Different reasons to use one system or the other. Very little overlap.
They are all excellent in their own ways, but the only one that I feel has character to go along with the extreme resolution is the 28 APO. That is the only one I have kept. I wish it handled more like the Cron, that is my only complaint. I like Voigt 28 better than the Cron in just about every other way.
The 90s and 50 were great, I just don’t want to shoot my Leica at 90mm and the 50 f/2 was too big and lacked any character.
Jan 26, 2026 at 06:30 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
I have only had the 50 f/2 APO and the 90 f/2.8 APO. I found the 35 f/2 APO too big covering more of the frame lines than I like and I sold my Leica M system before the 28 f/2 APO and 90 f/2 APO came out. I could have gotten the 50 f/3.5 APO but never got around to it.
I like that both the 50 f/2 APO and the 90 f/2.8 APO had round apertures at one stop down, which I found useful for portraits but had straight blades at narrower apertures producing nice sunstars.
Of the two I preferred the 50 f/2 APO for it strong contrast and clean look, but I think the 90 f/2.8 APO is often overlooked. The performance although not quite up to the other VM APO lenses, is still strong and the size is fantastic. With the 50 f/3.5 APO they seem to have nailed the size and the performance if the aperture is fast enough for your uses.
I have the 50mm f2 and 90mm f2.8 for Nikon, with the 28mm following as soon as it's available in Z mount.
For the Leica, I would probably pick the 50mm.
I prefer a faster 35mm lens or an even more compact one (if I remember correctly the VM 35mm f3.5 is effectively APO-level in terms of color-corrections). So I'm using the VM 35mm f1.5 and 35mm f3.5 on the Leica.
In reality, I also picked the VM 50mm f2.2 over the APO-Lanthar. It may not be an APO lens, but imo the size and weight advantages outweighs that.. I *hate* it when lenses block parts of the viewfinder on the Leica..
Since I don't use M-mount cameras, my Voigtländer APO lenses are primarily in E-mount rather than VM. I currently have 28/2, 35/2 and 50/2 in E and 50/3.5 Type I in VM. I've also owned 90/2.8 and 28/2 VMs before as well as both Macro APO-Lanthars in E. If I was using a digital M, I would vote for 28/2 APO VM here. 28/2 is my overall favorite of the CV APOs, followed by 35/2.
From adaptability point of view sticking to VMs, 50/3.5 and 90/2.8 are probably the best when used on Sony cameras as other VMs have quite noticeably sensor stack induced field curvature and one will be much better served by native sensor optimized versions.
My APO lenses are VG APO Lanthar 28, 35 & 50mm…Leica APO 75 & 90mm. Just received the 28mm and by far my most used has been the 35mm. The Leica 90mm has been replaced with the non-APO collapsible Macro-Elmar. The 75mm is a good balance of performance size and weight.
